The more mainstream public remains concerned with the infringement of reality and profit-minded business people who are eager to earn a buck or two from the live-action adaptations of popular Xbox and Sony games. Real-time and devoted gamers, on the other hand, are bogged down by the reality of their situation, which is that corporations and their politics have made it harder for them to access games because of their skyrocketing sales numbers.
However, despite the ever-constricting deals and accessibility to exclusive games on specific consoles, the loyal consumer base has hardly been motivated to shift away from their console of choice, which has proven more of a bargain with the said megacorporations than was expected initially.
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Microsoft Continues To Strike Away at the Heart of Gamers
Recently, the company spearheaded by Satya Nadella since 2014 aka Microsoft has done the world of gamers dirty with exclusivity deals that seek to have certain games from their catalog of products available only to those who are proud owners of Xbox Game Pass from day one. This immediately begs a critical and subversive response from their competitors, including Sony and their very own PlayStation, who claim that such subscription-model-based services, while blocking their access to said gaming titles, are detrimental to the gaming industry as a whole instead of being profitable.
Simultaneously, however, such exclusivity deals would dictate the favored response from gamers who have been more inclined to remain loyal subscribers of Microsoft and Xbox. But disparity still exists in the corporation’s treatment of their gamers because PlayStation manages to make their interface a more judicious one by dissuading offers of day one exclusive titles from their subscription service, PlayStation Plus.
While also building a gamer-friendly reputation and thus making it more lucrative to newcomers and defectors, such strategically-placed deals tend to work out for a company in the short run, and it has begun to show not just in quality but in kind as well. The sale numbers have begun to drop for Xbox while the poorly-treated PlayStation has managed to rise out of the dark as the underdog champion of the season.
Xbox vs. PlayStation: A Gladiator Match Among Goliaths
The numbers have spoken. In the ID@Xbox Developer Accelerator Program, the slides have presented the sales of Xbox after a long history of unfettered, unbothered, and unacknowledged attitude from their overlords. The 21.35 million units in sales that were displayed for Xbox Series X/S, much to the pride and glory of Microsoft, have still fallen short of Sony’s PlayStation 5 which currently boasts 35.94 million units in sales in under 30 months. By the end of this financial year (March 31, 2024), Sony has projected a hike in sales – a projected additional 19 million PlayStation 5 consoles are going to be up for grabs.
However, after stepping away from the numbers and going for the actual titles that have gotten caught in the crossfire, it seems that Microsoft is doing comparatively well in terms of exclusive ownership over certain titles. While Sony still owns the rights to Spider-Man, Call of Duty, and The Last of Us (among others), Microsoft has continued to lord over the gaming industry with Halo, Forza Horizon, and their new acquisitions Valheim and Immortality which they won in an exclusive bidding war with Sony.
Source: Tom’s Hardware
