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Kotaku: The Console Wars Are Over And Nobody Really Won

Who really won?


  • Total voters
    432

TxKnight7

Member
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.
H8rr51t.jpeg
 

Topher

Identifies as young
If you totally ignore Nintendo, then sure, nobody won lol.

If you totally ignore Nintendo then Sony won. If you totally ignore Sony then Nintendo won.

If you consider Sony and Nintendo to be in direct competition as much as Xbox vs PlayStation have been then the war is not over.
 
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Nintendo's business practices say a lot more about this subject than anything else.

But...

If there were ever a console war, Nintendo won it long ago.

They elevated portable gaming to its peak, fused handheld and home consoles into one, and left the competition struggling to stay relevant or imitate their success.

And, yes, Astrobot is solid. Props to Asobi, but let’s ask ourselves, would it be as celebrated if a new 3D Mario proper had dropped?
 

m14

Member
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.
Total revisionism, even aside from the fact it took Sony two generations to catch up in online gaming. Xbox Live launched in 2002.
PlayStation is in the position they are today because of the competition that Xbox has provided. Aside from the quality of Xbox Live at a time when Sony and Nintendo were generations behind in their online offerings, Xbox introduced gamertags, XBLA, downloadable DLC, Achievements / Trophies, x86 processor as standard, developer friendly hardware and software, a build in hard drive and even the DS4 was heavily influenced by the 360 controller. Many of the benefits that PS fans now enjoy were made standard or at least introduced first by Xbox. That is a matter of historical record.
Not to mention, how many Sony exclusives had launches which were actual events in the way the launches of Halo 2 and 3 were? Would COD have become what it did without the earlier success of Halo?
 

MacReady13

Member
Total revisionism, even aside from the fact it took Sony two generations to catch up in online gaming. Xbox Live launched in 2002.
PlayStation is in the position they are today because of the competition that Xbox has provided. Aside from the quality of Xbox Live at a time when Sony and Nintendo were generations behind in their online offerings, Xbox introduced gamertags, XBLA, downloadable DLC, Achievements / Trophies, x86 processor as standard, developer friendly hardware and software, a build in hard drive and even the DS4 was heavily influenced by the 360 controller. Many of the benefits that PS fans now enjoy were made standard or at least introduced first by Xbox. That is a matter of historical record.
Not to mention, how many Sony exclusives had launches which were actual events in the way the launches of Halo 2 and 3 were? Would COD have become what it did without the earlier success of Halo?
The OG Xbox and especially the 360 were legendary consoles, not only for their games but for what they did for console gaming. Microsoft done fucked up BIG time at the start of the Xbone launch. Why not just make an updated 360 instead of the monstrosity that was the Xbone?
 

SpokkX

Member
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 🤣
Xbox hardware is 100% pointless these days - a pc is just better in every single way

I would prefer ps5 to be more like ps2 - exclusive unique stuff. Now it is a low powered pc more or less - barely worth having with exclusives going to pc also

Still I kind of like the sony/xbox consoles becoming irrelevant personally since i only need a pc + nintendo to play pretty much all games
 

ZoukGalaxy

Member
Sony/Nintendo are clearly the "winners", they must be totally blind or it's just another pathetic childish clickbait.
 
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This part was surmised well by the author Zack -

While Sony was fighting the old-school console war—holding on to exclusive games tightly and trying to win people over with bigger, more expensive consoles—Xbox went and became one of the biggest third-party game publishers in the world, making millions of dollars via games sold on PlayStation consoles. And Nintendo has been outselling everyone by simply doing its own thing and not engaging in the war. Meanwhile, free-to-play games on phones are making more than all of them on devices that have never been connected to the console wars.
 
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Fafalada

Fafracer forever
This part was surmised well by the author Zack -
That's missing the part where all 3 of them have published(and/or own the publisher of) some of the biggest mobile IPs to ever exist. Not to mention most of the top revenue generators for past 10 years are all GaaS on console as well, but that's the part that Nintendo has embraced the least.

The neat partitioning of consoles away from GaaS, mobile and PC markets only exists in the console fandom itself.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Microsoft’s plan was to always be the provider of content…not the maker of hardware for that content.

Everything has gone according to their plan and now they have infinite “old content” to shovel down all of their player engagement verticals.

You don’t create an empire by owning the cow…you create your empire by marking sure you are the largest source that someone can meat or dairy products from.
 
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bitbydeath

Member
Valve does not have the capacity or infrastructure to come close to doing that. That information is well known.

The console space is highly volatile. It’s entirely possible nobody fills that space as it has high costs with low probability of success.
I did say “neither entering the console space”, Valve will be taking on Windows with Steam OS.
 

reinking

Gold Member
Microsoft’s plan was to always be the provider of content…not the maker of hardware for that content.

Everything has gone according to their plan and now they have infinite “old content” to shovel down all of their player engagement verticals.

You don’t create an empire by owning the cow…you create your empire by marking sure you are the largest source that someone can meat or dairy products from.
Mila Kunis Hot Ones GIF by First We Feast


Saying everything has gone according to plan is about as revisionist as it can get.
 

LordOcidax

Member
Nintendo is the only one that keeps their exclusives on their platform (Enough to declare Nintendo as a winner), have sold the most hardware last gen and still competing in this gen, have the highest scores games, highest selling first party titles, heck even have the only video game movie in the billion dollar club at the box office, the most recognizable character in the video game industry, themes parks and the most valuable entertainment brand in the world with Pokemon… And some people thinks that Sony won… Lololol.
HaFXfue.gif
 
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Microsoft’s plan was to always be the provider of content…not the maker of hardware for that content.

Everything has gone according to their plan and now they have infinite “old content” to shovel down all of their player engagement verticals.

You don’t create an empire by owning the cow…you create your empire by marking sure you are the largest source that someone can meat or dairy products from.
Then they would just keep making Microsoft games back then than to launch a Direct-X Box.

I don't know what made you feel you need to change history. Xbox tried to do something and they failed, just accept that. Unless you somehow couldn't understand that infinite money is no substitute to actually being good at their jobs.
 
Its too big of a brand to ignore Playstation. They must've known this when they went through. Unless they somehow expected that Series sales would skyrocket after the deal was finalized. But all these ABK IP, they don't work as exclusives. They have a long ass multiplatform legacy, and many players on the Sony ecosystem. You'll also leave too much money on the table with it. I didn't understand the negotiations either, because in my mind MS needed Playstation more than the other way around. They should absolutely want to release Call of Duty on Playstation consoles, I read 80% of BO6 sales was on there.
I definitely understand supporting Playstation because that’s where most of the players and money is made for multiplatform titles, but I also think that’s the downfall for their ecosystem as well. It severely damages the XBox console because for all that money Microsoft invested, it makes their console look even less appealing.

It’s a double edged sword. They need PlayStation to get make more money out of the deal, but they are still trying to sell a console which imho makes acquiring it or even a future Microsoft console virtually pointless because you can essentially get the same experience with a PlayStation, PC or Switch 2.
 
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Another retarded article by the brain donors at Kotaku.

Xbox shot itself in the head and is taking itself out of the game, so PS5 just wins by default. And then Switch and PC still exist doing their own thing.
 
It’s a double edged sword. They need PlayStation to get make more money out of the deal, but they are still trying to sell a console which imho makes acquiring it or even a future Microsoft console virtually pointless because you can essentially get the same experience with a PlayStation, PC or Switch 2.

Are they?

They knew going third party and releasing everything on PlayStation would kill the Xbox, weighed everything up and decided to go ahead and do it.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Funny how this can all be tied directly back to that disastrous Xbox One reveal. They never recovered from that.
Exactly. They killed all of the identity Xbox had and replaced it with boring Microsoft corporate garbage. The Xbox identity is still boring Microsoft corporate garbage.
 

Miyazaki’s Slave

Gold Member
Then they would just keep making Microsoft games back then than to launch a Direct-X Box.

I don't know what made you feel you need to change history. Xbox tried to do something and they failed, just accept that. Unless you somehow couldn't understand that infinite money is no substitute to actually being good at their jobs.
Huh?

I am simply saying that this was their plan the whole time. I am not commenting on the quality of their product, I am commenting on their approach to generate wealth from providing media/entertainment content to a larger player base.
You seem to not grasp what Microsoft is actually good at, which is building value in their IP, AKA making number go up, AKA turning a profit for their shareholders. Everything else is tertiary to that.

I can play any game that is released on any platform, I am not port betting here or console warring or whatever, just sharing what I think Microsoft's strategy was the entire time.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Such as?

The argument is always about consoles losing exclusives without realising PC hasn’t had big AAA exclusives since the early 00s

Big shallow AAA games are a console gamer thing. The McDonalds of gaming. PC gamers just care about good games. Graphics and budget size aren’t what’s most important.
 

reinking

Gold Member
So what's up with the Nintendo warriors suddenly coming out of the woodwork? There seems to be more than the usual today. Kotaku declares the war is over and Nintendo fans be like... ..nuh uh. :messenger_grinning_smiling:

Bowser_by_Shigehisa_Nakaue.png
 

Soapbox Killer

Grand Nagus
Microsoft has been in the game longer than Sega as a console maker yet their run feels more truncated and abrupt. It’s too early to talk legacy since they swear they are coming out with “Final Xbox “ in 2026 but even still it feels like we never got the full potential of Xbox as a console maker.
 

Laptop1991

Member
I'm a PC gamer and never owned a console, but in my opinion Sony have clearly won as Microsoft have gone 3rd party and abandoned 1st party Xbox games, and the war is between Sony and Microsoft, the other's don't count, not that the Xbox will disappear, MS will be far more a publisher from now on.
 
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