I miss console wars and how they made gaming more exciting – Reader’s Feature

A reader regrets the end of the rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation and suggests that console wars are actually good for everyone.

For better or worse we are approaching the start of another generation of consoles. I think, overall, it’s for the best because, let’s face it, this generation has been pretty bad. Especially if you count the Switch as having been last gen. There’s been no shortage of great games but the people in charge of publishers have completely lost the plot, to the point where I’ve got no confidence in their ability to lead and to not nosedive the whole industry into the ground.

Almost immediately we have seen what happens when there is no major competition for PlayStation. There’s a lot of reasons for them going radio silent but I think one of the main ones is that that’s the time that it became obvious Xbox had not only lost the console war but were no longer competing on the same level as PlayStation.

Sure, Xbox may be the biggest publisher in the world now but that doesn’t mean anything to Sony, any more than it mattered whether Activision or EA were the biggest beforehand. Nintendo and Sony have never really been rivals, even in the early days, and it also doesn’t whether PlayStation or Nintendo are selling more because they’re not competing for the same audience.

As of right now there is no console war. The Nintendo Switch is on its last legs and no longer really a factor. The Xbox Series X/S has been a complete failure and Microsoft is going all out on releasing games multiformat. We’ll probably have Gears Of War on PlayStation 5 before the end of the year and I doubt it’ll be much longer before there’s Halo and Fable too. Forza Horizon 5 is already confirmed to be on its way.

Microsoft says they have a next gen console in development but I find it very hard to imagine it’s going to be anything other than a novelty, not unless it has exclusive games – which would go against everything else Xbox has been doing for over a year now.

You can’t have a console war without direct competition and I don’t think there’s going to be any in the new generation. Maybe, if the Switch 2 is more powerful than we think and gets the majority of third party games, but as long as it’s not getting GTA 6, Assassin’s Creed, The Witcher 4 and the other big names I don’t think it’s going to make much difference.

My problem with this new situation is two-fold. The serious reason is that without direct competition companies, Sony in this case, can do whatever they want with no one to provide a better deal. Increasing prices, decreasing console and subscription features, making less exclusives… they can do all that without anyone to do the opposite and attract disgruntled customers.

But the thing that upsets me the most is that console wars were fun. Not if you took them too seriously and turned into some internet tryhard but ordinary, normal rivalries are fun. It’s like supporting a football team. Just because a tiny minority are hooligans it doesn’t mean everyone else isn’t having fun egging on friendly competition.

It helped make both formats better too. The best example is the Xbox 360 era, when Microsoft and Sony were almost perfectly balanced. Xbox put in a ton of work to become a contender, putting out not just great games but revolutionary ideas for online support and downloadable games.

Sony was slow to respond but when they did they fully embraced online (which they would never have done so quickly if Xbox wasn’t pushing them) and upped their game in terms of exclusives. By the end of the generation, they were both equal and the reward for ordinary fans was tons of great games and services – and some fun drama between the fans and companies.

I had an Xbox 360 at the start of that generation and I got a PlayStation 3 at the end, just to play its exclusives. I didn’t hate PlayStation, I enjoyed trolling its fans and then joined them first chance I got. I think that’s how most people are. But now that whole culture has disappeared.

There’s zero point getting an Xbox Series X/S and I doubt there will be for the next one either. I’ll probably get a Switch 2 at some point but its success, or otherwise, isn’t going to change Sony’s attitude. We needed Xbox for that but that’s not what they do anymore, and I think it’s a real shame.

By reader Stratos

The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.

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