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Sony isn't prepared for the fight this generation

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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Xbox360 had a whole year head start and still lost in the end
And Sony went from PS2 150M and 70% market share vs Xbox OG and GC and plummeted to to around 85M units, ending neck and neck with 360 with around 30% market share. And it even had the benefit of BR which was the next bump in media, while 360 and Wii were DVD or less.

The drop by Sony is one of the biggest ever in gaming history, and the biggest among the Big 3 players the past 20 years.

The times it was that bad with major players is when Sega tailed off with their final systems or Wii U.
 
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NinjaBoiX

Member
What fight are you even talking about?
Exactly!

Both platforms will have a stellar couple of years, Microsoft will do a lot better than last time and Sony will continue to be successful, both will come out of the generation laughing all the way to the bank.

This fascination with one side “winning” to the detriment of the other is kind of juvenile and simply unrealistic.
 

twilo99

Member
If anything success is guaranteed for Sony based on PlayStation name alone. They will have to put out horrible games and hardware for 15 years straight for this ship to sink.

It is nice to see them in a bit of fight tho :)
 

Y0ssarian

Banned
JSKKQbP.gif
 

Chronicle

Member
Not that it's all about winning the sales numbers war, but if it were, Sony is trouble. They went against the weakest effort ever from Microsoft last generation and Xbox still had some success.

This generation is easily the most hungry version of Xbox I've seen and it's not close.

Gamepass, BC, and emulation might not be huge by themselves, but together they make a strong argument against ps5, and $300 console option to boot. How much longer until that console is $199? Late 2024? That will be an incredibly difficult problem for Sony to solve.

And when the heavy hitter xbox exclusives start rolling in next year, it's over imo. Starting with Starfield. I don't think Xbox has ever had this level of exclusives in the pipeline that people want to play again. Halo even last gen wasn't what it was, Gears and Forza aren't really console sellers.
So, Sony boxed against a featherweight last gen as a middleweight. Now it's a heavyweight match. Worse, it feels like there's no urgency and we're seeing a passive version of Sony. VR and the lack of fresh content are much of my reasoning here(I'm talking about console seller fresh content)

And as much as I love VR, it feels like an experiment rooted in the leisure of success. It shows a certain level of comfort to toss their hat back into VR.

Success is not guaranteed this time. Xbox made it super easy last gen and the opposite is true this gen. Not to say ps5 won't have incredible games and good sales numbers, but that's not my point.
Hahaha. Show games or stfu. It's so fucking pathetic listening to you xboxers coming on here and running promos about deals in gaming. No one wants your deals. They want games. Why do you care so much? Brutal.
 
The games have been great, they are expanding correctly into GAAS, PC and mobile, their movie/TV business is doing well, PlayStation plus is off to a good start, they’ve invested and acquired intelligently and they are selling everything they make rapidly.

By any metric they are doing really well and are expanding.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Not that it's all about winning the sales numbers war, but if it were, Sony is trouble. They went against the weakest effort ever from Microsoft last generation and Xbox still had some success.

This generation is easily the most hungry version of Xbox I've seen and it's not close.

Gamepass, BC, and emulation might not be huge by themselves, but together they make a strong argument against ps5, and $300 console option to boot. How much longer until that console is $199? Late 2024? That will be an incredibly difficult problem for Sony to solve.

And when the heavy hitter xbox exclusives start rolling in next year, it's over imo. Starting with Starfield. I don't think Xbox has ever had this level of exclusives in the pipeline that people want to play again. Halo even last gen wasn't what it was, Gears and Forza aren't really console sellers.
So, Sony boxed against a featherweight last gen as a middleweight. Now it's a heavyweight match. Worse, it feels like there's no urgency and we're seeing a passive version of Sony. VR and the lack of fresh content are much of my reasoning here(I'm talking about console seller fresh content)

And as much as I love VR, it feels like an experiment rooted in the leisure of success. It shows a certain level of comfort to toss their hat back into VR.

Success is not guaranteed this time. Xbox made it super easy last gen and the opposite is true this gen. Not to say ps5 won't have incredible games and good sales numbers, but that's not my point.
In terms of sales an profits, PS will be fine. They are at record profits the last few years (they've made more profit than the PS1+PS2+PS3+first part of PS4 era combined). With digital sales creeping up a few more % pts every year lately (covid did wonders for all companies for boosting digital sales) and tons of mtx heavy games in modern day gaming, Sony will continue to rake in the money. It wont be dropping like a rock any time soon. They can just hum along.

Casual gamers who dont read forums or give a shit about console wars wont care about all the hilarious strategies they've done lately (the latest being Firefly copies being damaged and they have no copies left in reserve to send gamers a replacement). They'll just keep buying whatever system they want and probably dont give a shit about whatever Jim Ryan's next action is.

But warriors do care. And it kills them that Sony has been doing PC ports, oddball anti consumer strategies during the Jim Ryan era and even MLB The Show coming to Xbox and even Switch (something nobody would ever guess would happen), focusing resources on mobile etc....
 

TonyK

Member
I suppose it depends of each country. Maybe in America and UK people feel XBox have some opportunity, but where I'm from, here at Spain, Xbox can't do nothing to win Sony. Even if Microsft gave Xboxs for free, people would prefer to pay 500€ for a Playstation. Spain is totally a Sony place. Does this occur in other countries?
 

Roberts

Member
I suppose it depends of each country. Maybe in America and UK people feel XBox have some opportunity, but where I'm from, here at Spain, Xbox can't do nothing to win Sony. Even if Microsft gave Xboxs for free, people would prefer to pay 500€ for a Playstation. Spain is totally a Sony place. Does this occur in other countries?
Yeah, same here. Anecdotally, lots of my friends have kids in their teens and none of them are remotely interesting in xbox. When I tell them that I have and prefer xbox, they look at me as if I'm the world's most pathetic loser.
 
Is this a troll/bait thread? Your opening and closing remarks are diametrically opposed to each other. Bad thread, man.

Beyond that, the things you listed as strong arguments against the PlayStation 5 are far from strong arguments.
  • Game Pass is more of a gimmick right now than anything. People might play games on it here and there, but Game Pass itself doesn't hurt Sony in any measurable way. Mostly I see people using Game Pass to play games they were never going to buy anyway, and that doesn't hurt Sony at all. Game Pass isn't a console seller. It's just something to use if you already have the Xbox Series S/X.
  • Backwards compatibility was something the Xbox One had going for it, and we saw how that console fared against the PlayStation 4. It's a nice feature to have, but its not a console-saver by any stretch of the imagination. Also, the PlayStation 5 is backwards compatible with PlayStation 4 games, and I would hazard a guess that games will be backwards compatible going forward since they have moved to a standardized architecture.
  • Emulation has never been an Xbox or PlayStation seller. The amount of people using these devices for emulation is minuscule. Emulation makes a lot more sense with the Nintendo Switch or the Steam Deck.
Combine the user base that is ditching Sony and migrating to Microsoft over these three items and Microsoft will steal maybe a couple million users from Sony. And that's being generous, by the way. The only thing Microsoft has going for the Xbox Series S/X is the publishers they acquired. The Bethesda acquisition alone will cause more people to by an Xbox Series S/X than the above three traits combined.

P.S. That last part isn't a dig against Microsoft. I've got my Halo Infinite edition Xbox Series X sitting right in front of me. It's a great console, and Microsoft should be proud of it. But the console plus the three features you mentioned aren't going to cause Microsoft to gain the lead over Sony. Sony was too far ahead of Microsoft from last generation, and Microsoft has produced too little first-party content thus far. Once those acquired publishers start releasing Xbox Series S/X exclusives I imagine Microsoft will have some epic sales numbers. But that's got nothing to do with Game Pass, backwards compatibility, or emulation.
Game Pass has completely redefined the way that my friends and I consume video games. Well over 1000 hours of play time just on titles through Game Pass and a large reason I decided to main a Series X over a PS5 this gen.

You need to separate your own self, you wants and needs, likes and dislikes, away from others. Game Pass isn’t a gimmick, it is a system seller. What in the world are you on?
 

TastyPastry

Member
wake me up once perfect dark, hellblade 2, fable and the next id software game are out, might buy an xbox then. also i wonder what gamepass will cost by then
 

Tommi84

Member
And when the heavy hitter xbox exclusives start rolling in next year, it's over imo
Sad part is... I'm hearing this for the past... Uhmmm... 7 years? XD

But I hope it's true. When Sony sees that MS is gaining ground, they will do even more than now
 
Dude they have 30 studios or something, with multiple games in development from many of them. Everyone knows the games are coming, which is why the 'Xbox has no games' rhetoric is in full bloom again.
Once we reach the second half of the gen, and the games are floiwing like fine wine, no one is going to remember the sparse first 2 or 3 years.
Your post is essentially the end boss of Dead or Alive 2
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Game Pass has completely redefined the way that my friends and I consume video games. Well over 1000 hours of play time just on titles through Game Pass and a large reason I decided to main a Series X over a PS5 this gen.

You need to separate your own self, you wants and needs, likes and dislikes, away from others. Game Pass isn’t a gimmick, it is a system seller. What in the world are you on?
Me too.

Aside from some day one games my buddy and I split on home sharing (especially COD and Diablo), we just wait for online deals or GP.

No different than Netflix for just about everyone. Go to the theatre and pay money to watch big budget games on a big screen with deafening million gigawatt speakers, or wait for it to come to NF, Disney or sub plan XYZ. I bet there's some people who dont even go to the theatre at all anymore since TV/Movie sub plans became really popular. No theatres, no DVDs, no BR. They just wait it out for home streaming.

And for gaming it can be no different.

The same people who complain about GP I bet have movie and/or spotify music plans. They have no problem paying dirt cheap monthly fees for that content. But for games, GP is lousy even though you get day one first party games and the service skews to recent games. You'll also notice the people who complain about GP never complain about PS sub plans even though the content on them is worse with older games and a chunk of the service being stream only.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
bye bye Masayasu Ito.

hello Lin Tao.
LinTao_BlogBanner_1920x1080.png



Wheres my “ugh I wished they hired for talent not gender” people at?
Interesting job role.

Not every day you see a finance person also be part of corporate development (HR) and strategy (marketing).

As someone whose done finance for almost 20 years, I'd be weary about having a senior finance person in charge of other functions. What people stereotype us (bean counters) is kind of true. I'm more holistic in things due to my role, but finance people at exec level are ruthlessly very numbers driven who dont understand consequences or overall context of situations.
 
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Jim is just salty over the deal in Sony not being able to do exclusive DLC. They got bungie plus that other 1st person shooter with the OG Modern warfare team coming soon. Sony just need to do what they do best drop games.
Yeah, it will be more fierce competition this gen. Thats it. Its a bummer I won't have any COD three years from now on my current platform but its not the end of the world.

Yes, a fair point people keep forgetting that Sony bought og Modern Warfare team- they can obviously make something out of it. Killzone and Socom could come back at that point. There's also the Bungie thing.

I would consider buying Xbox Series X along side PS5 or just buying a PC if bigger titles start to showup, mainly Dishonored 3 (my favorite game series) and Wolfenstein. For now just a future TES VI and STALKER 2 aint exciting me enough to buy a second console or drop money on PC.

Right now I all in on GoW Ragnarok, Modern Warfare 2 and my thoughts are with The Callisto Protocol. Since I really liked Dead Space 1. But after Cyberpunk I learned the valuable lesson of not preordering a thing. Will check the reviews and vids obviously.

Its not like I won't have any games to play. I decided to pass on The Last of Us Remake since I already played the og PS3 version and Remastered on PS4Pro - for me its better to focus on new titles.

I'm curious how this gen will unfold but all we can do is wait and see, I guess.
 
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FritzJ92

Member
The sales gap between PS5 and Xbox Series is wider at this point than it was for PS4 compared to XBO time-aligned (1.6:1 vs 1.4:1).

Just looking at the raw numbers it may not seem that wide especially considering how many consoles systems tend to sell lifetime but....the ratio is larger ATM, and we're still talking about several million units worth of difference. So it's there.
Raw estimates*
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Yeah, same as every gen then. Xbox's best-selling console couldn't even beat Sony's worst. Both will happily co-exist.
 
Exactly!

Both platforms will have a stellar couple of years, Microsoft will do a lot better than last time and Sony will continue to be successful, both will come out of the generation laughing all the way to the bank.

This fascination with one side “winning” to the detriment of the other is kind of juvenile and simply unrealistic.
People are too busy defending their plastic boxes. They want to validate their purchases so they feel good about themselves. Usually simply a lack of confidence and bad sense of security. Oh and none of these companies give a shit about the fans either. Company loyalty is dumb. They are only after the money, nothing else.

Competition is good because that's how you force creativity and innovation. Otherwise, content would be stagnant and boring because no one has to try and compete.
 
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Old Playstation fans probably don't want to hear this, but Jimbo is doing all the right moves to keep Playstation relevant in the future by pushing GaaS and multiplatform while still also delivering the cinematic experiences Playstation is known for. It's still going to be a tough fight, but without that pivot, Playstation would likely fail in the long term.
 

Filben

Member
Although it seems so sometimes, Sony isn't ignorant. Of course they have to compete differently against someone with infinite money cheat. They're currently getting a lot of sales with the PC market and invest in this branch. They have a new subscription system available to get more money from those who are willing to spend it.

I agree that last gen this was an easy "win" for Sony. But as I said, it's not like they're fiddling thumbs right now.

and ultimately it should be better for us, consumers, as well, when competition gets stronger. Both companies work fundamentally different though, so we're not going to see the same things just with a different logo on it. And maybe some people will switch, but if so, this is gonna happen on both sides.
 

Leyasu

Banned
Sony are not in trouble and will finish this gen without too much pressure from Microsoft.

It’s next gen when the pressure will start to mount. But even then it won’t destroy them
 

GymWolf

Member
And i thought soners were delusional in the graphical fidelity topic...

I'm sure sony is gonna do fine, between raising prices and getting more money from crossgen games instead of exclusives, they have enough success to clean their filthy asses with our money.
 

Gudji

Member
I suppose it depends of each country. Maybe in America and UK people feel XBox have some opportunity, but where I'm from, here at Spain, Xbox can't do nothing to win Sony. Even if Microsft gave Xboxs for free, people would prefer to pay 500€ for a Playstation. Spain is totally a Sony place. Does this occur in other countries?
This. And yes it does occur in other countries too that's why the brand is so popular.
 

Lunarorbit

Member
This is the type of dumb sh** I see on twitter from Xbox fanboys all the time.
Agreed. I thought we weren't doing console warring threads?

Xbox has told everyone their plans cause they are still trailing and want to win the pr battle.

Sony hasn't told you shit. You got sonys response to gamepass with a subscription service of their own and then OP poo pooed the vr capabilities.

This feels like an incomplete and lazy basis for console warring.
 

Dutchy

Member
Never seen anyone try this hard to justify a bad purchase. It's just a plastic fucking box my dude.

Nobody over the age of 16 should care about which of these boxes "dominates" the most.

Playstation is doing great. Xbox has been mediocre for the past decade and will continue to be so for another 5 years or so. That is all there is to it. No need to bend all the narratives.
 

Cyborg

Member
PlayStation is fine for this generation, I doubt it will be as great as PS4 due to the pandemic. But they keep producing amazing games on a great machine. I am worried about where ( with all the acquisitions and consolidation) the industry is going. MS has the opportunity and resources to become huge in gaming whenever the next Xbox is launched.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
I don't understand anyone who is excited by what playstation or xbox is currently offering (other than "console warzzzz")

I own a series s for emulation and 2017 and before gaming

ps5 is a nothing burger this crossgen/pandemic "generation" really sucks
 

Dolodolo

Member
It was a deep fear in every sony extreme fans mind that the "Microsoft war chest" meme would come true...

And it did...

But jokes aside, I have spoke about Microsofts intentions before and I dont think there vision would be a bad thing for sony. Microsoft want the gaming industry to be more like the movie + tv industry where services are device agnostic and instead of having the tried and tested console installbase of about 50-100 million there will be an installbase of a billion+.
And I dont think sony really want to do that they are happy making billions of dollars the old fashioned way.
Apparently you come to every Sony thread like a church to say your mantras over and over again about why the Xbox will definitely succeed.
Phil Spencer won't thank you, relax buddy
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
Seems like it's always happening 'next year'.
For real.

That’s something Nintendo and Sony have nailed down. All of their studios working to schedule and in tandem to ensure there’s 3 or more first party games a year.

MS: 5 first party games last year, nothing this year. Everwild, Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed all starting development at roughly the same time. Are they all going to be ready for release at the same time in 2025? What then, Rare, Crystal Dynamics, Playground and Obsidian can all begin their 6 year cycle again and all release another game in 2031?
 
The best part about these topics is how the concern regarding Sony never mentions the one thing why consoles exist: To play games.

The last big game Xbox released was almost a year ago, it's a game most people forgot about due to it being a live service game with barely any updates. Like...the past year if anything killed the Halo franchise even more than it was already (specially when you compare it with its peak almost 20 years ago). Like...MS have all the money in the world and somehow they went a full year without a major flagship title. And their next one will be what? Starfield? A game mostly developed by a huge ass publisher they bought that they had no hand on its development process? By then Xbox will have spent a year and half without a huge title released. That is happening on year 2 and 3 of a console's life cycle. How is that even possible?

People talk about how great Xbox is doing but early Xbox 360 was much better than early Xbox Series. It's not even comparable.

Meanwhile Sony just this year had: Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, The Last of Us Remake, Returnal got a meaty free update, indie console exclusives like SiFu, Stray, 2rd party timed exclusives like Ghostwire: Tokyo, and will still have the 1st party title God of War Ragnarok. All the while Sony is having marketing arrangements with all msjor IPs from COD, Fifa, GTA, upcoming games like Harry Potter, Avatar, etc...

People are saying "next year will be Xbox year" but i feel this is being said every single year for the past decade. During the supposed Xbox's year (2023), Sony will have VR2 releasing with what i'm assuming around 8/10 games. MLB will have another entry. Spider-Man will have its sequel released. We know Sony have at least 2 or 3 live games planned for next year. We got Final Fantasy XVI. We got Forspoken. Right after 2023 ends, we have the 2nd entry of the Final Fantasy VII franshise releasing. I mean...

And this is what we know without Sony even having an game showcase. I'm also not counting with the rumored Silent Hill which will apparently be another console exclusive (timed or not).

Again i ask...which company isn't ready for "the fight this generation"?

You spend so much time scrolling these forums that you even forget what this business is about: Games.

edit: Also...one more thing. It's ironic that Sony is just in its first few years releasing PC ports of their games and after Horizon, their first try, most of their games are incredible on release on that platform. Sony went from not caring about PC to being one of the better ones at porting their games fyi
 
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Spaceman292

Banned
For real.

That’s something Nintendo and Sony have nailed down. All of their studios working to schedule and in tandem to ensure there’s 3 or more first party games a year.

MS: 5 first party games last year, nothing this year. Everwild, Perfect Dark, Fable, Avowed all starting development at roughly the same time. Are they all going to be ready for release at the same time in 2025? What then, Rare, Crystal Dynamics, Playground and Obsidian can all begin their 6 year cycle again and all release another game in 2031?
Don't worry. It'll all be fine when the Xbox XXS2 XL comes out in 2030.
 

Loxus

Member
Imo, it's the other way around.
Microsoft wasn't prepared for Sony to go the multiplayer route.

Sony’s Developers are good at making multiplayer games, but they never double down on multiplayer this hard.

Microsoft can barely match Sony with single player games, let alone multiplayer.

None of Microsoft's Studios could match Sony, so they did what they always do. Dig deep and brought the only Developer that can give Sony multiplayer games a challenge and that's Activision with COD.

People like to say, exclusives doesn't matter but that $70 billion purchase says otherwise.
 
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NahaNago

Member
After thinking about it a bit more, it isn't this generation that Sony needs to worry about it's the next one. We are about halfway through this gen and Microsoft should be just starting to get going with all of its past acquisitions. Microsoft originally had to worry about this gen but covid happened and that destroyed Sony's plan to dominate at the start. Sony needs to dramatically expand right now since Microsoft gaming studio employee count side is around 5 times bigger than Sony's right now.

With that said I've been saying and thinking for a while that Sony needs to expand. Microsoft definitely needed to do it and they have pretty much done so.
People are saying "next year will be Xbox year" but i feel this is being said every single year for the past decade. During the supposed Xbox's year (2023), Sony will have VR2 releasing with what i'm assuming around 8/10 games. MLB will have another entry. Spider-Man will have its sequel released. We know Sony have at least 2 or 3 live games planned for next year. We got Final Fantasy XVI. We got Forspoken. Right after 2023 ends, we have the 2nd entry of the Final Fantasy VII franshise releasing. I mean...

And this is what we know without Sony even having an game showcase. I'm also not counting with the rumored Silent Hill which will apparently be another console exclusive (timed or not).

Again i ask...which company isn't ready for "the fight this generation"?

You spend so much time scrolling these forums that you even forget what this business is about: Games.
The thing is with the "next year will be the Xbox year" is that they straight up just didn't have the studios for it but now they do. I mean they have nearly locked up 2 out of the 7 major video game companies who have had their own E3 conferences for several years last gen.
 
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