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PlayStation 5 share in France vs Xbox reaches 93% vs 7%
- Thread starter Ronin_7
- Start date
Times have changed & there is backlash for leaving out a platform but if this was back in the day we would be seeing a lopsided release schedule right about now.
MikeM
Member
It really shows how these companies treat gaming.
Two treat it like their bread and butter, while the other just has it as another line on their earnings report.
Unknown?
Member
This is reminding me of Saturn/Sega in the mid/late 90s.
im sure that was the current plan, yeah
how its going
Beat the ps5 on power with XSX
didn't work out, because of course" immature toolz, lazy devzz"
Beat the ps5 on price via XSS
nobody buying mr potato even with always on discounts, should try handing it out free at this point.
around this time next year, ps5-pro combo will pretty much make both series totally irrelevant.
Beat PS+ with GamePass see GP numbers swell
numbers failing to swell to targets year after year (happens when you can't sell any consoles)
even nutella lost hope, so untied his bottom line from the stupid projections
Buy a few publishers and studios and ramp up the content on GP
ramp up content with back to back disappointments (including your respective gotg)
great word of mouth for the service.
Expand PC rapidly
and further butcher your console business.
Release streaming device running xCloud and see GamePass adoption flourish
"billions of players"
Mibu no ookami
Member
The quote is from early 2020, so yeah, I don't think the plan has been successful. I think it was fundamentally flawed.
And now they're trying to build a house on a bad foundation.
REDRZA MWS
Member
I don’t have to tell anybody shit. And I played every one of those consoles when they were brand new. Nobody cares about 30 years ago. As far as access to games even if MS didn’t manufacture a single console ever again their Azure and entire server system never have to be turned off because MS is a highly successful business. They make their money in the PC/Windows business. Xbox could easily fail and never be made again, while maintaining servers.
But none of this has anything to do with the constant sales/numbers/percentage garbage being littered all over this board. Bottom line is I’m a gamer. I own em all play em all. I could care less how many units any company is selling.
SlimySnake
Flashless at the Golden Globes
Its insane that we have to do a post mortem on the xbox series consoles just three years after launch. Dont think the end came this early for the X1. This is a failure of leadership just as much a failure of their studios to produce must-have games.
The studios have continued to push mediocre games that simply dont move consoles. Their leadership just doesnt understand what makes games truly great. They dont understand the importance of exclusives pretty much phoning in the first two years of this gen. Halo and Starfield in the first three years is simply not enough and racing games simply dont move the needle anymore. this aint 1997 anymore.
Doesn't help that Halo and Starfield were both underwhelming with massive issues of their own. Sony's cross gen approach and a somewhat mediocre lineup of next gen only games (by their standards anyway) shouldve given MS an opening but they blew it with exceptionally mediocre exclusives themselves.
I was watching the Halo 2 and Halo 3 trailers the other day, and got literal chills. I honestly dont understand whats going on over at microsoft. they finally have the studios but they cant seem to get anything even remotely close to what Sony is doing. And thats ok, not many studios can do what Sony studios are able to do on a yearly basis. But why cant MS studios make games like Alan Wake 2, FF16, Star Wars jedi survivor, re4? We have been waiting for Perfect dark and Hellblade for years. Fable, state of decay, and avowed were revealed at the xbox launch. Sony revealed Miles, HFW, GT7, ratchet, returnal, forspoken, deathloop and demon souls at their reveal event and had all those games out in a year or two. MS just released forza. and its still the only game that was revealed at that conference to be released so far.
Just disastrous management from top to bottom. is it really that surprising that when these games do come out, they are equally mediocre? Look at how mediocre Avowed looks. I was shocked to hear GOTY talk for Hifi Rush. its a decent B game, but xbox players think that is GOTY? I dont even blame them. I blame the leadership for starving their consumer base of quality must have goty titles. I remember watching the first teaser for starfield, and I was like this is going to be a masterpiece. I had chills. But they blew that too.
Phil always blames the last generation as the toughest to lose but he has no one but himself to blame for this one. Every decision he's made has blown up in his face:
- cheap $299 console sitting on shelves during the pandemic, creating bad PR, creating even worse consumer expectations by offering them a vastly inferior product.
- releasing games on day one. essentially telling people like me to skip buying his console and invest instead in expensive nvidia and amd parts.
- releasing games day one on gamepass. turns out, no one cares. those who do already own xboxes. its not the MUST HAVE thing that makes people switch. what it did do was cost them day one sales, and set unrealistic expectations for their userbase that everything should come free.
- overproducing series s and underproducing series x. no one wants to buy an inferior product. not poor people, not kids, and definitely not teenagers. no one will get a series s on christmas and yell in excitement like that NINTENDO 64!!! kid. The casuals buy their consoles later because they are casuals and have better things to buy than video games.
The man has zero understanding of why we play games. why we buy consoles. he shouldve been fired a long time ago, but now hes facing the worst sales crisis since the OG xbox, and im sure he will stay on until he retires and will be replaced by one of his stooges who will display a similar lack of understanding of the console gaming market.
The studios have continued to push mediocre games that simply dont move consoles. Their leadership just doesnt understand what makes games truly great. They dont understand the importance of exclusives pretty much phoning in the first two years of this gen. Halo and Starfield in the first three years is simply not enough and racing games simply dont move the needle anymore. this aint 1997 anymore.
Doesn't help that Halo and Starfield were both underwhelming with massive issues of their own. Sony's cross gen approach and a somewhat mediocre lineup of next gen only games (by their standards anyway) shouldve given MS an opening but they blew it with exceptionally mediocre exclusives themselves.
I was watching the Halo 2 and Halo 3 trailers the other day, and got literal chills. I honestly dont understand whats going on over at microsoft. they finally have the studios but they cant seem to get anything even remotely close to what Sony is doing. And thats ok, not many studios can do what Sony studios are able to do on a yearly basis. But why cant MS studios make games like Alan Wake 2, FF16, Star Wars jedi survivor, re4? We have been waiting for Perfect dark and Hellblade for years. Fable, state of decay, and avowed were revealed at the xbox launch. Sony revealed Miles, HFW, GT7, ratchet, returnal, forspoken, deathloop and demon souls at their reveal event and had all those games out in a year or two. MS just released forza. and its still the only game that was revealed at that conference to be released so far.
Just disastrous management from top to bottom. is it really that surprising that when these games do come out, they are equally mediocre? Look at how mediocre Avowed looks. I was shocked to hear GOTY talk for Hifi Rush. its a decent B game, but xbox players think that is GOTY? I dont even blame them. I blame the leadership for starving their consumer base of quality must have goty titles. I remember watching the first teaser for starfield, and I was like this is going to be a masterpiece. I had chills. But they blew that too.
Phil always blames the last generation as the toughest to lose but he has no one but himself to blame for this one. Every decision he's made has blown up in his face:
- cheap $299 console sitting on shelves during the pandemic, creating bad PR, creating even worse consumer expectations by offering them a vastly inferior product.
- releasing games on day one. essentially telling people like me to skip buying his console and invest instead in expensive nvidia and amd parts.
- releasing games day one on gamepass. turns out, no one cares. those who do already own xboxes. its not the MUST HAVE thing that makes people switch. what it did do was cost them day one sales, and set unrealistic expectations for their userbase that everything should come free.
- overproducing series s and underproducing series x. no one wants to buy an inferior product. not poor people, not kids, and definitely not teenagers. no one will get a series s on christmas and yell in excitement like that NINTENDO 64!!! kid. The casuals buy their consoles later because they are casuals and have better things to buy than video games.
The man has zero understanding of why we play games. why we buy consoles. he shouldve been fired a long time ago, but now hes facing the worst sales crisis since the OG xbox, and im sure he will stay on until he retires and will be replaced by one of his stooges who will display a similar lack of understanding of the console gaming market.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Your 1st paragraph is about how the success of a company ensures preservation and long-term access.
Your 2nd paragraph is you saying that you don't care how many units a company is selling (how successful one company is).
HeisenbergFX4
Gold Member
One of the last stores we went into was a Best Buy and I see why no other stores locally had PS5s as they had pallets of them sitting out in the aisleSony manufacturing/yield issues/losing too much per unit confirmed...
/s
Lol no that's not it, I'm French and the only explanation is that we literally don't care about the Xbox (non-existent marketing) and the brand has a shitty reputation for not having decents game (and also people who play xbox are sometimes considered weirdo here lol)
Nothing to do with a boycott, i'ts just that... We don't care, simple as that. If i'ts worst than before i'ts because during the one generation everyone had an ps4 and all the "new" gamers are now on ps5 or Switch
ShirAhava
Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
MS lost the marketing game
I know so many PS5 owners where the console is collecting dust but they had to have it because "hype" or "kids are hype"
PS5 was one of those "must have" items for a lot of people.....No such hype around XBOX
If it wasn't for emulation I'd never own a Series S and I don't mind keeping it offline for retail mode because XBOX doesnt seem to have a future
I know so many PS5 owners where the console is collecting dust but they had to have it because "hype" or "kids are hype"
PS5 was one of those "must have" items for a lot of people.....No such hype around XBOX
If it wasn't for emulation I'd never own a Series S and I don't mind keeping it offline for retail mode because XBOX doesnt seem to have a future
yurinka
Member
The thing is that the talent that who made these games now no longer is in MS (they are in Bungie and Firewalk inside Sony).
MS lost many key talent they had there (as an example, Epic is making Fornite and both Cliffy and Molyneux left, same goes recently with all the Forza Horizon leads).
It's normal to lose talent, but they should know to replace it with similar talent both from hires or from training inside the company. But something seems to be wrong there, even acquisitions don't seem to work (sometimes because acquired teams also lost key talent that made them popular).
Sony apparently knows how to replace their talent, plus also their teams help each other sharing knowledge and tech, and also is way more successful at being able not only to deliver great and highly successful games, but also at producing new IP, so they also are able to replace the IP that gets outdated.
I assume due to difficulties on management and lack of proper talent.
The issue with these games is that they were announced before starting their development. So even if they are having normal development times you give the impression that they are taking too long and may have issues, when maybe isn't the case.
As an example, Hellblade 2 was in preproduction 2 years ago.
The difference is that Sony consistently has way more great games every year adding both 1st and 3rd, big and small, so they focus only on marketing the ones to be released in the next year or so.
MS didn't have them, so they had to focus on announcing games to be released like 6-7+ years in the future to keep the hype alive.
When looking at the console exclusives they had for many people it was the best XB exclusive of the year.
Well, he had that deppresive post Redfall interview where he admitted that even if Starfield was going to be a 11/10 game the market share wasn't going to magically flip. So that they had to deliver way more top quality because what they were doing wasn't enough.
He's aware of the issue and publicly admitted it. Even if in terms of PR he always should be optimistic and mentioning that they have great plans and that they'll make a comeback, that everything is ok and according to their plans, that soon will deliver, etc.
But I assume he has no idea on what to do other than to keep burning dozens and dozens of billions on acquiring big names and to slowly continue moving their gaming business out of their console to the other markets where MS is big: PC/Windows, servers/cloud/Azure and subscriptions, plus hopefully mobile.
In fact, mobile is the only area where they will be successful and profitable via acquisitions: they went from nothing to have Minecraft, King and Cod Mobile, so they will be in the top 5 of mobile, top 2 publisher in mobile gaming and top 1 non-Chinese mobile gaming publisher.
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What were the stores that were out of stock? I'm guessing Sony just sent a crap ton of pallets to Best Buy, Target and Amazon.
I Love Rock 'n' Roll
Member
To understand the situation here you have to jump back in time ant take a look on how MS managed poorly the XBOX One launch in Europe... They did like they don't care and we saw it, all the energy was in the US and UK. People are talking about arrogant Sony but MS was worse than that at that time.
There are other factors, like what happened with Nokia or when MS tried to get monopolies with Windows... MS is really hated as a brand.
And XBOX never really took off, except in UK.
PS4 did great and people are not ready to loose their backlog. Those are parts of the reasons why XBOX is dead in Europe (you can also add how MS destroyed itself with the Halo Master collection, Kinect, its pricing and so on). The differences between each system are so thin that people not care anymore. I don't even think a 199 euros for Serie X can save it. Here, Playstation means video games.
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Eotheod
Member
It's kind of interesting seeing all the countries differences, because I feel like here in Australia we have never been massive Xbox numbers. Even during 360 era, I didn't really see them as much as the PS3. They were there, but it felt very subdued comparative to what a lot of other countries experienced. Xbone was everywhere that's for sure, but that came down to pricing being whack for PlayStation.
Unknown Soldier
Member
What happens after they have bought the entire world and sales still haven't improved?
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
That's the thing, most of us did not dream or want to have game pass. Most in the gaming media keep pushing that narrative though.
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
And to think this same time last gen the PS4 was at 77% to the Xbox One at 23%. That was a 3 - 1 difference. Now it's a 13 - 1 difference. CRAZY!
Mibu no ookami
Member
I think people ignore a fundamental issue Microsoft has in terms of game development.
If Microsoft drops 200 million dollars on a single title, it has almost no chance of recouping its revenue. I think that is why they decided to do Day 1 on PC because they could spend more on game development. As we've discussed though that decision debased and devalued the console, causing it to sell fewer units, which in turn has caused the software to sell worse.
GamePass was a big swing, but it also debased the console. They probably should have kept GamePass Xbox exclusive, but GamePass is an extremely expensive program to run, so you need a wide subscriber base, which means growth needs to come from other avenues than just console. The problem with that though is that PC GamePass again debases and devalues the console.
Each of these moves in a vacuum doesn't seem like a bad idea. They're just collectively bad ideas and these bad ideas get put in the spotlight when you have games like Halo and Starfield underperform. The problem is even if Starfield was a 11/10 game, people were still going to buy it on PC and they were still going to play it on GamePass. Starfield was never going to "save" the generation for Xbox. The boat has sailed.
When you look at 3rd party games like Alan Wake 2, you could easily argue that Xbox has made games like that. Pentiment and HiFi Rush were critically received. Alan Wake 2 could have been an Xbox exclusive, but no one would have cared about it. It's almost impossible for Xbox to have a GOTY game because the audience is so small. It's easy for 3rd parties because they have so much exposure and Nintendo and Sony have huge audiences as well.
I don't think Phil Spencer is terribly effective, but I also think that he was dealt a bad hand. I also think he has played the hand poorly. I truly don't think any of his decisions were "brain-dead." They just weren't thought through collectively.
Like if I decide I'm going to put out the PS Portal, I've got to think about what impact this has on every aspect of my business, and gather feedback from every aspect of my business. Does this hinder Sony if they decide to put out a handheld in the future? Does this reduce PS5 sales at a time where they need as many PS5 sales as quickly as they can?
Maybe they decided that Cloud right now might impact PS5 sales and they didn't want that, so they're holding off on Cloud for now. Why isn't Gran Turismo 7 on PC yet? Maybe telemetry says that the game has pretty decent legs and that people are buying consoles for it and PS VR2 for it. Does putting GT7 on PC slow down already slow PSVR2 adoption? You've got to think these things through with all the data points.
Mibu no ookami
Member
If Microsoft had made Ghost of Tsushima it wouldn't have sold 10 million copies.
The exact same game on Xbox probably sells 1-2 million copies and that is something Microsoft has to contend with. Maybe it sells 3-4 million with PC.
Now that Sony is getting a taste for PC revenue, I suspect that the distance in per-game investment and exposure is going to continue to grow. Eventually, a game like GT7 is going to be on PC, meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft closed Turn 10 Studios down tomorrow.
Microsoft is treading water, while Sony is practicing its breaststroke, sidestroke, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke...
That's what PSVR2, PS Portal, PS Access Controller, Audeze, PS5 Slim, PS5 Pro, inZone are...
The exact same game on Xbox probably sells 1-2 million copies and that is something Microsoft has to contend with. Maybe it sells 3-4 million with PC.
Now that Sony is getting a taste for PC revenue, I suspect that the distance in per-game investment and exposure is going to continue to grow. Eventually, a game like GT7 is going to be on PC, meanwhile, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft closed Turn 10 Studios down tomorrow.
Microsoft is treading water, while Sony is practicing its breaststroke, sidestroke, freestyle, butterfly, backstroke...
That's what PSVR2, PS Portal, PS Access Controller, Audeze, PS5 Slim, PS5 Pro, inZone are...
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
The bolded is 100% correct!
SimTourist
Member
Microsoft would never even greenlight a game like Tsushima. They'd rather let the devs walk away than allow them to make a new IP. See Bungie, Epic, Lionhead.
OuterLimits
Member
I'm not an Xbox fan, but I hope they recover some because Dominant Sony kind of sucks.
Dominant Sony at the end of PS2/start of PS3 was telling people to get second jobs. Once 360 became a threat though, middle and late PS3 gen was damn awesome. First party software was stellar and early PS+ years were fantastic.
Now we are back to dominant Sony and first party this gen fucking sucks compared to PS3/4. They jack up the price of PS+ by 30% and right after Essential gets shitty games with Metacritic scores in the 60s.
Dominant Sony at the end of PS2/start of PS3 was telling people to get second jobs. Once 360 became a threat though, middle and late PS3 gen was damn awesome. First party software was stellar and early PS+ years were fantastic.
Now we are back to dominant Sony and first party this gen fucking sucks compared to PS3/4. They jack up the price of PS+ by 30% and right after Essential gets shitty games with Metacritic scores in the 60s.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
You do realize that Sony increased the PS+ Premium price to $160 per year AFTER Xbox increased its Game Pass Ultimate price to $204 per year, right?
How did competition help in that case? And how wasn't Xbox the arrogant one in that case?
OuterLimits
Member
PS+ Premium tier was a shit deal even before the price hike. The amount of classics they offer is dreadful, and PS3 games can only be streamed.
Also, doesn't Gamepass have some Day 1 releases on the service? Sony Day 1 PS+ offering is Sea of Stars. Wow. Impressive.
To be fair, we Premium members are able to demo the Gollum game for one hour. Awesome perk right there.
So yes, spending $204 on a service if it offers a significant number of Day 1 releases seems to me a better deal than $160 for PS+ Premium.
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FIREKNIGHT2029
Member
People are just gonna have to accept that the Xbox Series consoles are truly fucked and dead. Nothing can save Xbox. Not price drops, not GamePass, not buying out publishers, not Phil Spencer’s smile, etc. The brand is beyond damaged at this point and most people don’t want to have anything to do with it. Exactly why I think this will be the last generation we see traditional Xbox consoles.
I’m still trying to figure out how some people were so sure this gen would be the gen for Xbox to make a comeback. It was fairly obvious to me this Gen was gonna end up being worse for them than the last gen the moment they revealed the Xbox Series consoles and then proceeded to launch with no games. The Xbox Series consoles were living on borrowed time similar to how the Dreamcast was back in the day compared to the PS2 but worse since at least the Dreamcast had killer games at launch and even into late in its lifespan.
I knew the moment Sony sorted out their production issues they would leave Xbox in the dust. Sony has been rolling on hit after hit since Uncharted, GOW, Spiderman, etc. started launching last gen and they’ve always had way better mindshare and popularity than Xbox not to mention the fact most people have digital libraries and are well entrenched into the PS ecosystem (and that’s just factoring PS4’s success and not only the fact PlayStation is synonymous with gaming all around the world).
I’m still trying to figure out how some people were so sure this gen would be the gen for Xbox to make a comeback. It was fairly obvious to me this Gen was gonna end up being worse for them than the last gen the moment they revealed the Xbox Series consoles and then proceeded to launch with no games. The Xbox Series consoles were living on borrowed time similar to how the Dreamcast was back in the day compared to the PS2 but worse since at least the Dreamcast had killer games at launch and even into late in its lifespan.
I knew the moment Sony sorted out their production issues they would leave Xbox in the dust. Sony has been rolling on hit after hit since Uncharted, GOW, Spiderman, etc. started launching last gen and they’ve always had way better mindshare and popularity than Xbox not to mention the fact most people have digital libraries and are well entrenched into the PS ecosystem (and that’s just factoring PS4’s success and not only the fact PlayStation is synonymous with gaming all around the world).
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Daneel Elijah
Gold Member
I have one small problem with that. You have to begin somewhere. Halo 1 got what? 5 Millions unit sold? But it created a series that continue to this day. Nintendo got the same problem on the Wii U. And because they did put good games, a lot of those got remasters that sold well on the switch. for me this line of thinking is only acceptable short term. And I think that Xbox, and Phil Spencer, think too much short term and not enough long term for some of their decisions. As you have said earlier, those decision can be somewhat understood separately. But together, it seems to not work as intended.
I think the same.
This is where I go back to my complaint. Making Alan Wake 2 is not just about making people care about it. It would allow for greater focus on the consoles hardware and be a showcase of that it can do. It would also be the opportunity to have better relations with the studio making it, and giving them the tech to be better in the future, like sony does with their third party deals. Look at how Sony got Hideo Kojima to have a studio running and Death stranding out for everybody to play. He was out of Konami in December 2015. Got a trailer ready in 6 months, and the game was out in 2019. Looking at the Wikipedia page, I can see that he got a 100 person studio, but he got help from 70+ Guerrilla games employees and that Insomniac Games and Bend studio helped too. This don't depend of your console installbase, but of how good the studios you own are. I know that the Alan Wake 2 is not the bext example as the studio parted in bad terms with Xbox but outside of that the point is still there. If they did the work back then, they would have a good friost party studio now. They didn't, and Epic did. Each time that they use the small amount of Xbox to not invest in something, it is not only lost now, but also in the future. I consider that really sad, as buying publishers will not give them back those missed opportunities.
As for GOTY, make games not buggy should be easier to plan for, and this is not always the case. This is for me the reason why they can't have GOTY, not just the fact that they are third place far away from PS5 and Switch userbase.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
That doesn't answer my question.
Quality is subjective: you may prefer Game Pass Ultimate; I may prefer PS+ Premium. Neither of us is necessarily right. And Sony offers a lot of day 1 games. Just this month, Teardown launched on PS+. Rogue Legacy 2, Sea of Stars, Moving Out 2, Stray: there have been plenty.
Anyway, back to the original question: how does competition help here when it was the "arrogant" Xbox (in the last place) that raised the subscription price to $204 per year, which then led to Sony increasing the PS+ Premium price to $160 per year? Which is still 21.5% cheaper with 300+ more games, by the way.
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Crayon
Member
Imo it was mass amounts of crowdsourced astroturfing and fud. In an extreme case like on era, it was an alternate reality where PS5 was a disaster in every way and Xbox had finally fixed everything.
OuterLimits
Member
You do realize my first post didn't even mention the PlayStation Plus Premium Tier? You decided to swoop in and make the conversation all about Premium in comparison to Xbox Ultimate because you feel the need to passionately defend Sony at all times.
Sony raised the price on all tiers. Including Essential which my first post referenced. Essential level gets you online, data save cloud storage(which is free on Xbox) and a couple games a month(which like I mentioned is getting games with shit scoring in the 60s last few months.). That price is now $79.99 instead of 59.99.
The only reason to raise the price of Essential is because they are a greedy corporation that loves money. They know people will pay the extra $20 A year to keep online access.
Your argument would be more valid if Sony had only raised the price of Premium (and maybe Extra) in response to the Game pass increase but left the basic 59.99 to play online alone.
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Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
Why does a specific tier matter here?
The fact remains the same: Sony increased the price of its subscription service after Xbox raised the price of its subscription service. Otherwise, Sony, despite being #1 for more than a decade, hadn't increased the price.
So how did competition help here, and how could a company in the 3rd place be this arrogant to raise the price first?
OuterLimits
Member
The tiers absolutely matter. The bottom tier is essentially just having to pay a ridiculous fee to both companies to play online. Oh and for the case of Sony, have cloud save backups. I believe Sony now charges more for the privilege to play online than Xbox.
Heisenberg007
Gold Journalism
You're still not answering my question.
I'm not talking about the specifics of a certain tier. Xbox charges $60 for XBLG/GP Core and doesn't offer the monthly 3 games that Sony does, so in a way, they are also charging more than before because they have eliminated certain benefits that used to come with it.
Once more, let's go back to the original question: Xbox, despite being in third place and in serious competition with PlayStation, increased its subscription price. As a result, Sony also increased the price of their subscription price. How does competition help here? And wasn't Xbox the arrogant one in this case?
Mibu no ookami
Member
5 million was a much bigger deal back then, especially on a console without much software or hardware units, and especially as an original IP and a new hardware entry. It's difficult to think long term when your boat is taking on water. They've tried to have long term strategy and have obviously maintained GamePass longer than I think any other company would have. So it's not just that they've had short-term plans it's that their long term plans have been short-sighted without accurately assessing/shaping the state of the industry.
Deals with any company for exclusivity are pretty bad for your long-term business, deals with Microsoft will set you back a decade at this point. Had Alan Wake 1 released on PS3, maybe it would have found more of an audience. It's the same problem for their 1P games as I mentioned before.
Not only does Microsoft have to put out absolute bangers, but they also have to effectively kill off GamePass and Day 1 PC but here is the kicker, they have to do that without alienating their fanbase who loves GamePass and only own Xbox for GamePass and by eschewing Day 1 PC, they're going to immediately lose out on substantial revenue.
SkylineRKR
Member
The problem is MS is never going to make something like Ghost of Tsushima to begin with. They would never keep financing an ongoing project like Last Guardian, and probably wouldn't greenlight a game like Returnal either. Sony actually banked on single player experiences for years, MS would've surely shut down Sucker Punch or force them into some MP trash after Infamous 1 and 2 sales numbers.
MS celebrated GTA DLC, and 'Playstation games' like FF coming out. Meanwhile Sony built a first party software empire.
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Those disastrous Xbox numbers in France and Spain have little to do with Sony's first party offerings. The PS5 is mostly a Fifa (and sometimes COD) machine in most of Europe, especially when a lot of its userbase have built up their PSN friends list on the PS4 (their previous Fifa box.)
OuterLimits
Member
Heisenberg007:
Microsoft was idiotic to raise their price but they probably feel offering a significant number of Day 1(most 1st party and some 3rd party) releases makes it significantly different service than what playstation offers(which never does first party and only rarely 3rd party).
I signed up for PS+ Premium when it launched. I figured Sony would add a significant number of quality PS1/2/PSP games in the following months, but overall it has been very underwhelming to put it kindly. Most of the PS2 selection is merely what they offered for sale during their brief "PS2 on PS4" initiative. The PS3 choices are less than during the PSNow days.
So why do you think Sony raised the price of Essential to be significantly more expensive than the equivalent Xbox tier? Yes, Sony is still releasing some poorly reviewed games each month, but Xbox also includes a rotating selection of games(also umderwhelming) in that tier. Plus they offer free cloud storage that isn't locked behind an $80 fee.
Once Microsoft leaves the console market, Sony can charge whatever amount they want for online access without any hesitation since no other company will be available to even offer a cheaper alternative. Heck, they can even ditch offering the crappy monthly games at that point also. Sounds great for the consumer.
I have enjoyed Playatation since the PS1 days, but if Microsoft bails on the console business, I hope another company jumps in at some point. I enjoy Nintendo games, but having Valve and a couple others jump in and release very good quality portable hardware alternatives has been awesome for consumers.
Microsoft was idiotic to raise their price but they probably feel offering a significant number of Day 1(most 1st party and some 3rd party) releases makes it significantly different service than what playstation offers(which never does first party and only rarely 3rd party).
I signed up for PS+ Premium when it launched. I figured Sony would add a significant number of quality PS1/2/PSP games in the following months, but overall it has been very underwhelming to put it kindly. Most of the PS2 selection is merely what they offered for sale during their brief "PS2 on PS4" initiative. The PS3 choices are less than during the PSNow days.
So why do you think Sony raised the price of Essential to be significantly more expensive than the equivalent Xbox tier? Yes, Sony is still releasing some poorly reviewed games each month, but Xbox also includes a rotating selection of games(also umderwhelming) in that tier. Plus they offer free cloud storage that isn't locked behind an $80 fee.
Once Microsoft leaves the console market, Sony can charge whatever amount they want for online access without any hesitation since no other company will be available to even offer a cheaper alternative. Heck, they can even ditch offering the crappy monthly games at that point also. Sounds great for the consumer.
I have enjoyed Playatation since the PS1 days, but if Microsoft bails on the console business, I hope another company jumps in at some point. I enjoy Nintendo games, but having Valve and a couple others jump in and release very good quality portable hardware alternatives has been awesome for consumers.
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Astray
Gold Member
I don't think it's just FUD, I think that people have traditionally viewed new console gens as a sort of a "reset point". Like, anyone has the option to just keep playing their PS4 with all their digital titles and buy an XSX or whatever.
Microsoft absolutely had a shot at closing the distance to Playstation, and they just.. failed.
You should just quote him or add an @ to tag him, like so:
Heisenberg007
But to add to the conversation: My thinking when it comes to PS classics to the services is.. Any smart businessman would not just dump everything in one go, not only do they require thorough testing and porting (because you CANNOT blame the devs anymore), I am presuming that rights negotiation would also enter the chat (you would probably have to ask Namco for permission to add Ridge Racer etc etc). You also want to space out the costs, and most important of all, you would want to have a steady clip of announced titles over time to help in promoting the service (this is how Xbox did it btw, they didn't just dump a few 100 titles day 1).
A fan would want all of them at once, but we're not in charge for a reason imo.
The dumb thing about claiming PlayStation need the competition from Xbox to keep them in line is that you ignore the fact that Xbox isn't competing now & they wasn't competing in PS1 era or PS2 era . They only competed when they caught PlayStation off guard & released early & PlayStation had to scramble to get the PS3 out there before Xbox get a bigger headstart.
Switch owners are being blessed right now & Switch has no competition , PS1 & PS2 was flooded with games
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James Sawyer Ford
Member
