Topic: Console Wars: Who's Winning?

@Anti-Matter No, it's Patrick.

@KirbyTheVampire Sony undoubtedly won this generation, half of which was thanks to the competition cocking up, some of which Sony seems all too willing to indulge in going forward.

People really underestimate the casual audience. Sony didn't win this generation because of their exclusives or better specs. Why did the Wii sell so well? Because of the casual audience. Why is the PS4 selling so well? Because when a casual is looking for a console to play Fifa and CoD (or in your case Americans, Madden) they have 2 choices: Xbox One or PS4 (WiiU didn't have those options). Playstation has more brand recognition than Xbox so people will choose to buy it first. Then new casuals wanted to play with their friends so they had to buy PS4 and not Xbox. That's also the reason why Sony won't allow crossplay.

The Switch tho, it's a new interesting concept that appeals to casuals and gamers alike, so of course it'll sell. Simply because it allows portable play of Fifa, Nba and Mario Kart and can be shared with friends. With the release of Mario Party, Smash and hopefully all CoD games it'll probably sell as much as the PS4.

@Octane
Why is your comment oftenly harsh to me ?
Are you still mad to me ?

Nice one. What's a paragraph when it's at home? I think the games industry has become one big rip off really now, they want your money for everything twice or maybe even 3x now? The definitive remastered edition revamped in some poop and an in game T-shirt 👕skin to go!

@Alber-san Not sure about that. The XBox 360 was on top for a while last generation, and I doubt the average "casual" has much loyalty to any particular brand. However I think Microsoft have really done themselves a disservice this generation by not offering many compelling exclusives.

As for who's "winning"? I'd say any company with a decent install base and looks like they're still in the running - that's all of them. All three companies have something going for them, and to some extent they're all contributing something unique to the market. Ultimately it doesn't really matter who has the market share as long as all platforms are strong, as they are at the moment.

@Octane wow that’s a great picture of Patrick

@Octane I want one...but so many people say it's a scam. I want to believe

@Anti-Matter You don't get the reference?

@GrailUK It probably is lol. I'm not sure what it is, like a new Ouya?

The Wii was a success because Nintendo went with novelty motion control over power and found a whole new market of non gamers. Now even granny could play a video game like wii sports tennis or a dumbed down version of Cod because she could point a wii remote and shoot at the TV. Once nearly everyone brought a wii that was it and even now some might still think the Wiiu was a wii add-on like wii fit! Nintendo messed up with the Wiiu because the Wii was a best seller for them they felt unstoppable and drunk on successful finding a whole new market of people who maybe just got the Wii and only ever played one game, wii sports at Xmas. Nobody understood what Wiiu was both developers and consumers alike. Devs didn't like extra work for the second screen and it was mostly just used as a big mini map. They tried to sell it saying it was also portable but it wasn't really as you lost the signal from the main console sometimes if a wall between it. Nintendo know their best product is portable consoles because the DS family killed a much more powerful portable system if anyone recalls something called the Vita? Nintendo are using the Switch to finally replace the 3DS and other DS family portables. The Switch has even gone back to cartridges like the DS. Nintendo however do really need to be banging software out now to keep its momentum it had with a good launch followed by games like Splatoon 2 and odyssey. Also a few good 3rd party ports from Bethesda like Skyrim and Doom. They should of been working with that studio offering whatever help and support they needed to get Dark souls out in May the as the PS4 and Xbox1 versions got released. Most likely if you had a PS4 and a Switch or an Xbox1 and a Switch and never played Dark souls before, then you would just buy it in May even if you couldn't play it on the train or in the loo. That's a big shame because software drives hardware sales and Nintendo just lost a big 3rd party game they need to support the Switch now until they can get a new game developed and ready. Also they should have let the devs of the Payday 2 port put the game on the dumb phone app they decided to have for party chat. Apparently they asked Nintendo and had even designed the game to run using the Nintendo online app, but so far it's been refused! Stupid moves are not what Nintendo should be doing right now. Put the cardboard box toys away and focus on actually Switch games is what they should be doing or at least I would. Also the reason for paying them a subscription for online services I can really see as a benefit to the Switch is it will allow you to backup game saves on cloud storage. Until then some players could lose a few hundred hours of Zelda BotW if the Switch broke or had a fault, and this has actually happened to some people because there's no way to backup Switch game saves just from the system like to an SD card or flash drive. Kinda mad design unless planned on purpose for the future need for a subscription fee for a simple option!

Xbox sells better in the USA and PlayStation in Europen and Japan. Xbox sales are very poor in Japan. Nintendo and Sony sales are strong in Japan. Imagine if Nintendo and Sony had actually worked together and made the console they started on before they fell out with each other. Microsoft would probably have just stuck to PC because they would have no way to compete with Nintendo and Sony in-house studio exclusives.

@Buizel
I wouldn't call it brand loyalty (although the casual audience are the people who buy iphones because of the apple logo) but more of a "PS has been around for a longer time, I've had one of them before and know I'll like it" mentality.

And I feel Xbox failed not because of exclusives but because online play was a thing now and people wanted to play with their friends. So people bought PS4 and their friends were "forced" to buy it too.

@Snaplocket I mean more when it comes to new first party titles than anything else. For me, a lineup consisting of indies, ports, and a few big third party and first party games isn't a very good lineup, especially since the vast majority of people buy a Nintendo console to play Nintendo games, but I'm glad if other people are happy with it.

Sales wise, Sony is ruler. Realistically tho, gamers are doing great with a variety of quality games to play. Despite some questionable business practices, a lot of good quality games have come out recently and in the future. Cheering on companies always feels strange when I do it.

@KirbyTheVampire well, tbh two of the biggest Nintendo franchises are receiving big iterations this year. That probably satisfies a good chunk of Nintendo only fans.

Actually Switch has an amazing library, With loads of first and third party games, if you cared to study it you would know. Xbox and Switch so far are winning in my opinion, with Sony only having a great e3 presentation and new games. @Dezzy

@-Green- Probably, but still, to say that the lineup this year is strong is just wishful thinking IMO. Glad others are satisfied, though.

I don't know. Seems like a pretty good line-up of quality games. Perhaps not a large one tho. Haven't looked it up.

Maybe if you include all the small indie games and Wiiu ports that bulk up the Switch library, but it could still benefit from 3rd parties like ubisoft to fill the drought gaps between Nintendo games. Microsoft messed up with the release of the Xbox1 with some terrible pre release annocements, like it will only play new games not preowned. Ok they did back peddle on a lot of things like squirming politicians but the damage control came to late, most loyal Xbox fans had swapped preorders to the PS4. That's why there's still twice as many sold round the world. I think the PS4 with its strong exclusive game studio's and PSVR will remain the main home console of choice, at least until 2020 or longer? The Switch will be the main portable games console of choice, with Nintendo maybe releasing a Switch version 1.2 a year or 2 later?

@Snaplocket Who'da thunk?

Ouya was, is and will be king forever.