Yeah, I don’t want to split hairs over the adjectives. But I don’t see anything in Sony’s launch lineup I would call a system seller. The only thing of interest to me is Miles Morales and, ironically Sony has done the exact wrong thing. I skipped PS4 and I would absolutely buy a PS5 to get an enhanced Spider-Man rerelease that had a 5 hour Miles Morales DLC. But when they were essentially “outed” for Miles being a DLC (in a statement from Sony itself) they hit the negative publicity panic button and decided to make it a standalone release. I’m not buying a PS5 for a 5 hour “stand alone” Miles Morales game.
Oddworld is not a series I have ever enjoyed, but I will assume it must have some fans. It’s coming holiday 2020 to both PS4 and 5, so even though I can’t find a confirmation that it is a launch game anywhere it’s probably close enough. But do you think that’s a “system seller?” I don’t.
People can have very legitimate (and possibly interesting) discussions about who is doing better in the run up to the system launch. But I find it hard to think anyone believes either of them is knocking it put if the park.
I still think price is going to dominate as a factor in system sales and if MS releases the more powerful system at parity or a lower price they are in this race.
I just wish both of them would give me more reason to want to buy their consoles. Right now I’m thinking I will wait until the first “version 2/slim/improved” versions hit to even consider it.
Overall though, I don’t know how much this really will hurt Microsoft. If their focus is truly on subscriptions now over hardware sales, this won’t be a bad thing at all.
And delaying a game to properly improvement and further polish it is, in my opinion, always a good decision.
It’s interesting because I don’t really worry all that much about console wars. But one of the great truths (for everyone except Nintendo) is that the launch consoles all sell for a loss. This is one of the many reasons why, despite protests from PC enthusiasts, a $500 console will outperform a $500 pc. In addition to massive buying power driving down component prices, the console developers charge you less than the cost of manufacturing. Why do they do this?
Well, the console is just a platform to drive software and peripheral sales. That’s how they make money. And now, also through subscriptions. I think this philosophy is likely behind MS’s backward comparability push. Sure having all their games on both XboxOne and Series X means I feel less urgency to upgrade. But whether I’m on One or Series X I’m still a subscriber. And they are making it as easy and comfortable as possible for me to stay a subscriber of and when I do upgrade my hardware. That’s a fundamentally different mentality than past console generations. And I think it may make the launch hardware sales less meaningful.
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Absolutely, even after launch, it’s not uncommon for consoles to be sold at a loss. For Microsoft at least, it really doesn’t look like hardware sales are going to be the be-all-end-all for them this generation.
Personally, I’m 100% okay with this style of model, as it more mirrors PC gaming.
I’m not saying any of them are necessarily big system sellers, but they’re the kinds of exclusives that carry appeal across different genres, which is helpful out of the gate. Though you can nix Oddworld from that since I wasn’t aware it was also on PS4.
As far as I understood the situation with Miles Morales, there was some confusion over what it was, but it was always meant to be similar to Uncharted: Lost Legacy where it’s basically a campaign expansion that’s big and different enough to be released as a cheaper standalone spin-off. But even still, people can rely on it to offer a familiar and polished experience that they can’t get elsewhere, even if it won’t be massive.
Historically console launches are rarely great, especially outside of instances where an outright masterpiece in the lineup carries them. I don’t expect this generation to break the trend, though personally I can see myself enjoying the PS5’s launch lineup more than XSX and most previous generations right now.
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I remember when the SNES launched with Super Mario World and F-Zero. But for the last three generations your right. And I hope you enjoy the PS5 at launch if you choose time get one. Honestly, I always hope everyone enjoys everything. I’m just saying I don’t think Sony has an obvious advantage when it comes to software at this point.
I remember at the last gen launch everyone saying “Sony will have better exclusives.” But I can really only think of 3-4 that I would say we’re good and only one that if honestly really like to play (Spider-man).
But Sony being underwhelming doesn’t really excuse MS from being even more underwhelming. Beyond KI, I’ve enjoyed… mostly multi platform games. Sunset overdrive was good. Gears was Gears. Forza games are fantastic and I think anyone arguing that between Forza and Horizons Xbox doesn’t have the lock in racing game superiority is just being a fanboy. After that, I’m having a hard time even thinking of exclusives.
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I personally think most of the PlayStation 4 exclusives, while not bad games at all, have been heavily overrated.
For the Xbox platform, Halo is still a huge deal for me and my family.
Yeah, I still have doubts if I’ll be buying anything near launch. Even though I’m looking forward to them, I have to wait and see how these games are received before I even start considering it seriously. And even then I wouldn’t mind waiting a while until a real heavy-hitter arrives, being content as I am with my current consoles and PC.
Personally I’m fine with the delay, I don’t plan on getitng it till much later. Beside sI still have game son the Xbox One that I still want to play, Games like Soul Calibur Vi that has more content coming ect.