A reader explains why he chose to get a PS5 instead of an Xbox Series X and it all has to do with their exclusive games…
Like many people I have had a difficult time lately, trying to decide between the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Until recently PlayStation 5 seemed like a no-brainer but then Microsoft woke up a bit and started to prove they were still a player, with the good value Xbox Series S and buying up Bethesda – and threatening to buy other companies that are just as large.
Now I’m not a big Bethesda fan, especially when it comes to Fallout and Elder Scrolls, but that’s a big power shift and shows that Microsoft has finally understood what I have always maintained: that exclusives are always the most important thing when it comes to video games. Especially when choosing which console to buy.
That’s just an opinion, of course, but as far as I’m concerned it’s pretty close to demonstrable fact given it’s the entire reason Nintendo are not only still around but more than once have come back from abject failure to immediately have the most successful console on the market. The Switch is a digital watch by comparison to the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 but that doesn’t matter because Nintendo’s games really are THAT good.
It wasn’t really obvious until now but Sony definitely understands this and it’s only this generation that it’s been clear that they’ve had a long term plan all this while, to build up their first party developers and make the games the reason you buy their consoles more than anything else – just like Nintendo. And it completely worked, the PlayStation 4’s exclusives have been excellent and the console has been a huge success.
By comparison Microsoft has had almost nothing in terms of exclusives and those few are in aging franchises that are in need of either a complete reboot or just being sent out to pasture (naming no names, Halo and Gears Of War). I’m not sure why they only started buying first party developers in the last couple of years, when the problem was obvious since the very start of the generation, but they have finally started to make some headway and… it’s probably not going to make any difference for two to three years, tops.
There are no Xbox Series X exclusives at launch and Microsoft has tried to spin this as some sort of purposeful pro-consumer decision, which is so ludicrous I don’t know whether to laugh or be insulted. It’s for this reason that I have decided to stick with my original decision of getting a PlayStation 5. I think it’s going to be next generation before Microsoft are anywhere close to where they need to be and I’m not getting an Xbox Series X just to sit and wait another two years for a reboot of something as mediocre as Fable.
Game Pass may be great value but it if doesn’t have any games I want to play what’s the point? Exclusives are the primary weapons of any console and I don’t understand how Microsoft ever lost sight of this. The games made by the console manufacturers themselves should demonstrate the unique properties of a console, they should make use of the developer’s special knowledge of the hardware, and they should make a statement about what the console is about and, even more than that, what video games in the new generation can be.
That’s exactly what Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, God Of War, and The Last Of Us Part 2 have done and it’s what Halo 5 and Gears 5 completely failed at.
So glad that Microsoft has finally seen the light and I hope they have a positive influence on Bethesda (they can start by getting their graphics out of the stone age) but for me it’s too little too late for me to consider them this generation.
Unless they surprise mew with a really amazing exclusive that is, that will always make me stop and listen…
By reader kestrel
https://youtube.com/watch?v=i76gPpka2Fo%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D1%26fs%3D1%26autohide%3D2%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent
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