Xbox Has Much Weaker Brand Momentum Than PlayStation, Claims New Sony Document

sadly, they're not wrong

By momentum they don't mean sales, they most likely mean how much people talk about a brand via word of mouth, social media, twitch, youtube, Google searches etc

I think once the ABK deal passes then xbox will surely increase their momentum, even some actual great advertising would do it as well.

The CMA should check Sony's claims.

I'm not a fanboy, but Nintendo, barring one instance, has always been top dog.
Sony can't help but insult the other companies.

Also, this may actually help the MicroActiBlizz deal.
They just said that XboX is not something to fear at all.

@Banjo-
What does the Country Music Awards have to do with this.

Sony pretty much told the CMA one thing and the rest another, knowing that the CMA would do what they did, and it was mildly successful.

Microsoft could sue the CMA for effectively rendering the deal impossible to complete 'while they deliberate over it'.

@Banjo- didn’t Jim Ryan tell the CMA if MS get’s COD the PlayStation business is doomed? Now it’s got all the sales and word of mouth. Sorry that comes off as ugly to me. Not trying to start console war BS, but that is a company talking out of both sides of the mouth so to speak.

That's funny, because there's nothing on the Playstation that I want to play. It's why I bought an xbox instead. That being said, in my opinion, just about every game out there, is unoriginal. But that's a video game industry problem.

Seems correct. MS has seriously botched current gen (while at the same time having highest potential to succeed at it's beginning), to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if some bigwig heads started to fall soon.

Even most of the people on Push Square are calling this out, lol.

What the hell does "brand momentum" even mean? Switch has consistently outsold Playstation hardware until this year, and, culturally, they dominated social media during the height of the pandemic.

Obviously MS should be allowed to buy Activision Blizzard. Seems to prove the point

@Ralizah it’s more if you ask someone to ‘name a games console’ … PlayStation probably is the most common answer.

It’s probably also higher searched on Google etc.

It’s nothing to do with outselling etc etc.

But good one purexbox to try stoke the console wars, I guess looking at other articles traffic has dropped a lot.

Right now, yes.

Should have kept the games flowing for Series launch.

Even better would have been not to take a dive at the XboxOne launch.

The only funny thing about this graph is that it’s winding Nintendo fans up too 🤣

I don’t think it’s altogether wrong, PS5 and PlayStation has had more momentum (not sales) than the other 2 brands for a couple of years now. It’s the ‘trendy’ console to have. The iPhone of the console space.

Nintendo smash everything when it comes to sales but that’s also on ancient hardware at this point with less momentum imo and we can all agree Xbox is definitely in last place.

FPS Boost was one of the big wins Xbox had, just wish they were still doing it.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Probably in the UK. Not necessarily in the States. DEFINITELY not in Japan.

No metrics are defined here, and the data doesn't really align with what we know about Nintendo's own momentum in terms of public awareness (like, where are the obvious spikes that occurred in certain points in its lifecycle)?

I agree Xbox is bottom but i don't buy Sony is above Nintendo.

@WallyWest agreed. Zelda Sold 10 million copies in the opening hours/days. All 3 are popular in their own right, but the internet likes to stir the fan’s up cause it makes them click money.

@Green-Bandit I mean MS does the same, Phil says one thing and does the other. This is just typical Corp stuff and lying to get what they want is 2nd nature to them.

@Green-Bandit and Mario made over a billion at the box office as well.

@WallyWest @Green-Bandit this graph has 0 to do with sales you do recognise that right?

@PROPS What exactly were you wanting to play on Xbox?

That graph is pure nonsense. There is no way that Sony was above Switch on every single one of those datapoints unless this is entirely based on complaints about scarcity.

@Spider-Kev Right 😁.

The timing of this report might help Microsoft with the following:

Microsoft will on Wednesday lodge a formal appeal against British regulators’ decision to block its $75bn takeover of Activision Blizzard, the Call of Duty maker.

Sky News understands that the technology behemoth will file its complaint with the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) within hours, sparking the next phase of its fight to secure one of the world's biggest takeover deals for years.

@Kaloudz

There, there, mate. See my previous post , - this might help Microsoft 😉.

I don't doubt that Xbox is 3rd in whatever they're measuring here, but what the heck are they even measuring? The strongest gaming brand? How does someone measure that? Are they talking about social media? Mascots? Console opinion? As someone who has family in different parts of the world, I can say Pikachu alone has more brand power than Sony if we're talking about recognition.

Such a lame chart. Didn't the CMA force Sony to disclose a ton of stuff? Why aren't we getting to hear more about their exclusive contracts and how they deal with developers?

I’m sure Sony does run circles around MS/Xbox. But Nintendo? Last time I checked the Super Mario Bros movie hit a billion at the box office so… whose brand had hit what much momentum ?

Wonder if Sony shared that with the CMA?... They sure like to feign victimhood as they dominate the market...

@WallyWest at least Phil tends to be a bit more specific on what he is talking about. It’s always about engagement, and they have expressed plenty of times that means number of users and hours spent playing on Xbox platforms and services.

What does this “brand momentum” even mean?

@Utena-mobile it’s more marketing questions, I.e ‘name a games console’ and ps5 came out on top.

Just as coke is more recognisable than cheap cola, or McDonald’s is more well known than kfc and Burger King. Or IPhone is more recognisable than Siemens and Nokia or whatever

But so many people here and on push square don’t even understand what they are looking at and think it is to do with sales or a company doing better than another, when In Reality it doesn’t.

It's completely understandable.
Xbox doesn't have an identity anymore. Nintendo has a handheld that turns into a TV console.
Sony has a controller with great features like the mic that my friends always complain my controller can't do.
While Xbox is just a PC that plays games on a tv, there is nothing interesting about it.

Very true, non gamers mostly know PlayStation!

Looking at this with a non-biased view, PlayStation as a brand would be bigger than Xbox. I love my Xbox and it’s my console of choice but I can clearly see where Xbox falls behind PlayStation when it comes to brand momentum, but I don’t think PlayStation is higher than Nintendo. This is just my observation, but looking at things like sales, longevity, games/consoles trending, recognizable characters/IPs… Nintendo would have the higher brand momentum. No dis to PlayStation, but I think their chart is a bit off in their favor.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Thank you for clearing that up, that makes more sense. Although I think releasing more of the metric data would help make this chart clearer.

Is it sad that even when I was confused about the chart, I still believed that Xbox was in 3rd? ( T_T)

CEO’s love a chart that says they are doing something better that the competition.
There are lies, damn lies and charts….

@Ralizah @Wheatley Depending on whatever data they based this on (I'm still betting social analytics/google analytics/surveys) one thing that would keep them where they are is that the company, product, and brand are all the same word. Nobody talks about "sony console" or "sony games" (other than enthusiast cirlces), "playstation" is "playstation. The company, the product, the publishing, the brand. I think people are more likely to talk about "microsoft" than "xbox" specifically, and "switch" more than "nintendo" whereas a "playstation" is playstation.

I.E. I wonder what the "brand momentum" of "microsoft vs sony" would be rather than "playstation vs xbox." And we'd have to include talk about Xplod car audio and Excel. Easy to guess a winner. "Nintendo" still doesn't make as much sense but I think if we compare "pikachu" vs "playstation" we'd see a very different graph, lol.

@Microbius It really is amazing to me that the whole time Sony has been doing "poor us against evil Microsoft monopoly" they relentlessly have not missed any moment to use data points to declare both Microsoft and Nintendo completely irrelevant competition against their self-acknowledged market monopoly. And even more amazing that amidst that CMA decided that MS could become a monopoly in some future non-existent cloud future business.

@Spider-Kev Country Music Awards promotes Taylor Swift. Sammy Barker is in love with Taylor Swift. Sammy is the editor of Push Square which is about PlayStation. CONNECT THE DOTS!!

@Utena-mobile honestly it’s Sonys own company doing the marketing research. It isn’t really worthy of an article on purexbox.

But because the ABK articles have dried up, it needed something to keep the console wars going, because it’s only this type of article that garners comments.

I'll just copy here, what I posted on Pure:

And this is why Microsoft is trying to buy ABK. If they do not succeed they will gradually fade into obscurity, which will be good for no one as left unchecked, Sony will be able to do what they like with their pricing strategy. Indeed, it is these figures that enabled Sony to raise the price of their console first, and likewise their games. There is absolutely no way Sony would have launched the PS5 at the same price as the Series X had they not see the Xbox as a competitor (of sorts), and when Xbox no longer exists, Sony won't be forced into selling their consoles at a loss as it likely does now.

As it stands, Sony are so dominant that Microsoft cannot even get any big third-party exclusives. The current split between PlayStation and Xbox is about 70/30, and so Microsoft is immediately at a disadvantage because they have to pay well over the odds to get anything as an exclusive because the Developers would be opting to miss out on 70% of their potential sales by choosing to put their game on the Xbox as an exclusive. It is why the Xbox has not had a single big third-party exclusive thus far this generation.

Any yes, I know people like to say that Microsoft should develop their own exclusives, and they are absolutely right to say so. However, the Xbox needs the influx of those games right now, as to wait even another year, will see them fall still further behind and make competing in any capacity even more difficult.

I know Microsoft say that the ABK is not a make or break acquisition, but that's their public persona. Behind closed doors I imagine they see it very differently...

Instead of introspecting at the fact Xbox is undoubtedly third out of three console space competitors, leave it to purexbox comments section to make this news about "Sony lied about Nintendo".

Im the most handsome boy in the class. My mom said so.

Nobody cares what Sony thinks. I don't.

@FatalBubbles

I actually bought the Xbox Series X, for Cyber Punk 2077. Well, that and a few other reasons. First, I wanted my digital library from back during the 360 era. Second, Ultimate Game Pass would allow me to play games on both my PC and Xbox (I own Halo: Master Chief Edition along with a few others).

Now, all I'm playing is Fallout 76...while I'm waiting for Diablo 4. But honestly, I'm not sure how long my interest is going to last, as most games are just the same old game mechanics, with updated graphics. Concerning Diablo 4...I played during the beta and while it was fun, I can already tell, it's going to be a long grind that I've experienced, over and over and over in the past.

How many overpaid suits did it take them to figure that out?

@PROPS That makes sense for your situation then for sure.

Man I hope D4 is awesome. I also played the beta and outside the first hour or so I enjoyed it a lot. The number of hours they’ve said to get to max level is crazy though.

@NEStalgia I'm not American but I love some country songs by male artists and some pop songs by female singers but Taylor Swift is the worst thing ever. Another thing wrong with him, I guess.

MS: "Thank you Sony we will use this document against the CMA and FTC to boost"

The CMA pretty much dismissed Sonys concerns altogether and focussed on cloud gaming in their ruling. Whatever Sony say now be it nonsense they are pegging or otherwise isnt really relevant to it anymore as they arent involved much in that space (yet).

I imagine MS appeal will centre on data around the cloud market and not Sony talking fantasy land during an internal meeting.

@Cikajovazmaj I would be worried if everyone here were trying to make the case that Xbox ISN'T in 3rd place. But even though Purexbox has a community of diehard fans, no one doubts that Xbox is struggling. Maybe not here, but trust me, we've had plenty of introspection on other articles.

Hahahaha it’s like the ultimate copium from Sony, I think they are upset the Switch is in track to out sell the PS2 and Sony know they can’t touch it, and can’t touch Microsoft’s budget for acquisitions.

I think after that awful PlayStation showcase Xbox has little to worry about.

lol that showcase just proves Sony shot there wad .... what two years ago? Sony cant keep up especially when they're losing CoD exclusivity deal.

Karma's a bitch! sorry Ponies!

@FatalBubbles

I think Diablo 4 will be awesome, especially to younger players. But for me? Starting with a wooden weapon, only to become the most powerful player after investing a year into a game...gets old. And so goes the age old saying, "The definition of crazy, is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results". Throwing a ball at a wall is fun....but for how long? Eventually it becomes a chore.

Sadly, after skipping an entire generation and a half of console gaming, I reenter the gaming industry; listening to reviews, buying highly rated games...only to find, like I said before, the same exact game mechanics, just with updated graphics.

And it's nothing against Microsoft or thier console, but what I've played up until this point, if nothing changes, I'll probably retire from playing games altogether with the next generation of consoles.

Now, on the flip side of things, I think Sony's worried. Worried that Microsoft does have the edge. As consoles and gaming PC's become one in the same, Microsoft will have the upper hand...simply because Sony isn't in the business of programming operating systems. And with the Steam handheld just getting started...I wouldn't be surprised if the two companies teamed up to put Nintendo and Sony out of the video game market. At least Nintendo is working with Microsoft. And I'm sure, if Nintendo didn't have thier handheld devices, they'd become another Sega.

And just one more thing. Sony is being a little b*tch about the Microsoft Activision merger. To me, that's Sony showing thier fear.

@Fiendish-Beaver thats really just it. sony now doesn't even need to do their own JRPGs because their third party hold is so strong that its already filled. All we see now from them is open world and marvel. which is an utter shame too. Its just weird too because in terms of how many first party have been coming out between PS an Xbox, xbox isn't actually all that different in that regard. It just feels like their variety is also lacking.
Only one that isn't would be nintendo.
The market really does need to level out.

@PsBoxSwitchOwner correct it isn’t a sale chart it is a momentum chart.

@WallyWest i am very aware of what Phil does and doesn’t do to my emotions HAHA, i just thought the whole we are doomed if MS get’s COD was a huge stretch. Apparently so did the CMA as they said they are fine with whatever MS does on the console side.😀

@Banjo- Anybody that has a shred of taste agrees

@NEStalgia Some country songs are cool and there are banjos 😁 but I don't know the names, I will ask on a thread LOL. There's something special about that genre.

Who Cares - We Love Xbox

"Sony is awesome", says Sony.

After yesterday's showcase, people are talking for the wrong reasons haha. Let's see what xbox brings in June. Hopefully they ain't shooting themselves in the foot again.