NintendObs Thinks: The fall of PlayStation, the rise of Xbox.
Sony and Microsoft's avowed strategies paint a clear picture of how they'll survive against a powerful Nintendo.
Back in May I predicted and explained why Nintendo would not have a Nintendo Direct this June following the total cancellation of E3 2022. It is therefore equipped with this mindset that for the first in a very long time, this Nintendo gamer actually watched — and I dare say appreciated — both Sony’s State of Play and Microsoft’s Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in partnership with Summer Game Fest 2022. As you may evidently see in the screenshots of this article, from my perspective Final Fantasy XVI stole the show for PlayStation, while for Xbox the same was done by Starfield, both specifically positioned as closers for Sony and Microsoft’s highly anticipated events.
That being said, since for once after the launch of their latest platforms the two manufacturers were pit one against the other without Nintendo, this situation gave me the opportunity to compare the PlayStation and the Xbox propositions for what they’re really worth, coming at them as one of the more than a hundred million players satisfied with their Nintendo Switch experience. To me, beyond the glamour and the glitter, a true winner emerged not so much for their contents, both of which I can only be cursorily interested in, but rather for the manner in which what they presented aligned with the vision their company has for their future of videogames.
Because now that Nintendo is more than back on their feet, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are finding themselves in a very difficult situation that requires the PlayStation and the Xbox businesses to evolve. Indeed, business as usual with additional revenue streams here and there was perfectly fine during the Wii U era when Nintendo was a virtually non-existent competitor whose sad presence and mediocre marketing were even a net positive for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, it’s a lot harder to find that cash under gaming’s traditional business model in a market where a successful Nintendo has already siphoned tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars straight from consumers via the Nintendo Switch platform.