As Xbox gobbles up publishers and studios like nobody's business, we're all left wondering what the end game is. The company has expressed that it has Amazon and Google in its sights, rather than Sony, and Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford seems to agree that Microsoft doesn't want to directly compete with Sony.
In a series of tweets, Pitchford expressed his opinion on Microsoft vs. Sony. Essentially, he thinks Microsoft simply wants their software wherever they can get it.
In this day and age, it may well be true that Microsoft doesn't see Sony as a main competitor. After all, Xbox Boss Phil Spencer recently said that he trusts both Sony and Nintendo in the gaming space.
However, we think it's a bit of a stretch to say they've never been competitors. Microsoft got into the console business to essentially prevent Sony from 'dominating the living room', and there's always been some rivalry there.
Do you think Xbox still sees PlayStation as a huge competitor? Let us know below.
[source twitter.com, via gamereactor.eu]
Comments 21
I agree with point about xbox wanting their games on sony. They will make a lot of money off call of duty on the PS platform.
As long as both consoles can read thumb drives, Randy's covered.
If you've watched the Xbox documentary from last December, then you would know that that's not true at all. They have absolutely been competitors.
Going forward though, I do think Microsoft is going to want Game Pass on as many platforms as they can, hence fulfilling the "we want everyone to play our games" idea.
Microsoft want Game Pass everywhere, want their games available on 'every' platform so 'every' gamer can subscribe. At the moment, Game Pass is available 'everywhere' except Playstation and Switch.
They keep saying these games will be available Day1 where Game Pass exists. Of course they have 'competed' before - when Xbox was a side project at MS and had the same 'business' model, competing in the 'same' space, then yes they were in competition, but not in recent years.
To me, it seems that if Sony/Nintendo allow Game Pass, even a 'curated' list of games (not including Forza, Halo or Gears for example) and this entire argument is gone...
That was the whole point in Windows being created and why MS partnered with IBM as a competitor to the Apple Macintosh. Apple wanted a proprietary system (like they always do) and MS wanted something that everyone could use.
Might want to check your facts there Mr. Pitchford.
Honestly i would like to see MS and Sony a allies. I wouldn't mind Sonys games on Xbox and vice versa. Sony releasing their games on PC is what makes me worrying
Apparently, Microsoft and Steam aren't competitors either, seeing as Microsoft doesn't have a proprietary storefront on PC. No, no... some rando big tech company with a cloud gaming service in beta, THAT'S the real competitor. smh
Outside of maybe CoD, I still think Activision games will be Xbox exclusive.
I sometimes wonder how inward looking we as gamers (and Sony) are, though. Thinking of the Apple article yesterday, and you look at Apple's utterly mammoth market footprint, does Sony even have a marketshare worth poaching? They may boast 110M PS4s but even 110M is just a niche market. (and the 15-20% that actually buy Sony's games even more niche.
The entire console space is a pretty tiny, low margin space compared to where big tech is. Sony treats it like it's the next big thing. Microsoft is just diversifying it into services. Nintendo more or less just makes new toys to play with and got out of the whole "console gaming" idea. I doubt MS is too interested in poaching the Sony market, even if they were a monopoly in the small console-space last gen, and they're a lot more worried about Google trying to move it all into services, and Facebook that even as a fad could outsell all 3 combined, and Apple that already does.
Nothing wrong with a niche market. A niche that produces money is a valid market. But I think we tend to think of our niche as much bigger than it actually is, and much more desirable a market than it really is. Yeah it's big money in revenues, but it's high expense and modest profit by big conglomerate standards, which is why MS is pushing gaming beyond consoles so hard.
Still, Bethesda games not going to Sony prove there's definitely a competitive strategy against Sony going on. Otherwise, they'd have just made sure to publish Starfield on PS, but not on iOS and Stadia. Randy would have had a point if we were still on Matrick's strategy of not believing in exclusives. MS moving back to exclusives squarely competes against Sony. They could choose to partner with Sony and exclude Google, but that's not what they did.
Sure, the people within the xbox division would be competitive with sony but I think pitchford is saying microsoft as a whole doesnt care if nintendo and playstation outsells xbox. As long as xbox is above water and producing a profit it will be helpful to Microsoft as a whole in their competition with the other heavyweights in the tech industry. Nowadays they are seeing that xbox can be very profitable if they put resources into it. Their goal is to carve out a space in console gaming, not force sony out of the console space. Their focus is clearly on software (like gamepass) and not hardware.
Amazon makes batteries but I doubt they see Duracell as a competitor. Batteries are just another thing they can offer and profit from.
Bill Gates took Sony's comments about the ps2 being a PC replacement seriously at the time hence the xbox but it was quickly realized that consoles are not a viable replacement to desktop/laptop and no threat to windows. Like they said in the documentary, no one wants to look at a spreadsheet from the couch. Xbox even found out that not many people want consoles to take over their TV as a whole like the xbox one was supposed to.
Not sure if it’s gamepass or the recent purchase of Activision, but in the UK Argos and Game had series x for sale as bundles Monday and Tuesday, Argos was at £660 bundle.
But everything sold out quicker than usual especially for bundles as scalpers and others avoid bundles.
Interesting times ahead in this competitive market.
Excuse me good sir but you are talking out of your arse.
Series X seems to be getting more common, CEX only want 500 rather than 630 now. Ps5 is still 625. Also found a series x mint new in a local game shop for 430.
Did randy pitchford ever get his USB drive back?
Personally, they have allways been competitors to me. But Microsofts path is changing, I'll give it another generation and I can anything but guarantee that gamepass will be available on PlayStation and Nintendo. Xbox consoles can stop being made (saving Microsoft the notes) which then inevitably all those users will flock to the places they can use it. Realistically.. this approach could even benefit the likes of Sony and Nintendo. (I could be wrong haha)
But Xbox hardware is better than Sonys
Sony’s, like, “They better not pull Call of Duty from our platform!” Microsoft’s, like, “Bro - having our games on your platform is what we’ve been trying to do all along. I guess spending $2.5b on Minecraft wasn’t enough to convince you?”
Oh yeah, so sony getting Bethesda games then yeah?
Guy talks a load of crap
@EquiinoxGII As long as MS is making Surface products, I don't see them stopping making consoles unless consoles drop in popularity enough they don't sell. They hardware division, R&D and manufacturing relationships are in place for Surface anyway, and it's possible the larger purchase orders for Xbox help drive their per-unit costs down across the whole Surface lineup, datacenter components, etc. At the end of the day, Xbox is just a Surface Book: Gamer Edition without a screen or battery for less money. Plus the consoles net them larger retail footprint and thus advertising space. Unless they start losing a lot of money selling consoles, they gain a lot by selling them, even if it's break-even on the actual hardware.
Plus, Microsoft games are DirectX based, which is a CORE component of theirs for Windows. PS games are not. It wouldn't be doing MS any good to just make a bunch of ports for other company's APIs and help wither their own they were trying to protect by creating Xbox to begin with.
@MyThoughts31 After that big dump of them in December in the UK it seems like scalper antics have been curbed a lot there. I still don't know how that happened. Nothing like that has happened in the US. Scalper prices are certainly down in the 650-700 range from the 800-1k range they were in at Christmas, but they're still not really more available than PS5 here.
@EquiinoxGII This would be a sad reality and I wouldn't know if I even want to buy/play on a PlayStation or Nintendo console, I don't like or agree with their practices. I like Xbox for their games, their consumer friendliness and their hardware. Not having an Xbox hardware where I can play games on would probably drive me away from Game Pass.
They are competitors. But MS knows that they cannot beat Sony in its own ground (traditional hardware business and first party exclusives), so, they want to change the ground. Turning games into a service and changing the customers habits. The way Netflix an Spotify did with movies and music. If customers get used to pla AAA games day 1 on a sub service, the gradualy avoid payin 70$ for a game. In the long run Sony will lose.
@JudaiMasters while I semi agree, let's not forget all of these companies are only in this game for one thing and that's the money. It wasnt so long ago Microsoft tried to make everything digital, which is ironically how they are heading now. It's just got a different face. But it's still the same product they envisoned when they announced the Xbox one. Gaming is unfortunately changing (as digital media in general has) with netflix, Disney e.c.t
I don't think any company is consumer friendly really, on the face of it yes, but deep down it's about the profits.
Tap here to load 21 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...