Gaming PS5 vs Xbox Series S|X

Which do you think will release first?


  • Total voters
    81
  • Poll closed .

Conor

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Go look at the data. After 2 years of launch even in the US, sales gap between PS3 and Xbox 360 weren't that huge despite all the issues with price, stock, feature disparity, exclusive content. And sales of first-party were pretty much neck-and-neck in those early years too.

Brand Loyalty isn't some separate characteristic that is unmovable and doesn't overlap with all those other things discussed. It shifts over time, is more important in some parts of the world than others, and can only get you so far - yes, but it shouldn't be dismissed as it's a powerful tool. And believe me, both Xbox and Sony care a hell of a lot about it and consider it a good indicator of commercial KPIs.

If you swap the exclusives between Xbox One and PS4, and put Kinect in the PS4 box upfront and price it £80/$80 extra - you think that Xbox is selling 120m units and PS4 50m? Come on. Maybe we'd get an 80m/80m split again.

I stand by it, Sony would have to have a disaster for Xbox to sell more consoles than them. The base position of the majority is with Xbox and the number that will be willing to swing, is enough to bring them closer together but not for Xbox to overtake (not globally anyway).
I don't think this thread is the place for reasonable statements.
 

Redlambs

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The head start argument is nonsense. Microsoft getting into consoles was huge, just like Sony doing it years earlier (with, you know, being a fair few years behind too). These are massively known companies around the world. Coupled with the shear money they can and have thrown at this, nah that's not correct at all.


Anyway, there are a number of reasons XBox are behind. From the start they appealed largely to the US audience games wise, the European market was still a lot more similar to the Japanese one and the variation of games are what drove (and in many ways still do) Sony's dominance. Whilst that stands true still today, the gap there is closing and that's largely due to the likes of COD and Fortnite making Console shooters more viable than ever, coupled with the timing of the Gamepass and Xbox gamers beginning to slowly get more variety. Whether that will be true of the big hitter exclusives though, well that very much remains to be seen.

The biggest factor though is still the handling of the Xboner era. And not just for gamers too. Riding on the wave of a steady increase in popularity especially after the 360 years (I don't know if those threads still exist, but they were even more interesting to read than the boner/4 ones to see what we got right and what we didn't...the 360 coming out on top in terms of all round gaming whilst Weaste, Elvis and pretty much everyone else laughing at me saying it was one ;) ), the decisions around it were indeed poor. It's the promises both to gamers but especially to developers and publishers that really did damage, damage they are still trying to recover from. As I discussed at the time, well ahead of launch, the way MS treated (and still do to some degree) it's partner teams made some horrible places to work, but it was the handling of Kinect 2.0 that really pissed a lot off. I could go on and on about all this, but we've been there and done that, the short of it is they still need to earn that trust back. So far it's been a lot of talk, but that's no different to last time.

Now that all being said, there's definitely a lot going for them this time around. The machines, although still under featured (thanks to AMD fecking up, but that's a whole other topic), are very well built this time. The X in particular shits all over the PS5 for form and function. Also, the way they are cutting back on putting fat idiot suits with no experience of gaming into producer roles has really changed the way teams are able to work. Again I've spoke a lot about the past Rare situation on here, but one of the key reasons I cite Sea of Thieves as the best thing on the gamepass (unless Alock wants to bring up metacritic reviews from 3 fecking years ago again :lol:) is that since being allowed and supported to continue to build the game, MS have shown they can fix the two biggest problems which as said above are variety and teams being left and happy to create. If only they did that with Spark.


Thankfully, our resident tea boy isn't actually involved in anything to do with them, as with his negative nelly ways they'd never climb up. The people in charge though do think they can close the gap and do want to sell machines, they've just figured out a better way to do that whilst finally acknowledging their biggest flaws. Again whether they fully fix them and it's not a lot of talk and bluster remains to be seen, the Bethseda deal for example is no indication of that alone and it will take a lot of time for the true changes to be made, but one thing I do know is that developers are definitely more comfortable with them again which is only good for us.
 

Redlambs

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I've personally taken both apart (my fiancee literally shook with rage when she walked in and found it in parts all over the table! Luckily I blagged I was cleaning it and happened to have canned air next to me :lol:) . Forget the YT videos, I can tell you that for a fact.

The X is a masterpiece of console design, right up there with the Gamecube (of course Nintendo would do it first, but still you guys can gloat ;))
 

Shamwow

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Talking about newcomers. It's crazy how much Sony smashed the PSX out the park in pretty much every way when you read back about it. Apart from the disc drives.
 

Leg-End

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fecksake lambs, now Project Spark is going to be mentioned again for the 106th time.
 

Redlambs

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Talking about newcomers. It's crazy how much Sony smashed the PSX out the park in pretty much every way when you read back about it. Apart from the disc drives.
I mean, they were and still are one of the leading, if not the leading consumer electronics brands. Plus they had been working on it for a long time and had Nintendo engineers involved.

Though it wasn't all glorious, perhaps unsurprisingly it took them a long time to get their sdk and dev kits actually useable for us, also the decision around 2D/Framebuffer support is still a shocker to this day.
 

VeevaVee

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The head start argument is nonsense. Microsoft getting into consoles was huge, just like Sony doing it years earlier (with, you know, being a fair few years behind too). These are massively known companies around the world. Coupled with the shear money they can and have thrown at this, nah that's not correct at all.


Anyway, there are a number of reasons XBox are behind. From the start they appealed largely to the US audience games wise, the European market was still a lot more similar to the Japanese one and the variation of games are what drove (and in many ways still do) Sony's dominance. Whilst that stands true still today, the gap there is closing and that's largely due to the likes of COD and Fortnite making Console shooters more viable than ever, coupled with the timing of the Gamepass and Xbox gamers beginning to slowly get more variety. Whether that will be true of the big hitter exclusives though, well that very much remains to be seen.

The biggest factor though is still the handling of the Xboner era. And not just for gamers too. Riding on the wave of a steady increase in popularity especially after the 360 years (I don't know if those threads still exist, but they were even more interesting to read than the boner/4 ones to see what we got right and what we didn't...the 360 coming out on top in terms of all round gaming whilst Weaste, Elvis and pretty much everyone else laughing at me saying it was one ;) ), the decisions around it were indeed poor. It's the promises both to gamers but especially to developers and publishers that really did damage, damage they are still trying to recover from. As I discussed at the time, well ahead of launch, the way MS treated (and still do to some degree) it's partner teams made some horrible places to work, but it was the handling of Kinect 2.0 that really pissed a lot off. I could go on and on about all this, but we've been there and done that, the short of it is they still need to earn that trust back. So far it's been a lot of talk, but that's no different to last time.

Now that all being said, there's definitely a lot going for them this time around. The machines, although still under featured (thanks to AMD fecking up, but that's a whole other topic), are very well built this time. The X in particular shits all over the PS5 for form and function. Also, the way they are cutting back on putting fat idiot suits with no experience of gaming into producer roles has really changed the way teams are able to work. Again I've spoke a lot about the past Rare situation on here, but one of the key reasons I cite Sea of Thieves as the best thing on the gamepass (unless Alock wants to bring up metacritic reviews from 3 fecking years ago again :lol:) is that since being allowed and supported to continue to build the game, MS have shown they can fix the two biggest problems which as said above are variety and teams being left and happy to create. If only they did that with Spark.


Thankfully, our resident tea boy isn't actually involved in anything to do with them, as with his negative nelly ways they'd never climb up. The people in charge though do think they can close the gap and do want to sell machines, they've just figured out a better way to do that whilst finally acknowledging their biggest flaws. Again whether they fully fix them and it's not a lot of talk and bluster remains to be seen, the Bethseda deal for example is no indication of that alone and it will take a lot of time for the true changes to be made, but one thing I do know is that developers are definitely more comfortable with them again which is only good for us.
No one’s reading that mate
 

VeevaVee

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I've personally taken both apart (my fiancee literally shook with rage when she walked in and found it in parts all over the table! Luckily I blagged I was cleaning it and happened to have canned air next to me :lol:) . Forget the YT videos, I can tell you that for a fact.

The X is a masterpiece of console design, right up there with the Gamecube (of course Nintendo would do it first, but still you guys can gloat ;))
Great post
 

Redlambs

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fecksake lambs, now Project Spark is going to be mentioned again for the 106th time.
:lol:

You know, for all the shit he tries to give me I like to bring that one up every now and then. Not to gloat, as I fully love the idea of programming languages people can actually play (Minecraft obviously being the shining example) but just to remind that something he wanted to love was not only something he couldn't ever figure out, but a very good case point of how shit MS can be in recent terms.

I mean, unless you want me to bang on about Rare and lionhead again!


No one’s reading that mate
I wouldn't expect you to. You wouldn't understand most if it anyway.


Great post
Agreed. Great post!
 

Shamwow

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I mean, they were and still are one of the leading, if not the leading consumer electronics brands. Plus they had been working on it for a long time and had Nintendo engineers involved.

Though it wasn't all glorious, perhaps unsurprisingly it took them a long time to get their sdk and dev kits actually useable for us, also the decision around 2D/Framebuffer support is still a shocker to this day.
You're such a weirdo.
 

esmufc07

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Xbox is going to end up like Windows Phone. The sooner people accept the better. Sega will make a comeback with the Dreamcast 2 and knock MS out.
 

b82REZ

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Xbox is going to end up like Windows Phone. The sooner people accept the better. Sega will make a comeback with the Dreamcast 2 and knock MS out.

:drool:
Dreamcast is still my fave console. Stupid brand loyalty. I haven't played anything since.
 

El General 1994

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I've personally taken both apart (my fiancee literally shook with rage when she walked in and found it in parts all over the table! Luckily I blagged I was cleaning it and happened to have canned air next to me :lol:) . Forget the YT videos, I can tell you that for a fact.

The X is a masterpiece of console design, right up there with the Gamecube (of course Nintendo would do it first, but still you guys can gloat ;))
Yep. Jason Ronald is a legend. Beard and all.
 

Redlambs

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Didn’t play that. I liked the sonic game and Blue Stinger.
Trust you to be a basic bitch gamer.

I highly recommend Powerstone 1&2, the Soul Reaver games and Urban Chaos was an amazing game and still ranks higher than any GTA game for atmosphere imo. You know, should you ever look to collect some more games.


Yep. Jason Ronald is a legend. Beard and all.
He's a genuine talent for sure. I was never really in to hardware I just wanted to make games, but early on ripping apart machines and fixing all sorts (with obviously a lot of breaking!) taught me a respect for what those guys do on a whole new level.
 

Bosws87

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TLDR: The AMD Super resolution people were getting over the top hyped up about, in this very thread is worse or equal to the TAA implementation games have been using or are going to use in engines such as Unreal 5

AMD fecked up the potential of a DLSS type system on the consoles would of been huge and made them way more futureproof.
 

Alock1

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The head start argument is nonsense. Microsoft getting into consoles was huge, just like Sony doing it years earlier (with, you know, being a fair few years behind too). These are massively known companies around the world. Coupled with the shear money they can and have thrown at this, nah that's not correct at all.


Anyway, there are a number of reasons XBox are behind. From the start they appealed largely to the US audience games wise, the European market was still a lot more similar to the Japanese one and the variation of games are what drove (and in many ways still do) Sony's dominance. Whilst that stands true still today, the gap there is closing and that's largely due to the likes of COD and Fortnite making Console shooters more viable than ever, coupled with the timing of the Gamepass and Xbox gamers beginning to slowly get more variety. Whether that will be true of the big hitter exclusives though, well that very much remains to be seen.

The biggest factor though is still the handling of the Xboner era. And not just for gamers too. Riding on the wave of a steady increase in popularity especially after the 360 years (I don't know if those threads still exist, but they were even more interesting to read than the boner/4 ones to see what we got right and what we didn't...the 360 coming out on top in terms of all round gaming whilst Weaste, Elvis and pretty much everyone else laughing at me saying it was one ;) ), the decisions around it were indeed poor. It's the promises both to gamers but especially to developers and publishers that really did damage, damage they are still trying to recover from. As I discussed at the time, well ahead of launch, the way MS treated (and still do to some degree) it's partner teams made some horrible places to work, but it was the handling of Kinect 2.0 that really pissed a lot off. I could go on and on about all this, but we've been there and done that, the short of it is they still need to earn that trust back. So far it's been a lot of talk, but that's no different to last time.

Now that all being said, there's definitely a lot going for them this time around. The machines, although still under featured (thanks to AMD fecking up, but that's a whole other topic), are very well built this time. The X in particular shits all over the PS5 for form and function. Also, the way they are cutting back on putting fat idiot suits with no experience of gaming into producer roles has really changed the way teams are able to work. Again I've spoke a lot about the past Rare situation on here, but one of the key reasons I cite Sea of Thieves as the best thing on the gamepass (unless Alock wants to bring up metacritic reviews from 3 fecking years ago again :lol:) is that since being allowed and supported to continue to build the game, MS have shown they can fix the two biggest problems which as said above are variety and teams being left and happy to create. If only they did that with Spark.


Thankfully, our resident tea boy isn't actually involved in anything to do with them, as with his negative nelly ways they'd never climb up. The people in charge though do think they can close the gap and do want to sell machines, they've just figured out a better way to do that whilst finally acknowledging their biggest flaws. Again whether they fully fix them and it's not a lot of talk and bluster remains to be seen, the Bethseda deal for example is no indication of that alone and it will take a lot of time for the true changes to be made, but one thing I do know is that developers are definitely more comfortable with them again which is only good for us.
There isn't anything there I don't agree with, or anything that contradicts anything I have said.

The metacritic point is in response to people in here constantly posting metacritic scores, not because I care myself.

And as I said, they can close the market share gap and will gain ground, but without a feck up from Sony can't overtake on consoles (do you disagree?). What they can do is pivot in a way that increases the market ceiling or look at subscriptions share rather than console share - and they are areas they have early mover advantage in.

And definitely agree that it's a good job the tea boy isn't involved.
 

Redlambs

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TLDR: The AMD Super resolution people were getting over the top hyped up about, in this very thread is worse or equal to the TAA implementation games have been using or are going to use in engines such as Unreal 5

AMD fecked up the potential of a DLSS type system on the consoles would of been huge and made them way more futureproof.
TAA is already in every engine and is superior. You can't mix both either, well you can I guess, but that is entirely pointless.

It will get better, but never close to DLSS for the obvious reasons. AMD fecked this generation over by acting all high and mighty about RTX. If they had any foresight at all, like they have with their cpus anyway, then they'd have known RTX would force new resolution techniques one way or another.

I'm pretty sure I've said already, but watch their cards quickly become redundant and the new ones and the "pro" versions of consoles to have hardware support.
 

Alock1

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:lol:

You know, for all the shit he tries to give me I like to bring that one up every now and then. Not to gloat, as I fully love the idea of programming languages people can actually play (Minecraft obviously being the shining example) but just to remind that something he wanted to love was not only something he couldn't ever figure out, but a very good case point of how shit MS can be in recent terms.

I mean, unless you want me to bang on about Rare and lionhead again!
Exactly. They fecked it up completely with a terrible commercial model and without the proper investment or support it deserved!

As for studios - totally. As you said in the last post, the approach to handling studios - giving them freedom needed, not dictating direction much and being supportive of passion projects seems to be paying off. They also seem to be trialing relationships before acquisitions (Playground being a good example, I think Avalanche might be another following Contraband) where they start with a 2nd party relationship and see how they work together and use that as a trial to look at acquisition.

They really should have done that with Insomniac considering they actually let them own their IP in Sunset Overdrive. I wonder if it came out now, with the focus on engagement on gamepass rather than pure sales, whether they'd have commissioned a sequal and/or looked to buy Insomniac.

I've said before but they fecked up with them and Remedy. Sunset Overdrive paved the way for Spiderman, and Quantum Break for Control - but because they were 2nd party relationships that Microsoft didn't extend or convert to 1st party, they lost out on following releases which were both critically and commercially successful.
 

VeevaVee

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Xbox is going to end up like Windows Phone. The sooner people accept the better. Sega will make a comeback with the Dreamcast 2 and knock MS out.
Who cares? We aren’t fanboys like you guys. We just have the best available console right now.
 

Redlambs

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There isn't anything there I don't agree with, or anything that contradicts anything I have said.
That's because it wasn't about contradicting you, I give you way more credit than that! (don't ask me why though...)

I've lived and worked through some major changes in this industry, it was more trying to simplify why Xbox are behind. And that took waaaay too long a post. If we ever have a drink down the pub, I could tell you some proper stories :lol:


The metacritic point is in response to people in here constantly posting metacritic scores, not because I care myself.
Yes, from 3 years ago and is entirely redundant in an ongoing title. Especially when you factor in the the point the lowest idiotic scores (40?) bang on about content, content we now have. Besides you threw that out there as a little dig, I can laugh and counter that with my own. You know how this goes ;)


And as I said, they can close the market share gap and will gain ground, but without a feck up from Sony can't overtake on consoles (do you disagree?). What they can do is pivot in a way that increases the market ceiling or look at subscriptions share rather than console share - and they are areas they have early mover advantage in.
I do disagree. If they recommit their focus and with the all mighty power of MS behind them, of course they can catch up. Remember a lot of the past 10 years or so was lost with trying to sell the division off (or do you STILL dispute that?), now the signs are there they are taking it seriously again.

And the reason behind why, we can both agree on. What we may not agree on is the long term implications, well at least what they possibly could be. Remember the Gamepass is an idea that has come from more nefarious ideas.


And definitely agree that it's a good job the tea boy isn't involved.
Agreed. Great point!
 

Redlambs

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Exactly. They fecked it up completely with a terrible commercial model and without the proper investment or support it deserved!

As for studios - totally. As you said in the last post, the approach to handling studios - giving them freedom needed, not dictating direction much and being supportive of passion projects seems to be paying off. They also seem to be trialing relationships before acquisitions (Playground being a good example, I think Avalanche might be another following Contraband) where they start with a 2nd party relationship and see how they work together and use that as a trial to look at acquisition.

They really should have done that with Insomniac considering they actually let them own their IP in Sunset Overdrive. I wonder if it came out now, with the focus on engagement on gamepass rather than pure sales, whether they'd have commissioned a sequal and/or looked to buy Insomniac.

I've said before but they fecked up with them and Remedy. Sunset Overdrive paved the way for Spiderman, and Quantum Break for Control - but because they were 2nd party relationships that Microsoft didn't extend or convert to 1st party, they lost out on following releases which were both critically and commercially successful.
Yep. They have improved, and as I said they seem to have at least internally admitted how they have continued to feck it on that front, but it's way too early for people to let their guard down.


Let's see what Microsoft do with Avalanche Studios then.
Leave them the feck alone to get on with it is the only actual valid answer.

It's when they get involved and start adding nonsense "producers" where the problems begin.
 

Alock1

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That's because it wasn't about contradicting you, I give you way more credit than that! (don't ask me why though...)

I've lived and worked through some major changes in this industry, it was more trying to simplify why Xbox are behind. And that took waaaay too long a post. If we ever have a drink down the pub, I could tell you some proper stories :lol:




Yes, from 3 years ago and is entirely redundant in an ongoing title. Especially when you factor in the the point the lowest idiotic scores (40?) bang on about content, content we now have. Besides you threw that out there as a little dig, I can laugh and counter that with my own. You know how this goes ;)




I do disagree. If they recommit their focus and with the all mighty power of MS behind them, of course they can catch up. Remember a lot of the past 10 years or so was lost with trying to sell the division off (or do you STILL dispute that?), now the signs are there they are taking it seriously again.

And the reason behind why, we can both agree on. What we may not agree on is the long term implications, well at least what they possibly could be. Remember the Gamepass is an idea that has come from more nefarious ideas.




Agreed. Great point!
Fair enough, have to agree to disagree on catching up on consoles alone. In the UK or US, sure. But globally, there are a lot of markets where Xbox isn't even in the conversation and with friends networks and backwards compat game libraries tied up - it's gonna be hard to move the needle. What gamepass can do of course is be 'in addition' to PlayStation in a way that a whole console can't typically (though maybe the Series S could take SOME of the 'dont usually buy a console but did buy the Wii' market).

For any live-service type games - Sea of Thieves, No Man's Sky, Fallout 76, The Division - have to consider if metacritic model is even suitable. Even games that aren't live service have seen transformations through patching that doesn't get reflected.

I'm up for a console war meet up down the pub. Veeva can host the after party.