A Convenient Truth
In the beginning, there were only three (unless, of course, you grew up in the 1980s and have a long-term memory). Three companies, through their consoles, vied for the hearts, souls, and wallets of their consumers. For a time, these companies lived in relative peace, but everything changed when the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) attacked (circa 2000). This fable is one often recounted as the inception of the console wars, with Sony’s titanic assault on the market earning it the record for the highest selling console of all time up to that point, forever earning Sony a dominant position against its competitors, Microsoft and Nintendo. In truth, however, the console wars began in 1989 when Nintendo sought to dethrone Sega as the pre-eminent force in the home gaming console market. Thus, the console wars currently raging across the minds and bank accounts of gaming devotees is not so much the infamous World War III of consoles that many perceive it to be as much as the latest bi-decade entry of a familial squabble, one which Sony has emerged three for three and, if its accolades are to be believed, will maintain its record.
Sony and the Great Wars
In the previous conflicts, Sony relied on the strength of its console performance, the success of its exclusive titles, and, most of all, its attention to the needs and wants of its customers to secure dominance. In Sony’s first console war, the Playstation2 outperformed both the first-generation Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube, selling a total of 155 million units world wide compared to 24 million and 21.7 million respectively. With exclusive games like the first Grand Theft Auto title helped to catapult the PS2 above its competitors who, arguably, had better performing consoles in terms of processing power. This competitive advantage continued into the second console war of 2006 where Sony’s PlayStation 3 faced off against Microsoft’s Xbox-360 and Nintendo’s GameCube. Once again, Sony continued its string of victories with successful exclusives such as the Uncharted and God of War series’, as well as offering a better overall console in terms of performance. No Xbox fan need be reminding of the dreaded “red ring of death” that plagued the second-generation console and, in part, led to its defeat.
By the time of the Third Great Console wars in 2013, the battle was Sony’s to lose. Although it was not so much that Sony won as much as it was that Microsoft lost while Nintendo was nowhere to be found. Indeed, while many highly anticipated the release of the Xbox One and PS4, Microsoft had strayed from the path of fan service and tried to disrupt the market with a change of trajectory. Microsoft rebranded the Xbox one as more than just a console, now it was an all-in-one entertainment system. This trajectory, though bold, was not well received by Xbox fans and despite carving out its own exclusive marketplace with the tried and true Halo and Gears of War franchises, Microsoft failed to utilize its advantages. Sony 3, everyone else left in the dust.
The Coming Conflict
One could be forgiven for thinking that Sony is unbeatable. Yet, despite its previous victories, Sony might finally find itself on the back foot by its own doing. Initial prospects seemed promising. Microsoft’s showcase of the Xbox Series One X was less than ideal with critics pointing to the mediocre graphics and painfully simple aesthetic design of the system. By contrast, the PS5 was sleek and its graphics crisp. What is more, the aesthetic changes to the PlayStation controller, which had seen little evolution over the many years, was well met by fans. But like any great fall in history, the cracks were apparent long before the structure collapsed.
With the current consoles entering their fourth and fifth generations, one thing present on any gamers mind is backwards compatibility, i.e. the means by which gamers can play older console games on new consoles. Gamers can play their old games without having to track down an old console and accept the price of limited supply. Despite the readily apparent value in offering backwards compatibility, Sony recently confirmed that the PS5 will not offer backwards compatibility beyond the PS4. Not long after, Microsoft announced that the Xbox Series One X would be natively backwards compatible back to the first generation. Suddenly, there was a crack in the foundation.
The next salvo against the Sony façade came when Microsoft unleashed its war chest and purchased Bethesda Studios, of Fallout and Elder Scrolls fame, for $7.5 billion dollars. With the deal, Microsoft announced that all Bethesda games would now be Xbox exclusives. The Elder Scrolls Skyrim alone sold over 30 million copies as of 2020. The crack now seems to be a gaping slash.
The final and greatest crack came when Sony announced a major change to its chat system. The change came with a recent PS4 update that allows players to record chat sessions, an update that will be built into the PS5. Up until now, gamers could record game clips but not the chat unless it was through a stream. The prospect of a gamer recording a game chat, a chat rife with profanities spun in the heat of the moment and words exchanged in jest that can easily be taken out of context, is not appealing to most players. While Sony attempted to assuage the fears of its loyal base, damage was already done. With this move, Sony chose not to adhere to the wants and needs of its consumer, perhaps its greatest competitive advantage.
Whether Sony was right or moral in its decisions are questions for another day. For now, the only question is whether the cracks in the façade will prove a minor nuisance or sound the death bells for Sony’s reign. With so many consumers working from home and in desperate need of a new distraction from the everyday insanity that plagues 2020, the Fourth Console War may prove to be the fiercest yet.