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[RetroGamingUK]

The Console Wars Are Over And Nobody Really Won

Nintendo moved on, Xbox gave up, and Sony is left fighting nobody

kotaku.com

The conflict has ended. In 2025, it’s all over. You might have missed that because it all didn’t end in a spectacular victory. Instead, the console wars fizzled out for various reasons.

Internally, before its 2001 launch, the original Xbox was referred to as Project Midway. This was a crass reference to WW2's Battle of Midway. During that battle, American forces decisively defeated Japan’s navy. The name clearly indicated that Microsoft wanted to enter into a video game console war with Nintendo and Sony, and it wanted to win. And for years, Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo battled each other.

But now, in 2025, Microsoft was willing to give away one of its crown jewels—Forza—to Sony and PlayStation. It’s part of a trend of Xbox making more of its games multiplatform following its purchase of Activision. And rumors are swirling that even more Xbox games and franchises will make the leap to PlayStation and Switch. The Master Chief Collection is likely to arrive on other platformssooner than later, according to insiders, as is a rumored (but unconfirmed) Gears of Wartrilogy collection. Insiders are also claiming that Fable and Starfield will be making the leap to PlayStation 5 and Switch 2.

 

[DenchDeckard]

I do love that the ABK acquisition completely blew up in their face and ultimately destroyed the xbox brand.

 

[Cakeboxer]

Pc is the obvious answer.

 

[Killjoy-NL]

Team Blue:

 

[ValiantInstance]

I do love that the ABK acquisition completely blew up in their face and ultimately destroyed the xbox brand.

Game Pass is the brand now.

That said if they ever give up on it, which is plausible as subscription growth isn't as strong as they'd hoped, I fully expect them to do a total 180 and go back to console exclusives maybe even with delayed relase on PC.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Yeah, it's pretty clear that Sony "won."

What the ramifications of that will be we won't know for probably a few more years.

People spent 35 years on console wars, but at the end of the day gamers aren't going to win anything.

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Pc is the obvious answer.

Surely the opposite is now the case

PC benefited from Xbox games launching on PC day one.

Now that PS5 and Switch 2 will be getting those games that advantage has been lost.

If anything, this is as much a blow to PC as Xbox.

 

[T-0800]

I know who didn't win.

 

[Eimran]

Playstation fans lost. Last thing we want is arrogant Sony without competition.

 

[yogaflame]

I though Sony Ps5 was the worse in the last neogaf survey? Now its winning

 

[SJRB]

I love how some people talk about the "Console wars" as if it's still 2008 and they're in the trenches fighting off commies.

"The conflict has ended" lmao

 

[MMaRsu]

I though Sony Ps5 was the worse in the last neogaf survey? Now its winning

Sony winning is as much a loss to consumers everywhere , because their arrogance knows no bounds

 

[Senua]

Surely the opposite is now the case

PC benefited from Xbox games launching on PC day one.

Now that PS5 and Switch 2 will be getting those games that advantage has been lost.

If anything, this is as much a blow to PC as Xbox.

Whatever helps you sleep at night

 

[rickybooby87]

And now my watch has ended.

 

[MMaRsu]

Also Kotaku lol do ppl still visit that shit?

 

[Gaiff]

I do love that the ABK acquisition completely blew up in their face and ultimately destroyed the xbox brand.

It was destroyed long before that.

 

[Gaiff]

Surely the opposite is now the case

PC benefited from Xbox games launching on PC day one.

Now that PS5 and Switch 2 will be getting those games that advantage has been lost.

If anything, this is as much a blow to PC as Xbox.

PC benefited how lol? 90% of Xbox games are trash. You have a handful of standouts like Forza, but if Xbox games weren’t a draw on Xbox, why would they be a draw on PC?

Silly post.

 

[DenchDeckard]

It was destroyed long before that.

Yeah, but we got all the emails and stuff that leaked and really damaged the brand exposing their shady communication. Plus the 70 billion made papa satya change course.

 

[Darchaos]

Hi mom, i won the great console war

 

[LectureMaster]

I really hope the competition stays.

Look at Nvidia, look at PS5 Pro pricing. No matter which company wins, consumers are the lost side.

 

[IDKFA]

Microsoft are winning, right? They'll now be the biggest publisher in the world.

I don't see how this isn't a win for Microsoft, Nintendo and PlayStation. The only people hurt by this are the rabid Xbox fans.

 

[RaZoR No1]

Nintendo won

 

[SpokkX]

Nintendo and Steam won

Playstation has taken a beating - they have lost their identity.

Xbox just lost

 

[SweetTooth]

Who is out?
-Xbox

Xbox was competing "directly" with what brand?
-Playstation

So the winner is SONY.

Any other choice is wrong. We are talking about Xbox here.

 

[DenchDeckard]

Nintendo and Steam won

Playstation has taken a beating - they have lost their identity.

Xbox just lost

Playstation is selling lots of consoles. They trail ps4 worldwide but in the USA they are ahead.

I agree on their games though. Not enough and too much mediocrity for my liking.

 

[SweetTooth]

Nintendo and Steam won

Playstation has taken a beating - they have lost their identity.

Xbox just lost

Thats just your feelings talking, use your brain next time .

Its OK, after Xbox death you can always go to PC, or explore your manchild self with a Nintendo console ... Or join the winning side in Playstation

 

[drganon]

Now that it's "over", can kotaku do us all a favor and shut down.

 

[Mr Moose]

because it all didn’t end in a spectacular victory

Huh? Yes it did.

 

[SweetTooth]

Huh? Yes it did.

Better than everything imagined, didn't expect Halo, Gears,Forza this soon

 

[jm89]

Sony won back in 2014.

People to salty to admit it.

 

[RoadHazard]

Financially I'm pretty sure Nintendo won?

 

[Mibu no ookami]

PC benefited how lol? 90% of Xbox games are trash. You have a handful of standouts like Forza, but if Xbox games weren’t a draw on Xbox, why would they be a draw on PC?

Silly post.

I think people see it as PC winning because all games (except for Nintendo) generally end up there.

Personally, I just don't see PC as even part of the conversation really.

To get a console equivalent PC you're spending big money, more than on a console. You don't have to pay for online and the games can be significantly cheaper, but the ports are usually never as consistent as on console. PC has few true exclusives that would make console gamers envious. People are still talking about Half Life Alyx that came out 5 years ago. Then there's the constant troubleshooting.

PC gamers like to pretend like everyone has a 4090, but the reality is the average PC gamer has a build weaker than the XSX/PS5 and ports while significantly better than 10-20 years ago are still largely trash.

At the end of the day if someone prefers PC over console or console over PC, it's whatever, but the idea that PC is winning over console is just misguided.

I think you'll definitely see a lot of Xbox consumers say that they'll jump to PC (and many will) just to save face as their hatred for Sony is paramount. Sony's getting at least a third of that userbase moving forward.

 

[Sebastian1295]

The activision/blizzard deal didn't destroy xbox. Gamepass is what destroyed xbox and it devalued the brand and the exclusives of the brand so much that it ultimately sunk them. They moved away from what made them successful in the 360 era which was exclusive japanese games and exclusive games in general, innovation in terms of a controller and a U.I, and the aggressiveness that they used to have to compete against sony. As soon as phil spencer announced to the world that gamepass was coming to xbox the brand as we know it died because it started them up this journey of having to buy publishers and studios nonstop to feed the gamepass monster.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Sony won back in 2014.

People to salty to admit it.

I'd say 2013, but sure.

 

[V1LÆM]

nobody won except the multi billion $ companies (or in MS case trillion)

everyone wanted sony to win but ultimately the players lost.

 

[DeltaPolarBear]

Yeah, it's pretty clear that Sony "won."

What the ramifications of that will be we won't know for probably a few more years.

People spent 35 years on console wars, but at the end of the day gamers aren't going to win anything.

I remember what happened last time a console war was won; it allowed the Birth of Xbox.

Sega lost. And because of that Xbox was born.

Don't ever let anyone tell you it was pointless. The point is that there has to be a winner and a loser, and there will be new competition one day.

 

[Badlucktroll]

i’m sure everyone will be pleased when apple takes microsofts seat at the table and rips everyone a new asshole

 

[Gaiff]

I think people see it as PC winning because all games (except for Nintendo) generally end up there.

Personally, I just don't see PC as even part of the conversation really.

To get a console equivalent PC you're spending big money, more than on a console. You don't have to pay for online and the games can be significantly cheaper, but the ports are usually never as consistent as on console. PC has few true exclusives that would make console gamers envious. People are still talking about Half Life Alyx that came out 5 years ago. Then there's the constant troubleshooting.

PC gamers like to pretend like everyone has a 4090, but the reality is the average PC gamer has a build weaker than the XSX/PS5 and ports while significantly better than 10-20 years ago are still largely trash.

At the end of the day if someone prefers PC over console or console over PC, it's whatever, but the idea that PC is winning over console is just misguided.

I think you'll definitely see a lot of Xbox consumers say that they'll jump to PC (and many will) just to save face as their hatred for Sony is paramount. Sony's getting at least a third of that userbase moving forward.

Always was misguided. I have both and have been gaming on consoles and PC for about 13 years and never felt like one really replaced the other. The simplicity of consoles cannot be overstated and while I think the troubleshooting part with PC is overblown, I find myself running into issues a handful of times a year. This isn't much, but I can count the problems I've had with consoles in my entire life on one hand. However, on the flip side, PC affords me a kind of flexibility I simply don't have with consoles.

Judging by how they seem to coexist, it seems most gamers share that sentiment. Steam has grown enormously over the past decade, yet it didn't seem to slow down consoles at all. I've almost never seen anyone debate between a console or PC outside of enthusiast forums. It was always Xbox or PS and in rarer cases, Nintendo.

I'm a big enthusiast though, so I need both. Most people are probably fine with just one.

 

[hinch7]

Pc is the obvious answer.

It only took Microsoft 23 years to figure that out.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Financially I'm pretty sure Nintendo won?

Ultimately we'll see how this plays out. Nintendo and Sony are at two separate points in their product life cycles. And Sony has beaten its chief rival.

Sony is also going to put on a handheld which will presumably increase their profitability and likely decrease some of Nintendo's.

It'll be interesting to see which of the two is more profitable in say 2-4 years. We're going to see what the margins presumably are on the Switch 2 in a couple of months and we're going to see how profitable Sony is with the PS5 and PS5 Pro with GTA6's release if Xbox is unavailable at retail and Sony doesn't drop the price of the PS5 before GTA releases.

Next fiscal year alone, I could envision Sony selling at least 15 million units at say an average profit of 50 dollars per unit. That's 750 million dollars on hardware sales alone. Assuming GTA6 sells 25 million units on PS5 this fiscal year alone and they don't have a special deal with lower royalties, you're looking at at least (assuming a 70 dollar price point), you're looking at 525 million. That's 1.275 billion in additional revenue compared to previous years where they might have sold units at a loss and no GTA6. You're still going to have Madden and CoD e.t.c.

I would not be surprised if Sony makes more than Nintendo this year.

 

[Sephimoth]

KotaWHO?

Now that Microsoft is third party, I hope some other player enters to kickstart competition. Apple?

 

[Bernardougf]

I'll wait and see if this poll results align with my inner fanboy/shill opinion so I can A support or B criticize my fellow neogaf users.

 

[hinch7]

KotaWHO?

Now that Microsoft is third party, I hope some other player enters to kickstart competition. Apple?

Valve, but I doubt they'd be interested in competing in huge volumes. They already have an ecosystem and OS (SteamOS) geared towards Linux PC's and console I guess.

 

[ShaiKhulud1989]

PC gamers are taking a hard L with current GPU circus, so Sony and to a lesser extent Nintendo are the main beneficiaries here.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

The chuds won.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

Always was misguided. I have both and have been gaming on consoles and PC for about 13 years and never felt like one really replaced the other. The simplicity of consoles cannot be overstated and while I think the troubleshooting part with PC is overblown, I find myself running into issues a handful of times a year. This isn't much, but I can count the problems I've had with consoles in my entire life on one hand. However, on the flip side, PC affords me a kind of flexibility I simply don't have with consoles.

Judging by how they seem to coexist, it seems most gamers share that sentiment. Steam has grown enormously over the past decade, yet it didn't seem to slow down consoles at all. I've almost never seen anyone debate between a console or PC outside of enthusiast forums. It was always Xbox or PS and in rarer cases, Nintendo.

I'm a big enthusiast though, so I need both. Most people are probably fine with just one.

Great post.

I do think a lot of the growth in PC in the last few years is a result of online streamers via youtube and twitch and because of discord.

It'll be interesting to see how these fare with GTA6 being console exclusive and for how long it'll be console exclusive.

It makes sense for streamers to PC dominant. The games are cheaper on PC and it's easier to stream via PC than it is console and many of these streamers probably do have top end builds and now their digital libraries are filled with PC games. It's a reason why games like Astro Bot probably didn't sell better, but with GTA6, no one has a choice.

If GTA6 does come out this year, I wouldn't be surprised if PS5 sold 25 million units, especially in Europe. I think this year is going to be a big year for consoles with GTA6 and Switch 2 (Hybrid).

 

[Mibu no ookami]

KotaWHO?

Now that Microsoft is third party, I hope some other player enters to kickstart competition. Apple?

It's possible, I don't really see it though.

Apple would be starting out from square one. We haven't really seen this uptick of game development on their M series chips either. Maybe that changes with an Apple TV Pro and an expansion of Apple Arcade.

I think people ignore how high the barriers of entry are here. Microsoft failed not because they didn't try, but because this shit is hard.

You might see something out of china from Tencent, but I think that would struggle to gain traction globally. Hell, it might struggle in China too, since they're so heavy into PC and I don't think you'd get any western support for it.

Microsoft really should have tried partnering with Sega and Samsung over the years.

The one thing I'll say is that as a media player, Apple TV is so much better than PS5 and it isn't even close. So, I do think that could play to Apple's advantage on top of if they can get people to make games for it and have those games work on laptops and phones.

 

[ArtHands]

Idk, PC has already won for years so they are kind of late about this.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

I remember what happened last time a console war was won; it allowed the Birth of Xbox.

Sega lost. And because of that Xbox was born.

Don't ever let anyone tell you it was pointless. The point is that there has to be a winner and a loser, and there will be new competition one day.

I don't think Microsoft was an improvement over Sega.

I think Xbox Live was really the only major contribution Microsoft has made to gaming and Sony caught up to it in a generation.

I think console gaming would have been better off without online gaming and without GaaS, but that's just my opinion.

 

[Badlucktroll]

For all we know sony will just have AAA and gaas problems and microsoft will become the main publisher on playstation with elder scrolls and forza call of duty and shit