It's Utter Domination for PS5 in Europe as Xbox Continues to Lose Significant Ground

I really didn't see Xbox struggling like it is. Europe, maybe, given the market's history, but the US as well?

Always expected the PS5 to do well based on the PS4's momentum alone, but I didn't think it would be this one sided, especially just three years into the generation. Crazy times.

Xbox might as well just throw in the towel at this point and go 3rd Party

This isn't a good thing. The industry needs healthy competition. If Xbox dismantled, as @Member_the_game suggested, that would be a bad thing for gamers.

Xbox Series X/S are great consoles but again the software is simply lacking. I liked my Series X when I got it at launch but 3 years into this gen and having played their „blockbusters” like Halo Infinite, Starfield and Redfall I just sold it and I won’t bother with MS consoles again. Maybe if Hellblade 2 turns out ok I’ll play it on xCloud on Game Pass. Maybe. It’s unfortunate, especially as Sony really isn’t very consumer-friendly and they can do no wrong when it comes to console/game sales.I love the games but I don’t love Sony.

@ShogunRok Playstation is a recognisable brand here due to the Champions league sponsoring for many years. A games console is a playstation here.
The Xbox would be more like a Sega console. It's always been relatively unknown outside of gamer circles.

@bpomber Don't be dramatic. Nintendo still exists.
It will likely be a good thing as the focus would go back to the software rather than the hardware advancements.

@bpomber

As long as Nintendo is still around we'll be just fine

Three's a crowd an all that

@Nem I would say Nintendo isn't really direct competition with PlayStation. I don't think someone owning a Switch would stop them from owning a PS5. People buy Nintendo for Pokemon, Mario, Zelda, etc. The general gaming audience who mostly just plays CoD and other FPS games and sports games play on PlayStation, PC, or Xbox. Eliminating one of those three just creates less competition.

What next micro$oft? Bethesda and ABK acquisitions won’t save you and your big acquisition days are over… whatever happened to you transitioning from hardware to the ‘Netflix’ of gaming…maybe that will save you???

I wonder if any of those studios secretly regret selling out to Microsoft now. Not much point in security if there's no one to play your games. I'm kind of glad to see Xbox's underhand tactics not working as planned, but total domination from Sony would also be an unfortunate outcome.

Honestly, if I was Sony, I'd take Call of Duty off Playstation completly to negate the Activision buyout, and provide an alternative. A bold move, but maybe the best one in the long run, and a massive eff-u to Microsoft. If Sony don't have Bungie working on an exclusive COD replacement then they're doing it wrong.

Don't worry, Starfield will save them!.....oh wait

@bpomber That competition could also be pushing the prices up on both sides because they are desperately trying to outdo each other.
If Xbox just humbly accept defeat and step aside then Sony and Nintendo can live together in harmony and make all the money.

I can really see Xbox being just “Microsoft GamePass” in another generation or so. I saw that Xbox’s’ next console will be a Cloud based system primarily, so it will likely sell no better than Series X is doing. Give it another generation though and it will be even harder for Microsoft to break Sonys dominance as more and more people invest in Sonys Ecosystem. If Gamepass were to be available on PlayStation, I would likely do what I do now, pay for a month to play the newest game from them, then play Forza Horizon until the sub runs out. I also know that people say competition is good, but right now Microsoft really isn’t competition for Sony and with a 10 year deal in place for COD and Fortnite, FIFA and Grand Theft Auto all readily available on PlayStation, nothing is going to change for the foreseeable future.

There still isn't any real major selling point in owning an Xbox. I have one but really Microsoft don't hit hard with the giant event games like Nintendo and Sony. It's like a paying for a streaming service with a load average made for TV movies, but nothing massive like dune or Oppenheimer

@themightyant Its not worth it mate, I have tried to explain this several times over the last few months and they still post articles like this fanning the fanboy flames. Its why a lot of the comments are so ill informed (see above) as they are constantly fed this lopsided narrative.

You need a Playstation to play God of War, you need a Nintendo to play Mario, you do not need an xbox to play Halo, but they still think consoles sales are the only metric of success.

The article you linked perfectly articulates this, but they don't seem to care.

At what point do Microsoft just give up making consoles? At this point they are better off just selling game pass to everyone including PlayStation.

@DonaldMcRonald Except, Microsoft wouldn't be taking it away from Sony as reports are saying that Sony is dropping support completely - potentially making the remake dead in the water.

@Boxmonkey Sony doesn't want Game Pass - Microsoft tried.

Why would anyone buy an Xbox these days, when you have to pay that additional Xbox-tax I keep hearing about?

@DonaldMcRonald I mean, if it's a crap remake, I agree. I have no nostalgia for the game anyways.

I have no stake in the game, but if Microsoft did pick it up and somehow turned things around, I could see certain circles of the internet blowing a gasket.

@Nem No, we wouldn’t be fine, Nintendo isn’t a direct competitor for PlayStation, they made it quite clear during the FTC trials and with every other regulator, so if Microsoft were to get out of the console market it’d allow Sony to have absolute dominance over the market and that’s just not a good thing, they could set abusive conditions for both developers and consumers alike, they’d be able to price their hardware and software as high as possible since there’d be nothing to compare it with, and of course it’d make Sony more complacent as they wouldn’t have to launch banger games to attract users.

It blows my mind how many people legitimately don’t know or care how important it is to have strong competition in any market…

@Sakai @themightyant But if you remove the revenue from Pc, mobile and even PlayStation is Xbox's console business even profitable? Because if it's not then what's the point of Microsoft even keeping it around?

@themightyant People are just so competitive about things for absolutely no reason.

Buy an Xbox or don't. Buy a PlayStation or don't. Buy both if you can afford it. No one is wrong in what games they want to play!

@MrMagic As their ecosystem encompasses all of it, it is bit of an irrelevant question.

@themightyant It is just picking statistics that suit your narrative (console sales) and leaving out anything that goes against it (The article you posted)

I agree with your post 100%, and you are correct it is PX aswell (You must remember the stupid GT v Forza article a few weeks ago)

They make being a multiplatform gamer difficult, as I am constantly having to search for the source of articles to get the correct, unfiltered version that is console war free

@DonaldMcRonald Microsoft has a bunch of original stuff in the works, though:

Hellblade 2
Fable
Avowed
South of Midnight
Clockwork Revolution
Perfect Dark
Indiana Jones

Microsoft is probably the one company who hasn't really done remakes/remasters. FPS Boost and AutoHDR - plus running some legacy games at a higher resolution - were a great way to put new life to old games without having to develop a specific "Remaster"

The games are there/coming, you just don't need an Xbox console to play them.

This ain't good news.. I would love there to be 3 serious console contenders. Given MS acquisition tactics, preferably not them.. but better anything than nothing.
However, Series generation has been total flop half way through life-cycle :/
Hopefully next Nintendo system is successful as Switch and that keeps Sony in check.

@Sakai I'm not sure what you are referring to, but I didn't know MS has ever publicly disclosed their profit numbers (they usually talk about gross, which is a different thing entirely)?

This is great to see, it's refreshing to see a billion dollar company who's spent less than £5 billion on gaming dominate one of the world's richest corporations (trillions) who have spent over £80 billion on some of the biggest devs and publishers around. Goes to show money can't buy you everything, passion, hard work, great marketing and actual talent get you far in this industry, not just trying to buy your way to the top.

@Sakai Not really, it may be part of the ecosystem but if it's not profitable and is constantly eating into the profits of their other revenue streams then it would make perfect sense to abandon it.

@IOI That was obviously a joke I was winding bpomper up, lol. 👍🏻

@MrMagic When people purchase something on Xbox, they make 30% on everything (Not just games they made)

Losing the console would lose them a lot of money, and could possibly make them not profitable, which is the opposite of what you are saying

Just because they have sold less consoles than Sony, does not mean they cannot make a profit, hardware is usually sold at a loss for a start

(Edit: I see mightyant has already mentioned the exact same thing to you - sorry for double posting)

@GamingFan4Lyf Did you even see that fable trailer? It's not going to be a good game.

@Old-Red Sony is not going to turn away their best selling game on their console. They make Billions from COD. That would hurt them to fund other studios and overhead costs. Sony isn’t in a great financial position to leave money on the table. There’s 0.00% chance they do that. Sony is interested in money not FU’s to competition to make internet headlines.

Sony could not release a single first party game ever again and people would still buy the console

@DonaldMcRonald I mean, I don't think there is really anything Microsoft can do about that. Perhaps Microsoft just doesn't make the games you like anymore - and that's okay.

I don't think, however, that's any reflection on Microsoft's quality, though.

Personally, I don't want to see Microsoft do exactly what Sony does - make cinematic third-person action games (I have a PS5 for that) - I like having variety.

@XenonKnight I did and I didn't see anything wrong with it - I mean it didn't show much gameplay so it's hard to tell how the game will turn out.

But if Microsoft made the game in the style of something like "The Office", it would be a very unique presentation for story-telling.

@UltimateOtaku91 we don’t know what the future looks like for either Sony or MS. Everyone expected a 1000% sales increase for Xbox when the ink hit the paper to buy ABK? The deal hasn’t even taken shape yet. We don’t even have COD on GP yet, Blizzards new IP, nor any of the other titles. Same can be said for Bethesda, we still don’t have much from what that strategy looks like. Xbox wet the bed with Xbox one, they knew coming into this gen they would have to slowly win back gamers interest and trust. This is a long game plan to get back to being competitive with PS. It isn’t going to happen overnight. I love my Series X and PS5 and want them both to do well. Competition in the console space is good. Especially since it looks like PC and Mobile could be the future of gaming more and more as it’s making studios the most money these days and not the console.

Ppl aren't gonna like this but it's the truth
Those who say Microsoft has nothing ....let's think long business term they make loads of money from cod /Bethesda /mobile games /licensing of characters like spyro crash etc and it's only been a few years since they acquired Bethesda and a matter of weeks since acti they are playing the long game they have income for many many years to come ...long term what has Sony got ? Thier big acquisition was bungie which ain't doing. Too well already and short term they shove out remasters cause it's a cash cow , the factions is where after so many years ???? Honestly from a business point of view Sony are short term and Xbox is long term , even if consoles died out tomorrow where does that leave Sony ? Bring out the last of us big moustache edition?.

It's the smart move by Microsoft

And to add to that Sony don't own the ip of one of their biggest hits ( Spiderman ) and before ppl say yes that do no they don't it's the movie rights they OWN the game rights are on license

Microsoft now own spyro/crash etc etc and the other ips ,Sony has spent too long rentjng the ips to be Sony exclusives over the years they been too busy in thinking yeh a one off payment to rent the milk instead of thinking we should buy the cow

@DonaldMcRonald of course there's a reason. Talent

Love my PS5 - it gets used daily, whereas the Series X (only got for Starfield) is barely on. That said, I am a little concerned about the next 12-18 months from a 1st party point of view. Not a lot of clarity on when each studio will be dropping something new, and while will get the upgrade for Last of Us part 2 remastered, would like even just a peak at what’s coming next.

Will be more meaningful next year with a year of stats based on a readily available system. Not to say this isnt impressive, but stock shortages last year have had a significant influence on these figures.

Granted this months sales are going to be insane. Sony is pushing PS5 stock HARD for black friday and has been for over a month to clear out all the old stock of 'fat' PS5's. That - combined with Spiderman 2 - are going to result in silly sales numbers

@IOI Nintendo can say what they want, actions speak louder than words.

They refuse to put their games on other systems including PlayStation, which is 100% proof that they see them as competition, otherwise they wouldn't have anything against putting Mario, Zelda, Metroid or even Golden Sun, Fire Emblem and Xenoblade on PlayStation, just like Sony is fine now in putting their games on PC.

PlayStation has definitely had a stronger slate of 1st party titles but not to the extent that it should lead to such a gap in hardware sales. I really find it bizarre.

I do however think that Microsoft will stick with its own hardware for as long as Sony do. The time of the dedicated home console is fading fast for all manufacturers and they'll all be 3rd parties in a generation or so.

I feel like with starfield being a huge letdown, and Spider-Man 2 being a huge hit has had a great impact

@colonelkilgore I do laugh at those daft Xbox tax comments, if anything there is a Sony tax because whenever I see a deal for an Xbox game the PS4/5 version is invariably more expensive.

Is it really that surprising, PlayStation is the best. Meanwhile Xbox is circling the bowl again, one day they'll be flushed down the hole of crap

Apologies I couldn't help myself

Xbox lost hands down another generation even though Series X is a solid offering. If it was any other company they would run out of business but they got Microsoft backing them. So will they have another chance next gen with Diablo and Call of Duty on gamepass

@Old-Red Or Turn to EA And Replace Cod with Battlefield.

@CaptD Yeah publisher's drop the price quicker on Xbox because they don't sell.

I see this news as a reflection of Microsoft's current business direction. With Sony, they're still focusing attentions toward the PS5, with a trickle of 1st party games being ported to PC. Microsoft are the opposite - they have Game Pass PC, and with that they're actively giving gamers the option to play the games on PC instead, while pulling in more revenue from Game Pass.

Sony are focusing on selling consoles with games. Microsoft are focusing on selling a service across multiple platforms, at the sacrifice of console sales.

@Lorcan it's been proven over and over again that, despite what some loud people online say, the average gamer doesn't care about older games. They're mainly interested in new games. Several consoles have performed exceptionally well without BC, like wii, ps4 and switch.

@bpomber By healthy competition you mean trillion dollar company Microsoft continuing their studio buying spree because they don't see any other way to succeed, therefore turning more and more games into console exclusives which is always a detriment to players as a whole?

Yeah, no thanks. The sooner they throw in the towel the better. At least then I'll know that the third party games I love aren't going to get locked to Xbox.

@get2sammyb True, but you even said yourself that the results are startling.

I've said it in previous articles that Sony have reached an Apple level of brand loyalty at this point.

@__jamiie it's the same with iphones. They don't sell that well because the latest model is the absolute best, but because of how popular the brand is. People who buy playstation consoles know what to expect by now.

Time to get Starfield on PS5. Microsoft’s plan did not work.

@Martsmall it's not just about IPs but management and talent. Activision made Spider-man games for years that didn't sell lifetime as much as Insomniac games sell in a day.

That's an impressive tear Sony is on, but jeez do they look like they could be ripe to get knocked down. As great as Spiderman 2 is, 2023 as a whole has been light for first party. Now with Wolverine seemingly set for 2025, next year looks completely empty of first party single player games unless they announce and release something in the next 12 months. As far as I can tell, that's never even happened even within 18 months outside of new console launches. That would be a rough two year stretch.

Sony has certainly earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to first party output and Microsoft pretty much the opposite of that, but they could really make Sony look bad if their 2024 slate hits and there's no big surprise from Sony. And yes, this is like the 10th year in a row you could say something like that, so they'll probably just keep getting crushed.

@Areus ive always liked Battlefield more than cod. 3 and 4 were the highlights of the series for me. Alot better combat and gear upgrade system and a far better, rewarding system of incorporating squad based combat. If PS could get Battlefield exclusive to PS and take it back to the glory days its the nearest thing i can think of that could challenge COD or atleast fill that hole.

lol at all of these comments about Microsoft going third-party. Why would they? It's not like they're reliant on their gaming division at all. And who knows how the dynamics will shift if and when Microsoft is able to get their umbrella of first-party studios to start consistently turning out games?

I imagine MS will want at least a generation at full speed with its studios before it chooses to abandon its console hardware line.

Exclusive games are king. Microsoft has done everything they could to make them irrelevant and it has completely failed besides their most devoted worshippers on "Twitter" while Sony & Nintendo mop up the trillion dollar corporation off the backs of incredible exclusives.
They haven't delivered a legitimate, complete, well done, AAA banger since 2011's Gears of War 3. Their games are mediocre. They have unlimited funds, fantastic marketing, but their games are just not that good. It's that simple!
They still will not commit to the bit of making massive games that overdeliver, everything is a broken live service or small scale game. They need to put their $$$ where their mouth is or they will never compete again.

@bpomber the industry does need healthy competition, and I think the point some of us are trying to make is that we don't consider Xbox to be that. Or maybe it's just me, but it's the point I'm trying to make at least. Nintendo is the closest thing right now.

I've had all the xbox console, same as the Playstations and Nintendos.
I've liked the Xbox's but I've always loved the other 2.

Healthy competition lol. A company spending billions on well loved and established franchises solely to have them removed from rivals is anything but healthy.

@Balosi No, no. "Competition is good". It doesn't matter how much damage MS causes. Just accept that it's good, because blanket statements are always right.

@themightyant @Sakai Failing to sell Xbox's is basically failing to sell GamePass, it may be profitable at the moment but it's also mainly a GamePass and ad revenue stream box these days and now that's plateauing again already so if its actually constantly declining each gen while Pc, mobile and the revenue from other platforms grows then Microsoft will abandon it the first chance they get. 😁

I like having the option of owning 3 consoles and getting different types of games on all of them. I feel sorry for those that want to see other gaming platforms fail because it doesn't cater to their tastes. It's a selfish and poorly educated view.

Can’t even remember the last time I turned on my Series X. I’m keeping it (mostly cos I’ve got loads of digital games on my Xbox account and I sold the controller to fund an engraved Elite Design Lab one) but I can’t see myself getting the next one. Don’t like Microsoft putting all their eggs in a Game Pass shaped basket. The 360 days of quality new IP’s and genuine reasons to own both consoles are long gone.

@gollumb82
You are exactly the same as me with Xbox series x, great console but Xbox just have not given us the games over the last three years. Their big games you mentioned just did not bring it, especially for 2023. Xbox seem very consumer friendly and Sony a lot less.
I think if Xbox were closer to Sony console sales and game sales wise Sony would be a bit more consumer friendly.
They are the same in the tv market but don’t seem to care, it’s like it’s a Sony tv, deal with as it is or don’t buy it.

@OldGamer999
My thoughts exactly. MS did many things right this gen- a whisper quiet console, great features (smart delivery, quick resume, auto HDR, Dolby Atmos at launch, great backward compatibility to name a few) but they forgot that games sell consoles. Not the other way around. That’s why I bought the godawful PS4 PRO which I can still hear in my nightmares. I don’t root for any platform holder but I really hope when next gen starts MS will go in guns blazing. All those studios have to amount to something, right?

When are we going to start listening to what the same names keep trying to tell us. You don't need an Xbox to play their games anymore.

Why would you pick up a cheap Series S when you can play AAA games on a 5" mobile phone screen, or a more expensive tablet, or a newer Samsung TV with potentially horrible latency and input lag on all of these options. You could also just buy a PC for 4 or 5x the price, or build one yourself similar to the price of the S that might catch fire on ultra low settings for everything other than streaming.

There are so many options available now to experience gaming in an inferior way, compared to the age old tradition of grabbing an easy low price solution in one box and plugging it in to your tv.

Just because almost every comment is ragging on Xbox. I will just say I love my Series X. There are plenty of great games on it. I personally love Starfield, Forza Horizon 5, Hi-Fi Rush, etc. To say it has no games is incredibly disingenuous, but this is a PlayStation site so what can you expect.

I also love my PlayStation 5 too but the amount of negativity towards Xbox on this site is out of hand. I do play my Series X more just because of all the day one releases on GamePass.

I’m glad Xbox is failing just because Microsoft is a company that love monopoly’s.

Microsoft not fussed about Console sales, subscribes. I visited Samsung Training center back 2018 - 2019, that was future selling point of Cloud Gaming and TVs. I doubt Microsoft will built next gen console just on this premium alone.

Why doesn't this site focus on Sony and start asking questions where are first Party?

Sucker Punch next IP
Stella Blade
Rise of the Ronin
Astro bots
Etc

We need dates so we can get excited .

Healthy competition is always nice but I am going to be sincere and admit I am glad to see Xbox’s “let’s spend Sony out of business” plan is not working out at all.

Their marketing team has been super
annoying and I find Phil Spencer unbearably slimy

@gollumb82
If things carry on going as they for Xbox or get worse, I would be little surprised if Xbox released a console next generation, there maybe no profitable point and third party maybe the way to go with all the studios they own now.

@BorntobeGeek75
Yes I would like to know apart from Last of us 2 remaster what Sony first party studios are giving us next year.
By now we normally have had a gameplay demo and release date of a new big AAA game.

I'm honestly not surprised, MS thought they could get a fat market share by going the Netflix route and it isn't working because you need to output good IPs in order for it work.

Good as in an IP that isn't USA-centric, that can pack some marketing punch and that isn't niche.
So far this year they released Hi-Fi Rush, Redfall and Starfield, they were so ashamed of Hi-Fi Rush they did a "stealth drop", I don't even need to mention the disaster that was Redfall and Starfield didn't quite hit the mark with its 20 year old gameplay.

@CielloArc They were so ashamed of Hi-Fi Rush that they stealth dropped it?!? Sure, that’s why it’s one of the most highly rated games of the year. It has an 89 on OpenCritic.

I owned an Xbox series X for over a year. I only have one current gen only game for it. I’ve mainly used it to play 360 games. the user interface keeps getting worse and worse. i’m not surprised that Microsoft is struggling.

@ShogunRok That's expected if you think of a fact that Microsoft release all the games for Windows anyway, removing the need for many people to by a dedicated console.

@Martsmall There is no long game it's just throw ***** at a wall and hope it sticks.

@Nem You're acting like you can play cyberpunk on a Nintendo 😂 Nintendo is a console for kids, they make games for kids and the switch is weak in what way would they be a substitute to Xbox in the market?

It's fine, Xbox tried and after 21 years they still aren't able to produce great games so it's time to go.
I hope Nintendo will go next level with their hardware and be a huge contented to PlayStation. Their own portfolio of games is vast but third party titles needs such a huge downgrade it doesn't function as a stand alone console (for me). It's also healthy for competition.

@bpomber Of course it creates less competition but will it create better competition? Cause i think it would as i said. I think the consumer would greatly benefit with a renewed focus on games rather than hardware, which is what would happen as Nintendo doesn't care about chasing power over profitability, which would force Sony to adopt a similar stance to compete in price.
Hardware would get cheaper/more affordable and there would likely be a higher selection of games on both consoles. Sounds like a win for consumers to me.

@IOI Just cause Nintendo wants to say it doesn't make it true. See you can define a market anything you want, but we all know that if you are selling consoles and games you are in the videogame market.
Nintendo wants to define their market something like "family living room entertainment". Then they can see themselves in a monopoly. It doesn't mean reality is that. The people that buy a playstation likely are the same ones that would also buy a nintendo console they 100% are competitors.
Microsoft adds nothing good to the market, let's be honest. All they did was make it worse.
Sony and Nintendo will compete for those consumers, you can be sure of that. With games, rather than a high tech race like Sony and Xbox do.
Actually, they already were before Xbox joined the market. Short memories.

@JSnow2 Gears of war 3 was garbage so i don't think people should be trusting you on this if that's what you define as a "banger" it's literally the weakest gears of war game after 4

@Deityjester Deary me. See, the problem is you can only think in terms of the right now. That's not how you think in business.
Otherwise you would understand that without the pressure of Microsoft, Sony would not have to create such powerful and pricy systems. They would create less poweful and cheaper ones to compete with Nintendo, who are now the main competition. You would have parity again.
Just like they had with the Playstation and N64 days. I know... probably before your time.
3rd parties would develop for both systems and they will round the games down to the least powerful and more successful system. For example as one could've seen on the PS2 era.

Yes, i'm sure your personal bias is very representative.
Not only do i think they would compete as i think Nintendo would likely end up with the bigger share.🤷 But, it sure would be more interesting than what we got now, which is more a hardware race with fewer games due to rising development costs.

@Nem They aren't ever gonna be competing, again they make gimmick systems WiU was a failure and switch has been superseded by the steam deck.

Don't talk about thinking in business because i guarantee you were one of the ones who thought Microsoft would make call of duty exclusive and you are saying pressure of Microsoft what pressure? According to this article there is none.

Sony downgrading for Nintendo is such a fanboy cope, if they did that it'd be first party games only for sony because no way the likes of CDPR would sacrifice ambitious titles on pc just so they would work on a console that can't even run full versions of games, MK11 on switch for example isn't even the full game where are the xrays?

It baffles me that the PS5 is doing as well as it is. For all the issues Xbox has In regards to software, let’s be honest Sony isn’t exactly doing much better. The amount of big exclusives coming out have slowed to a trickle in recent years. Feels like people are just going to PlayStation because they got a PS4 and that’s what they’re used to. Really hope both companies get their act together so we can get more games coming out.

@Jireland92 just this year ff16 (best ff since 12 by critics, only ps5) Spider-Man 2 (only ps5) psvr2 with lot of games (only ps5) and PlayStation portal( something new liked it or not) and the best game of the year BG3, exclusive for months just because Xboxs is a piece of 💩

@BorntobeGeek75 you have ff7, a February release, and we will now something new before that, this is how it works now, by the way, where are the dates for Xbox and Nintendo exclusives ?

I can only reflect that I'm one of the many who prefer gaming on PS despite owning all the consoles. I prefer the OS and relative lack of advertising, the much better controllers, the store, trophies vs achievements - theres lots of little reasons which all add up to a bigger preference.
I have and have enjoyed using a series X, but I pretty much use it only for Game pass games to save me money buying them on PS.
Last week, I let my GP ultimate sub lapse for the first time since Game Pass came out. Its still great value, but I have a lot of games to play already elsewhere, and in my case I'm stuggling to pay xbox any more money now that all those disgusting frat boy managers are part of team green. I've bouycotted ABK games since their disgusting behaviours came to light, so how can I support the very same mangement teams just because MS now pays the wage bill? Unless or untill I can see some drastic changes to the management of these studios, I might be done with Xbox for good, for the first time since the original Xbox, and this doesnt make me happy.
I too believe that the industry needs good stiff competition, and I'd rather see a strong Xbox, but they simply lie and over-promise on their games which are almost always of lower quality than the best of playstation - Starfield for instance is like going back to the dark ages in terms of accessability, and MS seem to have no idea how to properly QA a product.
I'd like to believe that now they have bought such a significant chuck of the industry they will change their old behaviours, but other than a little shuffle at the boardroom, it seems they will let these studios flounder with little to no corporate oversight and little consistancy of vision. There are some good teams there, so you can get suprises like hifi rush, but thats happening DESPITE MS ownership, not because of it.

I hope we see better dev oversight and proper changes for the future, because I still beleive the gaming market is better with a strong Xbox. But Phil was clearly correct when he admitted 'we have lost this generation already' earlier this year. These results are simply confirming what he has already stated.

@Tidus_g Nintendo are in the process of switching console so games are in development for new console. Pretty basic common sense, I couldn't give a crap about Xbox, yes I have Series S for gamepass but have actually cancelled because of lack first party and news on them, I expect better from Sony considering they already showed footage of Stella Blade with 2923 release, What's happened?? I didn't buy and spend £470 on the 4 exclusives thus far for that. I want soild information on dates and trailers. Yes Final Fantasy VII remake part two coming but that's square, where are Sony first party?? If no Showcase before the year is out am going to be pissed!"

By the way I used to work in marketing - technology, you don't treat your customers like this, you have constantly give them information so they have clearer view and know pursue wasn't just for the sake of it.

@themightyant Hi mate.
Almost always agree with your well reasoned logic, however I do have a point you dont appear to be considering?
Several documents came to light from Microsoft setting out their buisness goals and stating they will abandon the market if they dont meet these objectives. I'm sure you will remember these so I wont bother finding the links.

Its not a huge jump for people to belive these internal MS documents and believe that this level of getting 'owned' in terms of sales might result in them dropping it all when MS themselves have stated something very similar?
There's every indication that Game Pass take up has been significantly below what they wanted and expected too, and this was one of the clear indicators they discussed.

Just saying its not unreasonable for people to give these reports some creedance. I believe they were over-stated and xbox isnt going anywhere, but at face value, you could read it the other way?

@Tidus_g 2 games? That’s it just 2? Here’s the the ring, of the games you mentioned only one Spider-Man 2, is a true exclusive. The other 2 are on, or will be on PC. Which raises the issue of why even buy a console when everything on it will eventually come to PC anyway. At this point the only reason to buy consoles is brand loyalty.

@themightyant Thanks for the response. Were I an accountant I would analyse where they just hid that 70 billiion in order to show the games segment in such a positive light. The real corporate overlords will have their own unreleased figures and will want to see some pretty spectacular income to offset that cost I'm sure!
I'm not going anywhere so it will be interesting to see

@BorntobeGeek75 Sony usually announces stuff at the Game Awards which is only 15 days away. Though given all signs are pointing towards GTA6 being at the event, I feel Sony doing their own event away from the GTA6 reveal would have the bigger impact.

Well-deserved success!
Don't worry. When Microsoft reports their fiscal results, their gaming revenue will be up significantly (as they disguise the addition of ABK's revenue as their own, just as they did with Bethesda).

The thing Xbox didn't want regulators to think about is releasing all their games on PC day 1 would dramatically reduce demand for Xboxes and it was their decision to do that since they almost have a MONOPOLY on PC gaming. It was their own decision. They can get more software sales that way, but lose out on some of the revenue for their games they sell and all the revenue for games not being sold on an Xbox consumers don't have. Game Pass further tanks game sales, which exacerbates the problem, and was, again, their decision. When you don't have to make smart decisions because Windows, Office, and Azure will buy you a new publisher to bail you out every couple of years, this is what happens. They get no sympathy from me.

Although I would maintain that it's been a weak first couple of years as compared to PS3 and PS4, Xbox Series consoles are definitely much more towards wasted potential than the PS5, which still has tent pole gems like Returnal, Ragnarok and Spider-Man 2 propping up the library, and the near-flawless PS4 title support is a huge boon too, especially those that got free or very cheap PS5 upgrades to visuals and/or performance.

Meh, is Xbox still exist? It's the second generation without Xbox for me and I didn't even feel that I skip something.

@gollumb82 X is a great console, S just confuses the picture and complicates the development of games.

Microsoft would be crazy to go for the same strategy again next generation. People and developers like consoles because they are simple, one platform, one set of hardware, one controller.

Right now I think the only thing that might turn the tide for Microsoft, is Microsoft going to take-two with a check book an asking how much money is it going to take to get us a 18 months exclusivity for GTA6, I doubt Microsoft would get much change from 2 billion but that the only strategy I think might actually turn the tide and put Microsoft in any kind of shape to win the next gen.

@TheCollector316 How long before Microsoft is only release games on their own store on the PC and cutting out Epic and Valve.

@Jireland92 Because to get the games to play at the same fidelity as PS5/X reliably you would need to spend about twice to three times the money on a brand new PC. An even then as we saw with Ratchet & Clank, it won't necessarily play the same way.

@knowles2
That depends on how badly regulators continue to fail at their jobs. If they can keep buying publishers under the guise of creating competition and choice, they'll eventually own enough they can totally remove the choice and get away with it.

As mentioned before, the PS5 is such a nice design. Most people don't want to show off a brick console.

@Deityjester No, Sony wouldn't make weaker systems just cause they want. In a 2 system market where Nintendo sells way more consoles due to lower price it will naturally lead to third parties prioritising it, leaving Sony with an overpriced system with marginally better ports.
That is why they would have to match price (which therefore means not way more powerful) to outsell them.

@bpomber I see the supposed demise of XBOX hardware as bad for consumers as well. But Microsoft are not really helping their case, are they? I own an XSX I bought to play Halo Infinite, but it was a huge disappointment for me. So I stopped using it waiting for Starfield. But then they announced it would be only 30FPS on XSX, so I skipped it entirely. The bulk of my games are on PS and I prefer the DS, so I play all 3rd party stuff there. I literally have no reason right now to own an XBOX as I don’t care about GP either.

Microsoft should have pumped some of that money they spent on ABK into developing amazing 1st party experiences, but they didn’t.

I sincerely hope they’ll stick around. I really don’t like Microsoft, I think it’s a terrible company, way worse than Sony. But some competition is better than no competition. Choice is better than no choice. Etc.

My very personal opinion, of course. Nothing more.

Cheers mate and happy gaming.