When it comes to the “console war –” though I’m not even sure we should be calling it that anymore –. It only makes sense, on a technical level. The Xbox One and PS4, despite OS and hardware differences, are hugely similar machines. Players use them for basically the same things, play mostly the same games on them, and the majority of gamers wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the two of them in a blind test based on anything but the controller. And so it would make sense that we focus on the most important difference between the two: the few games that still only come out on either Xbox One or Ps4.
Microsoft has the exclusive advantage this holiday season — Sony’s lineup is a little thin, and Microsoft is coming out with Rise of The Tomb Raider and its big hitter, Halo 5. But does that really matter? Most of the biggest games of the year are coming out on both platforms, just like they usually do. Halo 5 is big news, but so is Fallout 4, so is Call of Duty Black Ops 3, so is Star Wars: Battlefront. The modern console industry is a story of third-party blockbusters punctuated by some high-quality exclusives. One platform tends to gain advantages here and there — the PS3 came out way ahead at the end of last generation, the Xbox One is doing well this holiday season, the PS4 will pick it back it up with Uncharted 4— and all in all, things tend to come out in the wash.
Exclusives, in an odd way, can be great for the industry overall. In the worst case, they unnecessarily segment the market and block gamers off. PS4 players might be irritated they don’t get to play Rise of The Tomb Raider in 2015, but Square Enix has indicated that it might not have happened at all without Microsoft’s support. Same goes for Sony titles. Would we be watching Dark Souls 3 trailers now if Demon’s Souls hadn’t had Sony’s support in the past? As Sony has proven repeatedly in the past, platform holders can be a huge help to indie developers.
It amounts to something of an arms race: neither side can stop making/sponsoring exclusives, but I don’t think either Microsoft or Sony is gaining a huge advantage right now. We’re all familiar with the old Nintendo mantra: “software sells hardware.” In the case of Nintendo, I think that’s actually true, but that’s only because Nintendo owns some of the most beloved franchises in video games, and you simply can’t play those games anywhere besides Nintendo consoles. Sony and Microsoft took a different tack a long time ago. Its true that software sells hardware, but by and large that software is made by third-party developers for multiple platforms.
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