A reader is surprised to find people choosing between PS5 and Xbox Series X already, and examines the psychology of their decisions.
My favourite games are made by Nintendo, the flagship Mario and Zelda titles in particular. Knowing that new entries in these series are guaranteed with every new console they bring to market, and that these will not be available on rival consoles, ensures that I’ll be purchasing the next one too. But as I like to play a broad diversity of games, I also buy a console from one of their rivals.
The choice is determined by the quality and quantity of exclusives and which of the two, Microsoft or Sony, multiformat publishers prioritise. Microsoft had the edge in the last generation so I bought an Xbox 360. This time around it soon became apparent that Sony would have the lead and, with Microsoft having sold off a number of studios, there would also be more exclusives on the PlayStation. Hence, after around a year after it launched, I purchased a PlayStation 4.
On the cusp of another generation of consoles, many readers are predictably declaring which of the two consoles they intend to purchase. It would make sense to plump for the Xbox if you love the Forza or Halo series, Sony if you love the games by Naughty Dog. But this is rarely cited as the motive.
Currently, all we have to go on is a bunch of abstract specifications, names, and designs of console or controller. We do not have the information to make an informed choice about which console is better or more likely to deliver the games we like to play. The decision is not based on reason. It is irrational.
In a recent Reader’s Feature I referred to Adam Curtis’s superlative documentary Century of the Self. Repeating what I wrote there, Curtis begins with the story of Edward Berneys, the nephew of the ‘father’ of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud. Berneys lived in New York where he helped to pioneer the field of what we know today as ‘public relations’, another word for propaganda. Freud hated everything that the US represented and would’ve been horrified by how Berneys put his theories of the human personality to use.
What, through Freud, Berneys helped corporations to recognise is that products sell not be appealing to reason – say tech specs – but instead to unconscious and irrational desires. Rather than market a product according to its specifications, Berneys showed that what really sells a product is the irrational feelings we associate with them.
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It’s why when faced with the option of having two identical products we tend towards the one with a logo. Through the help of advertisers, logos are imbued with meaning. They function as a mirror to our own self-image, of how we like to see ourselves and want others to see us.
The decision of gamers to purchase a console without so much as a bunch of abstract tech specs is a textbook example of what Freud teaches us. Why, after all, does a consumer feel ‘loyalty’ towards a manufacturer whose sole motive is profit? What does the brand mean to us? Why does Xbox make us feel better than say Sony? This is worth reflecting on.
Names mean something to us because of what we associate with them. Xbox does not mean anything in and of itself. Like any word, it is what semiotic theory calls an empty signifier.
Sony and Xbox are imbued with meaning through the work of advertisers. Xbox has strong masculine connotations and, with an eye on the demographic Microsoft cultivated through the name, the shape and size of the console and controller and the kind of games they showcased helped to shift product, especially in the US.
Already a byword for cool and cutting edge, with Japan itself having subculture cache, Sony was a perfect fit for the video game industry and has successfully traded on this branding ever since.
While never fully immune, we can at least be reflective of how feelings inform choices, cloud judgement and, through the work of advertisers and cultural producers, we develop emotional bonds with corporations whose sole interest is making profit.
The suggestion that our choices are not entirely based on reason or, when making an uninformed decision on which console to purchase, entirely irrational, will I imagine provoke a knee-jerk reactions amongst some readers. That it provokes anger, vitriol or routine dismissal is itself proof of my point and ought also be reflected on.
By reader Ciara
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