Well, yes and no.
Yes in a very big sense that they're both starting from 0. When two competitive products launch aside each other, you have to sell them and I question if Sony could now have the same goliath head start that they have had this generation.
Consider the Microsoft of today is not Microsoft that launched the XBOX One. Phil Spencer is a clued up leader who has a vision and he's influential enough within Microsoft that he's turning around a business that at one point looked like it was going to call time, alongside Lumia and Bing. The XBOX One S hardware revision was a huge breath of fresh air and the XBOX One X is an ambitious statement to show that Microsoft are serious about gaming. You cannot deny the value XBOX Game Pass offers it's customers, nor that XBOX Live is still a solid service. xCloud is on it's way and I do believe Microsoft can deliver a competent product there and all things in the Microsoft world appear to be looking up.
Consumers have far more confidence in Microsoft than they did at the beginning of the generation and I rarely see bad press highlighting the misgivings they have made. Their studio and talent acquisition is now paying dividends to that by proving that Microsoft are willing to invest in this sector and they're willing to do so indiscriminately by acquiring content and developers that are known for multiplatform development, shockingly more-so with Ninja Theory who have a great relationship with Sony, even if it was soured a little with Heavenly Sword 2 being cancelled. Whilst we aren't going to see immediate rewards for this investment, I do believe that Microsoft are going to allow a lot of creative freedom and have faith in their tried and tested development studios.
My concern for Microsoft is a simple one and that is simply that hardware does not make sense for them anymore. They have acquired Mojang and MineCraft and continue to allow it to be enjoyed on all platforms. A consumer friendly move but at the height of it's popularity would have sold millions of systems. They have acquired Ninja Theory, Obsidian and inXile and are still releasing their products on competitors systems when in reality they should be restricting that to their own system and leveraging that content to sell consoles. This is equally affirmed with the news that Microsoft studios are developing content for Nintendo Switch, likely in the event that they drop hardware and literally become the next SEGA.
Equally Microsoft cannot rely on mediocre exclusives to sell systems. I cannot deny that Re-Core, Crackdown 3, Dead Rising 4 and other XBOX One exclusives are good games, they are quality in their own way and are not necessarily bad games. Well, some of them are but that's a matter of taste. But these titles pale in comparison to God of War, Uncharted 4, Bloodborne, Horizon etc. The Sony first party line up is as strong as ever and it's hard to compete with. They have massive marketing pushes and Sony as a whole have hundreds of Game of the Year awards for industry and consumer recognition. I do not believe Microsoft have had the same attention to their software line-up since Halo 3. Cancelling Scale Bound I think is a huge mistake for them as it's the only thing for a long time that interested me in their platform and I've never owned an XBOX console.
Microsoft feels like a good comparison to SEGA.
- SEGA Master System - Microsoft XBOX (Both enjoyed minor success but led to bigger things.)
- SEGA MegaDrive/Genesis - XBOX 360 (Arguably both companies most successful products.)
- SEGA Saturn - XBOX One (Not really a major success story for either company and the start of major decline.)
- SEGA DreamCast - ??? (This one concerns me, I believe another poor console will kill Microsoft's interests as it did SEGA.)
For this very reason I believe another console that isn't a huge success will prevent Phil for continuing his mean streak and stop the higher ups at Microsoft investing money into a platform. I believe they'll see far more financial gains from multiplatform development and licencing the XBOX brand. We learn from the past to predict the future.
Sony on the other hand have everything to lose and their current lack of communication is really going to hurt them. They've been hurtling down the track on the hype train at 400 miles per hour since the PlayStation 4 came out and each year has been a bigger and bigger blockbuster. Until 2017 when that train seemed to run out of steam. The company has had large amounts of bad press associated with it, from the Naughty Dog sexual harassment scandal which still has not been 100% confirmed to be truth or lies, Quantic Dream and Detroit garnered bad news from the studios working standards, employee treatment, 'likening androids to the slave trade' and promoting 'domestic abuse.' They received less than stellar press for their new direction to cross play, their censorship to products etc.
Their line up seems to be coming to an end for PlayStation 4, but after Days Gone, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of Us II and Death Stranding, what is next? The company has been so hush hush since the disappointing E3 2017 that E3 2018 was even more lack lustre, they cancelled PSX and have rarely been attending trade shows with such a big presence. 2019 should have been the year Sony curb stomped Microsoft and stood head and shoulders above their competitors but their silence I believe, is allowing them to get a good foothold back into the market. No news isn't necessarily bad news but the lack there-of news can be concerning. I don't doubt Sony have every ability to pull off an amazing product and the people working behind PlayStation have had their Icarus moment as Shawn Layden so aptly put it but we are due some news and update on where we're actually at with a promise of 'more coming soon' and nothing for months on end.
With state of play tomorrow I wonder what will change. Not attending E3 2019 and radio silence has me a little concerned but uncertainty does lead to FUD. Whatever happens, they irrefutably smashed it this generation. They need to continue that into PlayStation V and ahead.
