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[jamsy]

The PS4 has over 60% more games than the Xbox One does (something like 150 to 90).

Anyone who says "whatever Sony's got", implying they don't even know the games that exist, just shows their ignorance.

I can't argue that some won't view the Xbox One lineup as better, but yeesh.

Clearly someone did not comprehend what I wrote. My post stated that for me, as of right now, Xbox has the better exclusives. For me. Maybe not you. Maybe not anyone else. For me.

Being realistic about the X1's sales situation (that it's pretty abysmal) and it's future is not "being a hater". It's just being realistic.

People seem to confuse that a lot.

Perhaps you don't apply to this group but I've noticed a LOT of anti-Xbox people in the past couple of years. Maybe they're still bitter about the whole no used games fiasco or maybe they can't get over the fact that Xbone can't 1080p as well as the PS4 or whatever the reason, but yeah, a lot of people seem to "hate" on the damn thing on GAF, which I find a bit juvenile. Also, I don't think the future is as dire for the One as you imply.

 

[Hoo-doo]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

Are these extra-subtle troll posts a new trend i'm missing out on?

 

[orochi91]

Could hit its stride? While the PS4 continues its dominance?

Not happening. 2015 is PS4's year.

Bloodborne, Order 1886, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Dragon Quest: Heroes and more to come.

XB1 cannot compete with that lmao

 

[Servbot24]

Could hit its stride? While the PS4 continues its dominance?

Not happening. 2015 is PS4's year.

Bloodborne, Order 1886, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Dragon Quest: Heroes and more to come.

XB1 cannot compete with that lmao

XB1 definitely will not compete (in library or sales), but it will still sell fine and have some great games.

By that token though it's already hit its stride since it is selling fine.

 

[TheGameChanger]

I think you just misread him/her, what they are saying agrees with you: each game has sold on average around 11.5 million, not that the entire series has sold that much.

Yeah I realized that later. I was confused by the wording although it was pretty clear.

Nothing comes close to Beyond 2 Souls imo, even uncharted 3 looked great.

Does Beyond even count though? Halo 4 has a lot of unscripted gameplay.

Please don't assume that Microsoft's faults didn't actually deter people away from the system.

The 360 was one of the greatest consoles ever when it worked.

Sorry, but I won't face anything.

Yeah, their policies deterred people away. I ended up picking the ps4 over xbox one because of them. But that doesn't mean I am going to ignore the xbox one the entire gen even if it has games that I want. They completely changed all of their initial policies so I can't hold a grudge anymore.

It's not doing as much as TLoU.

It's doing more than the Last of us.

 

[rokkerkory]

Who cares.... get both = instantly amazing

Both systems will have exclusive to die for and cannot be avoided.

 

[Rain City Gamer]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

MS's Arrogance is what got them here, funny how quickly people forget. Also, MS didn't make the Xbox One for the world, they made it for the US and have still lost 8 straight months of sales. The moves they have made in the last 5 months have been out of desperation and unfortunately the gaming industry is not a better place with MS being desperate and throwing around money to buy exclusives and force parity for their "First class citizen" Xbox owners.

 

[Guevara]

Microsoft earning are imminent, right?

We'll probably get something incredibly vague like "xbox family shipped X million units this quarter"

 

[Ricky_R]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

 

[Uno Venova]

I know there are a lot of Xbox haters on here, but personally, as someone with no allegiance to either system (I owned both last-gen systems and neither of the current gen ones), the Xbone has the more appealing exclusives as of right now. Sunset Overdrive, Forza Horizon 2 and Halo MCC are a whole lot more interesting to me than whatever Sony's got.

I honestly hope the Xbone keeps doing well since competition's good for everyone.

Man this post is painfully generic.

 

[Dictator93]

It's not magic and dreams. It is just cold hard specs.

Btw, it is true that devs will get better at using the XB1 hardware as they will at using the PS4's. However consider this: If I can run twice as fast as you, you might say after I run 10 feet that it's no big deal. After all I'm only 5 feet ahead of you. You are ignoring that by the time I've run 100ft that I'm 50ft ahead of you. You are not thinking about the ratios. For example if developers think of a new algorithm that improves performance 30%, that algorithm is going to increase the PS4's performance in absolute terms a lot more than it will the XB1's because the PS4 will be adding 30% of a larger number.

That difference is not "generational" which is what btags is getting at. That difference is pitance in comparison to actual generation differences. An actual generational difference would be if UE4 maintained its voxel GI solution and the PS4 was powerful enough to use it (hint, it is no where near powerful enough).

The PS4 has scarcely longer legs than the xb1 at the end of the day in terms of being able to maintain a baseline level of performance. Any arguments that the PS4 is more next gen or something because of HuMA, async compute, whatever... ignores the fact that these boxes are basically almost the same except for resolution and performance differences in games.

Fuck, the boxes dont even evenly apply AF to games and people paint the PS4 as being some sort of second coming in comparison. Get some perspective please.

 

[TheGameChanger]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

How is that a good move? That's a shitty move. If you are trying to say that xbox one's first year has been better, then I can't say I disagree even though I only own a ps4 but stop with that justice crap.

 

[ICPEE]

By the looks of it Sony is more likely to shift the goalposts even more in 2015 if games like Uncharted 4 and Gran Turismo 7 hit along with Bloodborne and The Order 1886.

Its not that Microsoft and the Xbox One is bad. Its just that Sony has played their cards right.

Multiplats has basically shifted more PS4's since launch. Thats the advantage Sony has.

The fact that they shifted more PS4 units on the strength of multiplats alone speaks volumes with most (if not all) multiplats selling more on PS4 and this trend does not look to be slowing down.

Multiplatform games and the emergence of Sony's 1st party studios in 2015 will ensure the dominance the PS4 has over the Xbox One will most likely increase going by the current sales charts.

 

[Webhead]

Could hit its stride? While the PS4 continues its dominance?

Not happening. 2015 is PS4's year.

Bloodborne, Order 1886, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Dragon Quest: Heroes and more to come.

XB1 cannot compete with that lmao

That's the great thing about games, some people prefer what others don't. For example, I will be playing two games on your list on my ps4. On the other hand, assuming these come out in 2015, this is what I have to look forward to on the X1:

Halo 5
Inside
Scalebound (maybe)
Cuphead
Ori and the Blind Forest
Quantum Break
Fable Legends (maybe)
Screamride
Rise of Tomb Raider
Crackdown (not sure if it's 2015)


Obviously there might be a couple of other games on the ps4 I pick up but I am more excited for the X1 games. Sure, the ps4 has a great list of exclusives for 2015 but you shouldn't discount the X1 just because you aren't interested in the games.

By the looks of it Sony is more likely to shift the goalposts even more in 2015 if games like Uncharted 4 and Gran Turismo 7 hit along with Bloodborne and The Order 1886.

Its not that Microsoft and the Xbox One is bad. Its just that Sony has played their cards right.

Multiplats has basically shifted more PS4's since launch. Thats the advantage Sony has.

The fact that they shifted more PS4 units on the strength of multiplats alone speaks volumes with most (if not all) multiplats selling more on PS4 and this trend does not look to be slowing down.

Multiplatform games and the emergence of Sony's 1st party studios in 2015 will ensure the dominance the PS4 has over the Xbox One will most likely increase going by the current sales charts.

Good post, I agree with a lot of what you said. Simply put, Sony is making and made A LOT of great choices.

 

[EventHorizon]

What you said makes no sense. Using simple math and assuming all power would be affected by an increase in performance I can demonstrate this. Let's use your example of an algorithm increases performance by 30% on both platforms with X=power of ps4 and Y=power of xbone:

[X(1.30)]/[Y(1.30)]=X/Y

What the above shows is that the gap between the two consoles will remain the same no matter how much improvement is made in rendering, as long as the improvement increases the performance the same percentage on each platform.

What the above shows is that the ratio will remain the same but not the absolute difference.

Initial condition
XB1: 100
PS4: 140
Difference: 40

After 30% increase
XB1: 130
PS4: 182
Difference: 52

So while in this case there would always be a 40% difference, it's a 40% difference of increasingly larger numbers. It should also be noted that the generally accepted 40% GPU advantage the PS4 has is likely to be a lot more. As was shown in the graph I produced, when you add all the advantages the PS4 has throughout it architecture it is a lot more when using GPU Compute. So as games start to rely more and more on the GPU, the PS4's advantage will grow even greater than it's initial TeraFLOPS output advantage would suggest.

That difference is not "generational" which is what btags is getting at. That difference is pitance in comparison to actual generation differences. An actual generational difference would be if UE4 maintained its voxel GI solution and the PS4 was powerful enough to use it (hint, it is no where near powerful enough).

The PS4 has scarcely longer legs than the xb1 at the end of the day in terms of being able to maintain a baseline level of performance. Any arguments that the PS4 is more next gen or something because of HuMA, async compute, whatever... ignores the fact that these boxes are basically almost the same except for resolution and performance differences in games.

Fuck, the boxes dont even evenly apply AF to games and people paint the PS4 as being some sort of second coming in comparison. Get some perspective please.

Who needs to talk about generational differences between games. That graph shows a near 2:1 advantage which is plenty good enough all on its own.

As for your "only resolution and performance" differences, you are also forgetting VR. It is likely that these difference will be enough that the XB1 wont even be able to follow the PS4 when it unveils its consumer VR capability.

 

[Night Angel]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

For those that missed it:

 

[eighty(one)]

Their anti-consumer stance at the beginning of the generation meant that I would never buy an Xbox One. It's that simple. They are only in reverse because they have to.

My PS4 and Wii U will do me just fine.

This has been my stance.

I didn't expect as much - I was 360 only last gen. I've softened my XBO stance, however, with a PS4 and WiiU - I haven't a need for an XBO.

I'm glad people are enjoying the system - it's just not for me.

SSOD does look fun.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

Their anti-consumer stance at the beginning of the generation meant that I would never buy an Xbox One. It's that simple. They are only in reverse because they have to.

My PS4 and Wii U will do me just fine.

LoL, isn't this like Sony last generation, $599, also no duel shock because six axis is better. And games. Forget about the games the first year it was out there were none hardly, but that's okay because it's a Blu-ray player. So it's worth it, remember we made the ps2.

 

[FreedomFighter]

if by stride they mean limp... then, yes.

lol, amazing gif! Dog is trolling.

 

[GONZO]

Oh gosh the "socially saavy" proclamation. Don't know why, but that always sounds so dumb to me. I don't believe microsoft really thinks consumers are stupid, and I don't think they were trying to screw over the consumer per se. There is a big difference between trying to make money and purposely trying to screw over people. But guess what? The bigger picture is that it never happened... Policy reversal before release! I feel so betrayed. I'm pretty much disenchanted with people who act all offended by something that didn't happen - or worse, proudly stating they're never going to experience games they might have otherwise enjoyed because of the DRM thing. At some point it starts becoming more of a pride issue rather than a legitimate complaint or excuse. It's akin to kid who refuses to have fun simply because he was upset about something earlier. My wisdom to impart upon everyone - don't be that kid. You really do only live once. What's the point?

In my opinion it's not t hat consumers are being stubborn now. It's that such a large amount of people initially bought the PS4 because of the whole DRM issue that new consumers are buying the PS4 because their friends already have it. It's a giant snowball effect. Time and again history has proven that console launches are critical to a consoles sustained success. The reason people aren't buyin an XB1 now isn't because of DRM. It's because all their friends already have a PS4. The really hardcore gamers will end up buying all consoles anyway so that's a moot point. But those oh so precious casuals flock to where the biggest crowd is.

But again, this all came about because of what microsoft decided to try. Microsoft over reached. They couldn't fathom a world where people wouldn't want to perpetually buy new games and DLC. They thought they were two generations down the line, and not the next one over where used games still matter. If they truly wanted to sell digital only content they would have announced 45 dollar digital games. Than it's a bargain for gamers and they look like heroes for pushing the business model in a whole new direction that actually benefits gamers. That shit would have sold!

 

[Bgamer90]

Could hit its stride? While the PS4 continues its dominance?

Not happening. 2015 is PS4's year.

Bloodborne, Order 1886, Uncharted 4, Persona 5, Dragon Quest: Heroes and more to come.

XB1 cannot compete with that lmao

Yep. Halo 5, Quantum Break, and other games we possibly don't know about won't do anything. Impossible for 2015 to be a solid gaming content year for all consoles.

Console wars!!!!

 

[Bam Bam Baklava]

Yep. Halo 5, Quantum Break, and other games we possibly don't know about won't do anything. Impossible for 2015 to be a solid year for all consoles.

Console wars!!!!

Crazy right? In a thread about an article in which PS4 is in nearly every sentence. Maybe IGN is invested in those warzzzz

 

[Zephyrus]

MS's Arrogance is what got them here, funny how quickly people forget. Also, MS didn't make the Xbox One for the world, they made it for the US and have still lost 8 straight months of sales. The moves they have made in the last 5 months have been out of desperation and unfortunately the gaming industry is not a better place with MS being desperate and throwing around money to buy exclusives and force parity for their "First class citizen" Xbox owners.

what?
I thought only sony was arrogant.

I still remember how utterly disgusting their arrogance was when they announced a 599 dollars/euros playstation 3 sold at a 300 dollars/euros loss.


Not like how benevolent Microsoft was when they announced the xbox one.


Also I'm so disgusted by how sony has atleast 5 IP's of their own, all AAA, planned to be released next year.

If only others would buy a system that supports the most anti-consumer company in the world only because Sony is so damn arrogant... I mean, no firmware updates every month. God. What age do we live in? 2013?

 

[btags]

Welp. I am done with this thread. People claiming to know how tech works and then completely and thoroughly demonstrating their lack of knowledge has been fun though. Keep up the good work GAF!

 

[Stevey]

I'm happy with my Xbox One.

The only PS4 game I'm interested in is Bloodborne.

 

[Guardian Monkey]

That difference is not "generational" which is what btags is getting at. That difference is pitance in comparison to actual generation differences. An actual generational difference would be if UE4 maintained its voxel GI solution and the PS4 was powerful enough to use it (hint, it is no where near powerful enough).

The PS4 has scarcely longer legs than the xb1 at the end of the day in terms of being able to maintain a baseline level of performance. Any arguments that the PS4 is more next gen or something because of HuMA, async compute, whatever... ignores the fact that these boxes are basically almost the same except for resolution and performance differences in games.

Fuck, the boxes dont even evenly apply AF to games and people paint the PS4 as being some sort of second coming in comparison. Get some perspective please.

Wait that chart says. The the PS3 had 3 times the performance of the 360? LoL

 

[jamsy]

Man this post is painfully generic.

Your contribution to this thread, meanwhile, has been wholly original.

 

[ICPEE]

I can't really argue with Colin here. Sony has become arrogant (note the lack of firmware updates and the Driveclub debacle) while Microsoft has been making all the right moves (EA Access partnership, buying Tomb Raider exclusivity). It's only a matter between MS catches up and perhaps, if there is justice in this world, overtakes Sony's WW sales.

(Sony slowly going bankrupt in the weeks or months ahead isn't going to help as funds are diverted from the profitable Playstation branch into failing areas like Vaio).

 

[Suikoguy]

Wait that chart says. The the PS3 had 3 times the performance of the 360? LoL

It's probably comparing CPUs, which sounds accurate. The ps3 had an ungodly amount of CPU power.

The issue is the industry went GPU centric instead, the gamble did not pay off.

 

[Warablo]

Both consoles are fine, just Microsoft has lost a lot of market share because of launch woes and price at the start.

 

[TechnicPuppet]

Remember MS announced and launched Forza Horizon 2, one of the best games of the generation(not for me dont like open racers) in a few months. Who knows what they have up their sleeves.

It's certainly not going to be just Halo and QB. Last time i'm saying it but none of this is anything to do with outselling the PS4. That's a juggernaut that will continue on regardless.

 

[orochi91]

It's SHOCKING that Collin evens entertains the notion of XB1 shortening the gap over the course of 2015.

That's my biggest issue with this article. It's completely devoid of logic.

So I'm to believe that XB1 will have this potentially monster year, while the PS4 stagnates?

 

[myharlequin]

unpopular opinion: Right now the Xbox one is better than the PS4 in almost every single way: Games, Online, UI, features. Hope sales keep strong..! no matter remaining in the second place

 

[Zephyrus]

LoL, isn't this like Sony last generation, $599, also no duel shock because six axis is better. And games. Forget about the games the first year it was out there were none hardly, but that's okay because it's a Blu-ray player. So it's worth it, remember we made the ps2.

I make a joke post and suddenly I notice someone said the same thing but meant it...

I got a ps3 in 2007 at launch. I'm from Portugal. Here's what sony's first party games I got in 2007: Resistance fall of man, warhawk, ratchet and clank tools of destruction, heavenly sword, motorstorm and uncharted drake's fortune.


No games. Right.


But like you said, they made the ps2. And ps1. And anyone with half a brain would see that investing in the playstation brand would pay off. As it did since it was the best system to own last gen. You want to argue, fine. Do it with someone else. Shooterbox didn't do it for me.

What did microsoft do? They made a system that was a joke in it's first gen and then made another that was successful in two countries?

Since you have such an issue with sony launching an "overpriced" (they lost money with each one sold), I'd assume you'd have it with microsoft since they did launch an overpriced system. Let alone trying to pull the biggest draconian move in this industry.

 

[opticalmace]

What you said makes no sense. Using simple math and assuming all power would be affected by an increase in performance I can demonstrate this. Let's use your example of an algorithm increases performance by 30% on both platforms with X=power of ps4 and Y=power of xbone:

[X(1.30)]/[Y(1.30)]=X/Y

What the above shows is that the gap between the two consoles will remain the same no matter how much improvement is made in rendering, as long as the improvement increases the performance the same percentage on each platform. In terms of computing, where most noticeable leaps are made by power increases that are orders of magnitudes greater than previous tech, this means there will not be a drastic difference in the graphics that both consoles put out.

Also that graph you point out should show the fallacy of your argument. By that graph's estimation the ps3 should have games looking more than 3x better than xbox 360. Theoretical numbers do not always translate to real life (not to understate the power gap between the current gen consoles).

Just wanted to say that what you've written would be the relative performance, not the gap in performance.

X can do 200 floppy ops. Y can do 100 floppy ops. The gap between them is 100 floppy ops.

Increase both by 50%. X now does 300, Y now does 150. The gap is now 150 floppy ops.

 

[BlackBuzzard]

unpopular opinion: Right now the Xbox one is better than the PS4 in almost every single way: Games, Online, UI, features. Hope sales keep strong..! no matter remaining in the second place

Keep up the good fight junior. Also nice touch with playing the unpopular opinion card.

 

[Chobel]

LMAO! I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Rymuth]

 

[ICPEE]

LoL, isn't this like Sony last generation, $599, also no duel shock because six axis is better. And games. Forget about the games the first year it was out there were none hardly, but that's okay because it's a Blu-ray player. So it's worth it, remember we made the ps2.

Yes and they got burned for their arrogance. Took them alot of hardwork to catch up to the 360 if it were not for their stellar first party studio output (lets face it, multiplats were generally underperforming on PS3), they might have suffered even more.

This time, the multiplat advantage is in Sony's corner. It also helped that Microsoft shot themselves in the foot with the horrible reveal of the Xbox One (anti-consumer policies in tow).

2015 is going to be a great year for both gamers on Xbox One and PS4. Halo 5 is coming and Uncharted 4 is coming. Its safe to say these games will show what each platform is really capable of. I for one am excited to see both and what changes DX12 will bring to PC games.

Fuckin great times ahead.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Certainly has the potential to at least come into it's own next year. The problem will be that, PS4 will also 'hit it's stride' next year as it'll actually have some incredible exclusive software, unlike this year where it has been relying on buzz/price/3rd party games.

So Xbox One will face a new hurdle, which will be Sony actually bringing the heat software wise. Will be a tough one for sure, but I think the benefit will be a fantastic year of Software on all fronts. To summarise; both systems will hit their stride in 2015.

 

[Dynomutt]

I'm sure Witcher 3 and Division will help.

Pretty interested to see how they handle Quantum Break after the mess with Alan Wake.

Witcher 3 and Division are multi-plat so thats a wash. Quantum Break looks visually interesting. I think Halo 5 and the next Gears will be what people are looking forward to.

 

[myharlequin]

Keep up the good fight junior. Also nice touch with playing the unpopular opinion card.

oh, Did I hurt your feelings?

never mind.. I just say a personal opinion

 

[SaucyJack]

For those that missed it:

When the seagulls follow the trawler it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.

 

[BouncyFrag]

From someone who switched over to ps4, I'm now open to getting an X1 if they can get some more exclusives like FH2 that I really want to play. I'd say that's progress, but then I'm just one random bloke.

 

[VinFTW]

Keep up the good fight junior. Also nice touch with playing the unpopular opinion card.

Hmm, I'm not defending what he's saying in any way but... what does him being a junior have anything to do with his opinion? Am I missing something?

here's an unpopular opinion.

I hope this generation is identical to the ps2's.

One console dominating (don't care which one... as long as it isn't microsoft's) and having developers spend their money on only one of them instead of wasting money of several versions. Opitimizing everything for one console.

That's... that's some fucked up shit.

 

[Zephyrus]

here's an unpopular opinion.

I hope this generation is identical to the ps2's.

One console dominating (don't care which one... as long as it isn't microsoft's) and having developers spend their money on only one of them instead of wasting money of several versions. Opitimizing everything for one console.

 

[orochi91]

Witcher 3 and Division are multi-plat so thats a wash. Quantum Break looks visually interesting. I think Halo 5 and the next Gears will be what people are looking forward to.

What exactly are Halo 5 and/or Gears 2016 suppose to accomplish? Those that wanted those
games will have likely already bought into an XB1. I can't see either of those games
attracting new consumers to the XB1 ecosystem.

Those games are pandering to the existing fans.

That fact that those games are so far away will just cause those on the fringe to consider a PS4 instead.

 

[Leafhopper]

here's an unpopular opinion.

I hope this generation is identical to the ps2's.

One console dominating (don't care which one... as long as it isn't microsoft's) and having developers spend their money on only one of them instead of wasting money of several versions. Opitimizing everything for one console.

Yes a monopoly is great. /s

 

[vrln]

MS's Arrogance is what got them here, funny how quickly people forget. Also, MS didn't make the Xbox One for the world, they made it for the US and have still lost 8 straight months of sales..

I think what´s generally referred to as MS arrogance should really be split into three topics that each need to be discussed separately:

(1) TV TV TV!

This I think was their major stumble. First of all TV isn´t as big of a draw in gaming anymore since streaming video is the new hot thing and everyone has Netflix support these days. More importantly though this sent the signal that MS are building a console for the US market as TV support basically only worked in a few countries. This I agree was a huge marketing failure on their behalf, but even then I think the biggest problem is the order in which the XBO was introduced. First impressions count and I have no idea who could think it was a good idea to introduce the console via this perspective. If they had talked TV as an afterthought later after the games and OS focused reveal the backlash would have been nowhere as bad.

(2) Digital Only Future!

This is probably the worst offender, but I think a major role in deflecting this was not just internet forums, but in particular retail in the form of GameStop who publicly put their stock in the PS4. Now as someone who loathes #1 I actually would have welcomed and preferred an all digital future. The original plan was a lot like Steam except more open. I still feel this will eventually happen for both Sony and MS, but it wasn´t the time yet.

(3) Kinect for Everyone!

The problem wasn´t really Kinect per se, it was forcing everyone to buy it and making it a part of the mandatory ecosystem. It´s a nice accessory and ok for some kinds of games, but that´s it. Without it XBO could have launched at price parity and without the GPU reservation the resolution gap wouldn´t have been as bad in the beginning either. Price was the deciding factor though and really widened the gap a lot more than the difference in GPU power.

There three combined gave Sony the gold standard "first to 10 million" situation. Momentum is really important in this industry. The Matthew-effect is strong. Despite making the right moves it´s going to be tough for MS to catch up now.

That being said, I think we´re seeing Sony starting to make the same kind of mistakes (stagnating, taking things for granted) now that they are dominating: weak OS support, lacklustre first party output and infrastructure issues. Competition is good for the industry. I don´t understand the argument of buying exclusivity is being bad for the industry - it´s just standard business.

Sony would do the same (and look at Destiny with its exclusive content) if could and needed to. It´s just that they are bleeding too much money overall and don´t really need to go this route right now. If MS catches up too much expect Sony to start buying timed exclusives as well. Nothing special or anti-consumer about it, just competition between ecosystem vendors.

 

[orochi91]

Yes a monopoly is great. /s

It is.

PS2 gen and PS1 gen were great.