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VG247: "If Xbox can't beat PS5 this holiday, I'm not sure it ever will"

AlexxKidd

Member
halo_infinite-2.jpg


From VG247...

Yes, I know that's a baity, console-war headline, but let's be honest, if I'd simply written "Xbox is a great buy this holiday" you wouldn't have clicked through.

Xbox as a platform is having a bit of a moment. While the start of the year was rather barren in terms of big releases, something magnified by the fact that everyone wanted shiny new games for their fancy new-gen consoles, summer onwards has been non-stop goodness.

Late July saw Flight Simulator arrive on Xbox, giving the Series X and S their first "Wow" exclusive. Of course, it also landed day one on Game Pass.

Psychonauts 2, a real Game of the Year contender, impressed greatly at the end of August. Xbox players couldn't claim exclusivity over this one, with it also coming to PlayStation platforms, but it was another superb Game Pass day one title to enjoy.

October saw Back 4 Blood arrive day one on Game Pass, which was a big get for the service that generally doesn't offer such large third-party AAA games the day you can buy them.

Xbox is yet to fully deliver on its promise of blockbuster AAA exclusives the likes of which we take for granted on PlayStation, but it's getting there - although perhaps slightly fearful of the Horizon Forbidden West, Gran Turismo 7, and God of War Ragnarok triple whammy coming next year. Then there's Forspoken and Ghostwire: Tokyo in terms of known third-party exclusives.
 
at the risk of being banned again for sharing an opinion: i think Xbox is kicking ass. This year we got Flight Sim. Forza Horizon 5 came out which is doing well. Halo is out next month.

I'm not seeing anything from Playstation that can compete with Xbox games. The big Playstation (not exclusively 5) are not out until next year or beyond such as Forbidden West, God of War, Gran Turismo.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
"XBOX is a great buy. . .but let me only focus on a few titles, two of which are not at all exclusive to the platform."

. . .this article needed to be released like next year with STARFIELD, GROUNDED, and maybe news of AVOWED opening the Xbox sails. HALO is huge (not sure why it's not in any of those quotes; I imagine it is referenced in the article) and would sell consoles if anyone could get one I would guess. That said, there is absolutely a buzzsaw of content coming from SONY in the foreseeable and more distant future that XBOX needs to match if it wants to stoke the fires and get the attention of gamers.

Yes, I know that's a baity, console-war headline, but let's be honest, if I'd simply written "Xbox is a great buy this holiday" you wouldn't have clicked through.

And therein lies the problem with games journalism.

That is a consumer problem more than it is a content developer problem.

at the risk of being banned again for sharing an opinion: i think Xbox is kicking ass. This year we got Flight Sim. Forza Horizon 5 came out which is doing well. Halo is out next month.

I'm not seeing anything from Playstation that can compete with Xbox games. The big Playstation (not exclusively 5) are not out until next year or beyond such as Forbidden West, God of War, Gran Turismo.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is probably the last bulleted which runs you afoul of "console-warring", particularly when Playstation front loaded their year and are likely looking at their current next gen content (GoT/Death Stranding updates, Returnal, Dark Souls, Miles Morales and Ratchet) to carry them through the holidays.
 
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Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
Yes, I know that's a baity, console-war headline, but let's be honest, if I'd simply written "Xbox is a great buy this holiday" you wouldn't have clicked through.

And therein lies the problem with games journalism.

I wouldn't even say there's anything remotely special about this holiday.

Halo and Forza. Again.

Nothing wrong with these games but lets be honest how many years previously have they offered the exact same franchises and how did that work out for them?
 

Swift_Star

Banned
at the risk of being banned again for sharing an opinion: i think Xbox is kicking ass. This year we got Flight Sim. Forza Horizon 5 came out which is doing well. Halo is out next month.

I'm not seeing anything from Playstation that can compete with Xbox games. The big Playstation (not exclusively 5) are not out until next year or beyond such as Forbidden West, God of War, Gran Turismo.
Amazing how for some of you, Ratchet and Clank simply doesn't exist lmfao.
Both are doing fine and breaking their own records, take the fanboy glasses out of your face. They barely even target the same people anymore.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Never say never. Just look at what happened with the Xbox 360 after they launched kinect.

But yes, it doesnt look good for them so far especially with the pandemic affecting just how many consoles they can produce.

I think the gen wont truly begin until 2023. The PS5's biggest titles are cross gen so it's not like they are that much different than Halo and Forza. Everyone is just sleep walking through this gen. I think Starfield combined with the chip shortage ending would be our first real battle of the gen.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
At this point, isn't it about whoever can make the most consoles available to be purchased wins, regardless of games?
While both consoles are supply-constrained, the demand is clearly higher for one console over the other.

At this point, it's pretty clear that the PS5 will outsell the Series consoles again. However, MS's business model is more subscription based across multiple platforms, instead of just the Series consoles. So not sure sales are going to tell the full picture. However, with hardware dragging on profits, I'm certain that there's a sales threshold MS will be aiming for internally, in order to measure the success of the console. With limited supply, I have to assume they're hitting the targets they've set.
 

Elios83

Member
A stupid article.
This holiday season PS5 will outsell Xbox simply because they have a much better hardware supply.
In this sense it is a missed opportunity for Xbox because Sony had some delays after a great first half of the year.
In 2022 Sony has an incredible lineup even just considering the currently announced exclusives like Horizon, GT7, God of War, FFXVI, Forspoken, Stray, Sifu, Tokyo Ghostwire and many others.
 
I believe Microsoft made it pretty clear that they are in the game for the long haul with this subscription model. As long as you pay something to them (either office 365, Azure, Game Pass, whatever) it is fine. Xbox as a hardware sell enough to keep it being produced.
 
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Who cares outside of children and journalists writing click bait articles?

It’s clear that both companies are taking a different approach and that’s great. Besides, Xbox aren’t a company that ‘don’t have games’ anymore (that was always a stupid thing to say). The exclusives are starting to look fantastic and I really think they’ve turned things around.

It’s an amazing time to be playing video games and both companies have seen huge success over the last few years. So instead of fighting over who has the better plastic box, can’t we celebrate playing great video games?
 

kingfey

Banned
Amazing how for some of you, Ratchet and Clank simply doesn't exist lmfao.
Both are doing fine and breaking their own records, take the fanboy glasses out of your face. They barely even target the same people anymore.
Isnt miles a big ps5 game, compared to ratchet? Ratchet is niche, which makes it not big.

The big titles are horizon, god of war, GT. And those other big IPs.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
FH5 4.5M shows something else.

Xbox at this stage isnt competing with ps5 anymore. It wants to attract pc players, and combine it with xbox players.

Only console warrior care about it at this stage. Even Sony is doing PC version for their games.
Just because both of them are doing PC versions doesnt mean we cant talk about console sales. Their main business is getting people in their eco system, and in that sense they are competing with each other just like they always have. Saying xbox isnt competing with PS5 is just silly.

You can argue that it doesnt matter WHERE the revenue is generated as long as they beat Sony in gaming revenue, but it's not like they are doing that. Sony generated $25 billion in gaming revenue last year vs $15 billion for Microsoft. If console sales dont matter then surely revenue does, and MS needs to do better. Plain and simple. If they didnt, they wouldnt have bought Zenimax for $8 billion.
 

ClosBSAS

Member
Lol I have pc, Xbox and ps5...fuck console wars. I enjoy them all and once PS5 games start hitting PC imma sell that bitch ass console. All I need is demons souls on PC and Bloodborne 2 on PS5.

Xbox does it right with day 1 on PC and ps5 does it right with exclusives, also on PC. So win win.
 

Dr Bass

Member
At this point, isn't it about whoever can make the most consoles available to be purchased wins, regardless of games?
Yeah that seems obvious. When both are still supply constrained, the one with more supply will “win.” Also the idea that having the 13th Forza game and the 8th (or so?) Halo game is going to miraculously move the needle in customer behavior is a bit bizarre to me. If those games were going to have any kind of effect on the balance of console favorites, it would have already happened. It’s just more of the same, so expect to have the same result in the long term


When Sony’s GT7 and Horizon FW hit in the next 3-4 months the attention will be on them again. Everything is so cyclical and the press is fickle.

Also the idea that MS doesn’t care about the performance of their console anymore and that they are somehow now in competition with some other entity is ridiculous. Of course they care about making money. They wouldn’t be doing this otherwise. You don’t “lose” and then say hey well we are competing in a different space, that’s why! It’s about dollars in and dollars out. And they are absolutely competing with Sony and Nintendo. Period.
 

retsof624

Member
I kinda don't want Xbox to get a lead. All the good shit they've been doing is only being done because they got fucked with a cactus dick last gen. But I also don't want Sony to have a HUGE lead like they did last gen either. They need someone at their neck so they continue to do good.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I wouldn't even say there's anything remotely special about this holiday.

Halo and Forza. Again.

Nothing wrong with these games but lets be honest how many years previously have they offered the exact same franchises and how did that work out for them?
And where were you the past year criticizing Spiderman MM, R&C and Demons Souls came out for PS5, which are also more of the same kinds of games from the same franchises? One is even a remaster of a PS3 game.
 

supernova8

Banned
I'm going to go out on a limb and say it is probably the last bulleted which runs you afoul of "console-warring", particularly when Playstation front loaded their year and are likely looking at their current next gen content (GoT/Death Stranding updates, Returnal, Dark Souls, Miles Morales and Ratchet) to carry them through the holidays.

I don't even see how it's console-warring. Surely people should be free to jump around as they please (which is surely the epitome of not being a console warrior).

I'm still not that interested in the majority of Xbox exclusive titles (Halo bores the shit out of me), but with a lot of the Playstation games I thought would be PS5 exclusive (and therefore super-duper next-gen looking) turning out to be cross-gen, it looks like both platforms are going to get into "real" next-gen round about the same time after all (ie from late 2022-early 2023).

Add to that the whole Game Pass value proposition (I stopped giving a shit about physically owning games once I moved into a tiny apartment in Tokyo and ran out of space to put stuff), and Xbox as a platform/ecosystem looks a lot more attractive to me than it did 12 months ago. Hell, I was practically shitting on Xbox a year ago. Now it doesn't seem so bad after all.
 

davidjaffe

The Fucking MAN.
Yes, I know that's a baity, console-war headline, but let's be honest, if I'd simply written "Xbox is a great buy this holiday" you wouldn't have clicked through.

And therein lies the problem with games journalism.
You could also say 'therein lies the problem with everyone expecting everything free on the internet'.

When you used to pay for your news, you bought it and you'd read because you owned it and why not if it sounded kind of interesting. That's mostly dead now and 95% of customers run for the bright, shiny, and free. What would you have them do?

I'm not saying I like it but it seems disingenuous to act as if this is the fault of journalists because most of us would click on articles that didn't have some sizzle (unless the topic was perfectly targeted to our specific interests), it's just that journalists don't write those.
 

Topher

Gold Member
tey literally can't produce enough systems... both consoles sell exactly as many units as there are available to buy... that is the market situation, noone can beat anyone if the parts and manufacturing quantity simply aren't there

That's the thing. Demand is, by far, outpacing supply and that isn't going to change for some time. Halo Infinite could have a metacritic score of 100 but that isn't going to change the output of consoles from the factory.
 

On Demand

Banned
Because of another Halo and Forsa? Yeah ok.

I love how the media always has all these fantasy positives for Xbox but never manages to compare the same for PlayStation. The bigger brand.

Either way, who has better supply will sell more this holiday. And Sony since the start of the generation has gotten access to more chips. Being the more popular console I’m sure helps with that.
 

mejin

Member
people want series X, not S.

Anyway, this is not the first holiday MS will have better offerings than Sony and won't be the last either. Some holidays Xbox even sold better than Playstation before.

Sony usually launches games from feb to sept...after that they let 3rds to kill themselves. MS usually focus holidays and the rest of the year is just mediocre.

Things will change, but right now this is just a clickbait article.
 

Kimahri

Banned
Yes, I know that's a baity, console-war headline, but let's be honest, if I'd simply written "Xbox is a great buy this holiday" you wouldn't have clicked through.

And therein lies the problem with games journalism.
Says more about the audience, really.

Sites depend on clicks for ad revenue. Readers use adblockers. Sites make less money. Readers increasingly ignore good articles in favor of some console warring nonsense, websites cater in order to, you know, put food on the table.

It's a downward spiral, but to claim journalists alone are responsible is wonderfully ignorant.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
at the risk of being banned again for sharing an opinion: i think Xbox is kicking ass. This year we got Flight Sim. Forza Horizon 5 came out which is doing well. Halo is out next month.

I'm not seeing anything from Playstation that can compete with Xbox games. The big Playstation (not exclusively 5) are not out until next year or beyond such as Forbidden West, God of War, Gran Turismo.

818159.jpg
 

cormack12

Gold Member
It's a downward spiral, but to claim journalists alone are responsible is wonderfully ignorant.

What about other enthusiast hobbies from the traditional magazine industry do you see fuelling such bullshit? The muzzle veolcity of the new AR is less than blah blah blah. In this months carp weekly we compare this lake in France to this one in Spain.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
The industry is simply stronger than ever. Great to see. Both systems are doing fantastic. I don't really care who wins.

By the way, I would have clicked "Xbox is a great buy" as a title. Have a little more faith in people.
 
Omg. Who gives a fuck who beats who?

I just want to play God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Naughty Dog IP, Wolverine, Fable, Awoved, Hellblade 2, State of Decay 3, Starfield, Halo Infinite, and so on.

How do these morons not realize that these 2 different giant publishers just have their own strategy and are both flourishing in their own ways?

Just enjoy the games man. Fuck y'all plastic box wars VG247.
 
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DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
If Xbox console sales cant outsell PS5 this holiday season, for anything outside of stock challenges then I agree. it never will. It's pretty clear that Microsoft clearly has other plans now. Consoles are just a part of the overall picture and the key focus is services and software sales or more importantly MAU's and engagement.

They want as many eyes as possible on their games and controllers (M&KB) in hands over the traditional unit sale of a boxed product. 4.5million players on a racing game day one is insane and more PLAYERS than nearly all other exclusive games.

They are smashing it with FH5, and this could be the start of something big with Halo following up.
 
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Flutta

Banned
Eeeh i mean there’s no IF’s, they simply can’t. Xbox is too US centric. Even if MS decided to give away GP for free to try and compete they still would fall flat on their faces. Oh wait they already tried that. Let see if Bethesda can move the needle.
WW the PS brand is just too strong. So basically ”PlayStation is PlayStations worst enemy” in the end.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Omg. Who gives a fuck who beats who?

I just want to play God of War Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, Naughty Dog IP, Wolverine, Fable, Awoved, Hellblade 2, State of Decay 3, Starfield, Halo Infinite, and so on.

How do these morons not realize that these 2 different giant publishers just have their own strategy and are both flourishing in their own ways?

Just enjoy the games man. Fuck y'all plastic box wars VG247.
Exactly. We are going to get absolutely blasted with games on every platform the next 2 years. It a great problem to have, not having the time to play everything. Console wars are dumb.
 
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