Phil Spencer Discusses How Xbox Series X Can Beat PS5

I don't know if the Series X will prove to be 'more' popular than the PS5 - not because the console itself isn't competitive or even that MS doesn't have the 'games', but there will be a large market share buying the PS5 because they own a lot of PS4 games.

I think PS5 would really have to be significantly 'worse' (not just in terms of how games look/play, but in terms of 'value' too) for PS4 owners to be persuaded to buy the Series X.

Another aspect could be the fact that Xbox games could be playable on PC, Mobile and for the immediate future, current gen hardware. The implementation of xCloud could help too, buy the Series X and your 'digital' library is playable on Mobiles - a kind of 'Switch' type situation.

There is still the unknown with MS Exclusives, whether all this investment in studio's will translate into both the quantity and quality that Sony have demonstrated over the last generation. Sony released big blockbuster Game of the Year contenders every year so they need to have regular game releases of that calibre too if they want to win back those who jumped to Sony. I think MS have relied too much on Halo, Gears and Forza and I think that they are almost 'memes' now so will need 'new' franchises to pull people away from Sony - Hellblade 2 looks like it could be a good start of course...

Sony are more reliant on their console as MS has a much larger install base for game sales and we could see their games outselling Sony's but as far as Console sales, I don't know whether MS will match Sony. It maybe a LOT closer this gen but I think MS would really have to do a LOT more to convince a lot of PS4 owners to jump back. Without Backwards Compatibility, it may have been easier and I think Sony would have to make a big mistake to push people over too.

Of course we don't know 'Everything' yet - for all we know, Sony may expect people to buy games twice - a PS4 and the PS5 version - if they want PS5 features but MS could 'upgade' the games automatically with Smart Delivery installing the Series X version if you play on that console. Until we know more details, its difficult to predict whether MS will have the bigger sales and things can change over the 6-7yrs too....

I myself went from x360 to ps4, but at the moment the series X is more alluring to me. Its backwards compatibility means it's an xbox one and a new xbox for me, and I also like how open they are about the new console - I guess it's more about feelings at the moment than it is hard facts.

I think the stuff Phil Spencer has put into place clearly leaves Microsoft in a much better position heading into the next gen than they were this one. Usually executives tend to be very robotic in how they come across, but Spencer comes across as a cool guy, and I think that's sort of translating into how the Xbox consoles are turning out.

I think next gen will be more like the PS3/360 era where they were both battling it out rather than this time where Sony disappeared into the distance leaving all in its dust. However, it does remain to be seen what difference gamepass makes. Sony will have exclusive games, yet Microsoft won't have any, because they will also be for Xbox One and PC. It's interesting times, and we have yet to see what Sony have in store. The momentum might be with Microsoft so far, but three times out of four Sonys blown away the competition (blowing Sega out of consoles altogether) so it seems like they are biding their time and waiting for the opportunity to deliver a shattering blow.

I hope MS, Sony and Nintendo (or any newcomer or old veteran) have much success.

For a long time now Microsoft's offering has been heavily reliant on 3rd party titles with a small portion of 1st party content/exclusive content. If they really want to compete, I'd say that's one are they need to improve.

That said, between PS5 and XboxX, right now I'm leaning XboxX. Because of the backward compatibility.

Phil knows what he is doing. They need to play the long game, so this is a smart mindset to have. In the old days, they would have just thrown some $ at 3rd party developers to buy timed exclusives instead.

Let Sony do that garbage. Deals like Sony has with Activision are pointless & just piss of lots of gamers. I’m glad Phil is done with that nonsense. Sony is going to be desperate because I doubt they will have much in the way of 1st party games for PS5 for awhile. Plus the XSX is way more powerful than the PS5.

Smart move by Phil & his team.

I just ordered a Xbox myself, for me the BC of XBox is more future proof since its in software and should run on every XBox in the future.

On the PS5 it seems BC is all in hardware and I would guess on the PS6 it will get difficult to make the hardware compatible for PS4 and PS5. Maybe they will also make BC in software in the future, time will tell.

But for now on, I will get the multi-plat-games on XBox and only the exclusives on PS5

Phil Spencer has been doing this since he is boss of Xbox but it will be easier with a brand-new generation. With the better hardware, better digital rights, better backwards compatibility, better online services and a lot of Xbox Game Studios and thus more variety in their first-party offering, I think that Series X will be more like Xbox 360 than Xbox One in terms of prestige and commercial performance.

I don't know how many PS4 players are willing to change console but Play Anywhere, xCloud and Game Pass will boost Series X sales rather than making gamers play on mobile devices and PC exclusively. Consoles are very relevant and Series X is very generous.

The question is will PS4 players change their primary console to Series X and how important Sony's exclusives will be? And I don't mean paid timed exclusives but the next Uncharted, The Last of Us, Spiderman, God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn because those are Sony's best-sellers on PS4 and although they have performed really well I think that that extraordinary commercial performance is related to the install base advantage that Sony had right from the start when Don Mattrick messed Xbox One launch up and PS4 was popular even without games.

Honestly at this point, coming from a huge PlayStation fan over anything else, I think as good as MS has done so far with the messaging all it really needs to do is sit back and watch Sony idiotically continue to shoot itself in the foot. The people largely responsible for getting PlayStation back on track this gen have either moved on to other companies, retired or taken lesser roles. Jack Tretton, Adam Boyes and Andrew House who were three of the big 4 are all out, Shu Yoshia, the other member has taken a diminished role (not surprising as the dopes in charge clearly have a lack of respect for the Japanese market, which I'll get to later in this comment). The biggest champion of the brand, Kaz Hirai, retired and turned the company over to a fool who seems to value service-based gaming over anything else. Who do the others get replaced by? One man, Jim Ryan of the infamous 'who wants to play old games' line in regards to backwards compatibility. I'm 36 years old, remember the Genesis, SNES and PS2 in their primes and would happily take many games from those eras over most of the trash from the last two gens, especially from 2011 to now.

Beyond the personnel decisions there is the completely idiotic censorship policy that is aimed at Japanese games because female characters showing skin is bad but ripping off heads and limbs is totally fine... And while Sony is doing that sh*t, Spencer is taking trips to Japan to try and restore some relationships that needed to be fixed. NieR Automata, the Yakuza games and Phantasy Star Online 2 were all big gets and MS at the corporate level has generally been hands off in regards to censoring games leaving design decisions to the people who work on them.

Lastly, with Horizon Zero Dawn set to hit PC, rumors all over the place about God of War and MLB The Show going multiplat starting next year, even to Xbox, the PS brand has been severely devalued the same way many chastise MS for.

Even with all this disarray at Sony, I still have a tough time seeing MS close the big gap it has to in Europe and Japan to the point where it beats Sony out right but it could easily dominate the North American market like it did last gen and in doing that it closes the gap enough that the overall tally won't be so hugely in favor of PS5 and it'll hopefully force Sony to stop making idiotic decisions that don't benefit anybody and in some cases have hurt Japanese devs.

MS have been doing a lot right with the Series X in terms of the player base and consumers BUT it seems more and more that developers actually prefer the PS5 to the Series X, these are the people actually making the games so surely MS should also be putting some focus on them too, the PS3 was the more powerful system but because it was the hardest to develop for it caused issues and while it's not as bad as the difference between 360 and PS3 if the PS5 is the easier and more developer friendly system, isn't that going to be where they will have focus?

it's all right touting how powerful your system is, like Sony did with the PS3 but you have to have developers on board too

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/04/ps5_is_the_better_next-gen_console_according_to_crytek_developer

MS have been doing a lot right with the Series X in terms of the player base and consumers BUT it seems more and more that developers actually prefer the PS5 to the Series X, these are the people actually making the games so surely MS should also be putting some focus on them too, the PS3 was the more powerful system but because it was the hardest to develop for it caused issues and while it's not as bad as the difference between 360 and PS3 if the PS5 is the easier and more developer friendly system, isn't that going to be where they will have focus?

it's all right touting how powerful your system is, like Sony did with the PS3 but you have to have developers on board too

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2020/04/ps5_is_the_better_next-gen_console_according_to_crytek_developer

@FullbringIchigo I don't think a Crytek developer is a good representation of developers. If it's a continuous stream then it would be different.

I also don't think Microsoft will fall into the same trap Sony did with PS3. For starters, Sony intentionally made PS3 difficult to program and secondly, Microsoft consoles have historically not been tough to program so I doubt they are going to suddenly change that now.

@Gamer83 remember there was that rumoured power struggle at Sony between Layden and Ryan? Which Ryan won because Layden left. As someone who has owned every PlayStation console, I'm not happy their games are coming to PC (if they charge people for an updated Horizon on PS5 when Microsoft is offering free upgrades that won't go down well), it feels like Sonys losing the plot. Already with the PS4 it didn't 'feel' like a proper PlayStation since the Kutaragi era was over, but multiformat exclusives? No. Just no

@SuperNintendoMii
I actually like the PS4 a lot, but completely agree Sony has lost the plot here at the end and that doesn't bode well for next-gen. Jim Ryan has had a lot of success with running things for Sony over in Europe, but I wonder how much of that is him or the people around him. Either way, I think he was absolutely a bad choice to run the whole show. Hope I'm wrong but so far it doesn't look like I am. The only people hyped for PS5 are the ones who are already hardcore fanboys who think their corporate mother can do no wrong.

@FullbringIchigo

You’ll have to excuse if I don’t take a complete article (written on a PlayStation fanboy website) about one random developer, from a company (Crytek) that barely makes games anymore very seriously. I get that Sony fans are being very defensive because the PS5 is less powerful than the XSX & Sony’s lack of messaging, but give me a break.

If I wanted to take the time to look up every article on the internet about developers talking about the XSX, I could. But no thanks.

Microsoft is not going to pull the nonsense that Sony pulled with the PS3. I highly doubt that Phil Spencer will be telling people to “get a second job”.

What the Crytek developer said doesn't make sense to me. How does he know if Series X has any bottlenecks and why would be better to have variable lower specifications like PS5?

Regarding third-party support, Xbox One X had more support than PS4 Pro and the games were almost always more optimised for Xbox One X so I don't buy the "developers will optimise for the lower-specifications console" idea either, especially considering that it's a brand-new generation and on Xbox One X games had to specifically enhanced and it was a mid-generation upgrade.

That Crytek developer has retracted his claims now and all mention of it has attempted to be scrubbed from the Internet. Good luck with that

"Do you think Xbox Series X can be more popular than PlayStation 5?"

SeX will not outsell the PS5 (maybe), but the Xbox platform will be more popular PlayStation.

@KelticDevil to be fair that "fanboy" website is that sister site of this site so if it is one then so is this

and yes that was one but there have been others before, it's just like this one the posts get taken down quite quickly, probably because it's against a NDA or something

@FullbringIchigo

The sister site & this site are WAY different. A lot more toxicity over there, so no they are not the same.

And I don’t remember anyone else saying what you are claiming they said. And if someone did, I’m sure your “sister site” would do an article about it.

@KelticDevil all i did was share a bit of news about what a developer said about the next gen systems and how it MIGHT be an issue if it's true and then you jump on it and make it look like i was personally attacking the XBOX systems

Push Square might be getting a bit over zealous of late but if anyone is acting the hurt fanboy here it's you

@FullbringIchigo

I was just pointing out the fact that you say developerS (plural) has said that they prefer the PS5 over XSX, but you have no proof of that at all. If you do, then let’s see it.

The one developer that you brought up barely makes games anymore & has since retracted his statement.

@KelticDevil ahh i see then i apologise, the fault is all mine

I also apologise for being snappy but i have been a bit stressed lately, the pressure at work is getting high during this current situation, it's not a excuse but it's all i have

@FullbringIchigo

No worries. 👍🏻 I hear ya. These are stressful times.