If MS drops out of the console race then it’s quite possible that the specs for PS6 will be hugely disappointing (with no competition other than the successor to the Switch). Need competition so I really hope MS gets their ass in gear if they acquire Activision Blizzard. Sony turned around the disastrous launch of the PS3 by consistently releasing high quality games In the latter half of that consoles life. So no, isn’t hardware that’s the problem, if’s software by a long shot.
Sony's already had competition. Just because Microsoft is bad at providing sufficient competition, doesn't mean it's not competition. More often than not, competition usually results in a clear winner and a clear loser, not two rivals who are neck-and-neck.
In gaming it's rarely if ever even been that way globally. We've just kinda learned recently that the close Genesis/SNES rivalry here in America wasn't really that close after all because SoA played a gambit with big retailers to constantly dump the shelves with supply they'd have to buy unsold inventory back from after the holidays, so pretty much all the revenue and market share numbers SoA reported during the 1991 - 1994 years (and after) was sold-in (to retailers), not sold-through (to customers). That means in hindsight, the only markets MegaDrive really had actual close competition or leads over the SNES were Europe and Brazil.
5th gen? Close for a couple years in Japan between Saturn (sold-in) and PlayStation (sold-through); nowhere near the case for ROTW. N64 put up good numbers in the U.S and Europe, though, at times outselling PS1 for a few months in the U.S here and there. My point is, competition simply means a competitor exists; it doesn't mean nor has to mean that competitor is selling closely to another in order to keep each other 'honest' or whatever.
PlayStation doesn't need Xbox in order to continue providing top quality for customers. However, much of Xbox's brand identity is predicated on playing counter to PlayStation and attacking PlayStation. Xbox needs PlayStation, not the other way around.
Sony's numbers weren't comparing Stray's numbers to only new games entering the service. Stray was the most played game on the PS+ rental catalog (meaning more players utilized their PS+ Extra or Premium subscription to play it than any other game on the service including Sony's first party games, though GoT lead in hours played since it is a long game).
That was for a specific measured time period and, again, Sony's own 1P games in PS+ are catalog releases. They've exhausted their B2P sales cycle, so most people who wanted to play them, purchased the games before they went into the service.
Did more players play Spiderman on PS than Stray in total, probably sure.
"Probably"
. C'mon, man.
But not by utilizing the game catalog on PS+ Extra or Premium, they just bought or borrowed it etc.
This is because new games have more value than old games, regardless of how good those games are or how well they reviewed. I think both EAplay and PS+ are nice services, they aren't in the same ballpark or even the same block as GP, but both EA and Sony understand that and price the services accordingly with EAplay at $30/yr and PS+ Extra/Premium at $40yr or $60/yr over the base cost of online.
If new games had more value than old games, and Game Pass gets a lot more Day 1 releases than PS+, then by that logic, Game Pass should have a higher sub count. But, it doesn't, because your theory isn't actually true. If new games had more inherent value than old games, then GTA5, COD etc. wouldn't keep outselling new releases in NPDs months after their initial releases.
If new games had more inherent value than old games, then other services like EA Play would be putting their releases in full on the service Day 1. And, if PS+ wasn't on Game Pass's level, then PS+ Extra and Premium would not have come within 10 million of Game Pass's last reported sub count, in just short of one year after the PS+ restructure.
I've signed up for the PS Stars, I can't find anything on the store. Any ideas where ?
We were talking about MS Rewards, not PS Stars :/
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