Nintendo's Advertising Spend Drops In September, As PlayStation Takes Top Spot With Spider-Man

When you're up against Spiderman, Assassins Creed, Tomb Raider and FIFA and all you've got is Labo Toy Con, it's best to just go hide in the corner and wait until Smash is ready.

I have a feeling Nintendo will Smash the competition to pieces come December 7th.

@OorWullie

And don't forget, Zone of the enders 2and Dragon Quest XI too !

Just insane how many great games you can get on PS4... :/

You and me can rule this city Spider-Man!

Or we can just take over every single commercial break!

doubled*

doubled*

Not surprised. I played (and Platinum'd) Spider-Man and I thought it was great. I do hope Insomniac Games gets to work on a new Ratchet & Clank game that isn't a "reimagining", though.

@Cobalt @OorWullie
At least the Vehicle Kit actually looks like appealing...

@BensonUii how dare he post a fact.

@BensonUii

Not at all, just a cold and final statement. I talk facts ! And guess what ? This month is the same again :

Ken Fist of the North Star
COD IIII
Resonance of Faith 4K/HD
Soulcalibur VI
Red Dead Redemption 2

And what you get on Switch ? Mario Party... :/

Games sell consoles, not cardboard cutouts.

Smash Bros will sell well, it has its fans, but most of its fans I would guess have a Switch already. I'm not sure it will sell that many consoles, but Fortnite should.

@Cobalt
"Just insane how many great games you can get on PS4."

Not even more than 3 games for me.
Not Even.
PS4 has the WORST Game library in the bunch.
Everyday just even worse and worse the game library i found on PS4.

@Cobalt Yep PS4 is a good console. I don't think many argue that. I prefer the Switch myself, but you are right, it's definitely a great time to be a PS4 owner. Especially after such a slow start.

Btw, my eyes are just Look at LABO Toy Con 03 commercial, ignore completely Spiderman games commercial and other PS4 / Xbox1 games commercials.

@Anti-Matter

Just a question Anti-Matter :

_If tomorrow, Sony announce an exclusive title with strong oiled bodybuilders in the middle of a pink velvet background with a kawai tune, do you think that you'd like it or not ?

@Anti-Matter lol so much wrong.

I want Bayonetta 3.

Leave Anti-Matter alone, he's a boy with issues. He's got a beef with mature media.

Cute. Console war kids. What a breath of the wild..

@Cobalt
"_If tomorrow, Sony announce an exclusive title with strong oiled bodybuilders in the middle of a pink velvet background with a kawai tune, do you think that you'd like it or not ? "

That sounds like Kinniku March from Wii Ware.
Well, just only 1 Exclusive game ?
Not enough.
I can make A Lot of Six pack guys from The Sims 4 PS4.

Not like Nintendo had anything worth advertising.

@Anti-Matter

You'd probably like the Ai Cho Aniki series then !

Spiderman has the backing of Sony AND Disney/Marvel. Why is this surprising?

You can't compete with the media GIANT that is Disney alone. When Disney and Sony work together it's just no contest.

Microsoft pushing advertising money on games that are not even exclusively theirs. When will they learn it is exclusives that sell consoles. It is the sole reason I do not own an Xbox One. Make a Banjo Threeie or a new Perfect dark, or some decent non-Forza, non-generic shooter 1st party games and I may consider it.

@Kriven IIRC that was Stark. It was from the "New Avengers" comics.

@BensonUii

There are a ton of great games on PS4 just now however. He is just stating a fact. I need the same on my Switch now. Nintendo needs to invest in a few more studios to keep up as The Last if Us 2, and Red Dead Redemption 2 will be available soon.

@BensonUii read it more like stating a fact.

@Anti-Matter good thing you bought your PS4 for the sims to play with 6 pack chibi looking boys.

PlayStation. For the players

@Kriven maybe, but would Smash fans also be a Mario Odyssey fan and bought then.

Maybe a lot of sales depend on Playstation and Xbox owners buying a second console.

@BladedKnight
Yo !
I have Sooo many titles for PS2 & PS1 games according to my shopping list ( More than 30 Japanese PS2 games + 14 or 15 USA PS2 games, 24 Japan & USA PS1 games combined).
Right now, i have 4 Japanese PS2 games + 1 PS1 game

Mostly my PS2 & PS1 games are supported by Dance Dance Revolution series (9 + 8 DDR titles from Japan & USA PS2, 5 + 2 DDR titles from PS1) , Para Para Paradise on PS2, Guitar Freaks & DrumMania series on PS2, K-1 games on PS2, the rest are some Street Fighter on PS2 + PS1, Puzzle games, Punky Skunk PS1, Hello Kitty Cube Frenzty PS1, etc (As long for Kids & Cute)

In other words, i can make a Nice Home Arcade just from PS2 & PS1 combined, thanks to Konami for their Rhythm games on PS1 & PS2.

I admit PS1 was much better than N64 (I don't even consider any N64 since i have never experienced at all with N64) , PS2 was much better than Gamecube in term of games library that fit with my taste.

But the situation was changed during PS3 & Wii era. Wii was still much better than PS3. Both PS4 & Wii U were Same Terrible, but Wii U was still a little bit better for BC with Wii.

@1UP_MARIO
Eh...
The Sims 4 has No Chibi characters.
But Real size of Six pack guys in Cartoonish art style.

@Cobalt
"You'd probably like the Ai Cho Aniki series then ! "

Um....
That game....
Somehow a little bit interesting for me....

@BensonUii

As much as I love Nintendo I think someone is a hardcore delusional fanboy.....

@BensonUii Dang, so many salty folks over a post that was a slight jab at Cobalt. 😂

You're right though, dude whines about ports on Switch but loves em on PS4.

@KryptoniteKrunch

Not my fault if shrinked minds don't understand that ports are not bad when they are surrounded by DOZENS OF OTHER NEW GAMES !

Ok Nintendo, now please get in touch with Insomniac for a team up on something? Pleeeeeeaaaase?!?!

Let's see who will spend more on holiday season. Lets go...hope Nintendo will come out on top

I haven’t gotten the Spider-man game yet. However I’m a huge Spider-man geek and although I have been disappointed from earlier Spider-man games, this one is apparently better. So, I will be getting this game. I just hope this game has enough geeky Peter talking to himself in battle and just at random times.

@Anti-Matter "PS4 has the WORST Game library in the bunch" Have you been drinking? I can't begin to understand the logic behind that comment.

I love my Switch but it's been a disappointing time for big single player games since Mario and Xenoblade around this time last year and a situation that doesn't look like changing for some time either with nothing of note on the immediate horizon

Where as on PS4 as @Cobalt says in that time there has been God of War, Spiderman, Yakuza 6, Dragon Quest XI, Ni No Kuni 2 with Days Gone waiting in the wings and that's just exclusives. Outside of that there are games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Fist of the North Star, Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry 5 on the way and plenty of others that have already been listed. Not quite sure how anyone can say thats a bad library.

@carlos82
That's the Problem on PS4.
Every Single Rated 18+ games on PS4 = Totally Garbage.
I EXTREMELY HATE EVIL games !!
I said Garbage because there are NOT Enough amount games for Kids / Everyone / few of Teen games in Physical releases that suitable with my criteria.

Listen, i'm a Different kind of gamer.
I'm NOT Looking rated 18+ games, i'm looking for Kiddie / Cute games.

Just compare with Nintendo Switch games library.
Nintendogs games ? Check.
Cooking Mama style games ? Check.
Cute games like Sumikko Gurashi ? Check.
Animal Crossing ? Check.
Unusual games like LABO ? Check.
Cartoonish Sport games ? Check.
Unique Boxing games ARMS ? Check.
Harvest Moon style games ? Check.
Dragon Quest Builder style ? Check.
Family games ? Check.
And I keep adding more and more upcoming Switch games, like i want to say "Nintendo, Stop ! Too Many Awesome games on Switch ! My money.... !"

And PS4 was the Wrong decision for me to get the games i want despite i have PS4 with just 3 games left right now (I removed some of my PS4 games collections one by one when those games also available on Nintendo Switch).

Btw, have you checked my post above ?
I have mentioned the PS2 & PS1 games above and those are Typical games i'm looking for.

@Phle I'm sure you will enjoy the game. Peter talks to himself and the enemies ALL the time. This game really shows off his intelligence. And the JJJ rants, don't even get me started haha.

@Cobalt

"Just insane how many great games you can get on ps4"

Like to let you know...i love Jrpgs and only buy game console for jrpgs. (Yes not all gamers are into spiderman / dudebro hack and slash and gore. Imma weeb / otaku)

For the 4 years ++ time i own a ps4...this is all i have.....
1) persona 5.
2) nier automata
3) tales of berseria

Getting dq 11 and still on the fence with NNK2. Also do note that ive played Trails series / YS 8 / ff remakes and remasters /vanillawares on my psVita. So no im not double dipping.

its basically 3 exclusive games for me for 4 yrs+++ and its underwhelming.

@Anti-Matter perhaps it's you're English that isn't great as you seem to have a poor choice of words to describe your opinion. I can see what you're getting at but there are a lot of these types of games on PS4.
2 of the games you listed are on there, let's see

Dragon Quest - check
Harvest Moon - check
Cooking mama - well Overcooked? check
Cute, family, unusual games - well half the VR library, Playroom, No Man's Sky, yooka laylee, Ratchet and Clank, countless Lego games, Megaman, Disney collection, Everybodys Golf, Littlebigplanet, Parappa the Rapper, Rayman, Tearaway, World of Final Fantasy, Jak and Daxter, Knack, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, the Playlink games, Tennis in the face, I am Bread, Goat simulator, Stardew Valley......

I could go on but there are tons of all of those types of games on PS4 it's just that they only really advertise the more adult orientated games, you may have to dig around in the store but they are there.

I get that you much prefer the Switch and that's fine but to say the PS4 library is bad is just nonsense

@BensonUii
And Nintendo opens the Pocket for you i guess?

SO then. What about those advertising dollars huh? Phew-wee sir. Yup, no they are certainly something. I mean, never has so much, that is to say, so little can y'know. Look. Advertising sells. Erm...

@Evilworm

There is kind of 50 JRPGs on PS4 in 4 years... That's not bad at all if you want my advice.

I dont think I've seen a COD ad for the xbox version. They will push hard on the next xbox, maybe more linked to Windows would be their only approach.

the PS4 library is an amazing monster of must-play exclusives. It blows me away how handily they won this generation. Aside from Assassin's Creed Odyssey, every other game in my Game of the Year list is available only on PS4. Its nuts

same problem as every console since snes nintendo game drought yeah letting 200 shovel ware games a month on to system aint helping that situation. most garbage is out on mobile for peanuts.
But when will people realise Nintendo dont give a fffffffffffffffff

@Kriven right ok, I get that but is Splatoon not part of the circle?

@Cobalt You're lucky that Anti-Matter exists because he makes you only the 2nd best troll here lmao. But on a serious note, Mario Party, The World Ends With You & Starlink (arguably the best version on Switch). That's 2 and a half (i count starlink as half) good exclusives.
As for Multiplatform we're getting Warriors Orochi & Dark Souls.
That's 5 pretty great games.
I would say these are better games than you listed, except for RDR2 which i'm very jealous to not have.

All replies to @Anti-Matter make me laugh... I wish he was a troll but he's not, he's just genuinely like that 😨... I've had him on ignore since Labo was announced and ge was convinced it would change video games forever 😂.

PS4 has a buttload of great games, especially exclusive games but the issue is that their games don't actually sell that well. Their highest selling game was released a long time ago.

With an install base of 80+m, they only managed 5.5m God Of War sales is down right pathetic. But it highlights how many people dont actually own a PS4 to play games on.

Nintendo Switch has been around for 1/3rd the amount of time the PS4 has been and yet Nintendo has 4 games that have sold more copies than the highest selling game on the PS4.

Also further to that, 3rd parties are also starting to see crazy returns on their games, Mario and Rabbids, Octopath Traveller even Skyrim and Doom have shifted solid numbers.

Indie games sell much better on the Switch...

This is all info that is now being made available to developers only this year (we are still a whole 5 months away from the Switch's second birthday), video games take a number of years to develop, especially good ones.

These facts have dropped this year... Just give it time.

Edit: PS4 attach rate is actually decent but thats because they have like 30+ 2m selling games... Which is really insane...

But this further highlights how few people actually buy a PS4 to play games if their install base is so high and yet only one game has achieved 10% of the consoles install base.

@geheimxy

The world ends with you : already played!
Dark Souls : already played
Warrior Orochi 4 : inferior version

Now, Starlink will be "superior" for you because of STARFOX content and I'm fine with that but for me, Starlink is even not a game that I would consider to buy even at 20€/$.

Soo, if I have :

Ken Fist Of the North Star 2nd Oct
Assassin's Creed Odyssey 5th Oct
Black Ops IIII 12th Oct
Fast Striker 16th Oct
Resonance of Faith 18th Oct
Soulcalibur VI 19th Oct
Warriors Orochi 4 19th Oct
Red Dead Redemption 2 26th oct
Call of Cthulhu 30th Oct

I think we cannot compare ! LOL

Man people are rough on Anti-Matter sometimes. Dude just enjoys sexual men or light-hearted games. I mean, just knowing those two things you'd expect him to be a market Nintendo can easily garner, and has.

That being said, people keep making claims on the PS4 and making troll posts. I personally owned a PS4 for the years it's been out, used to play it regularly on the 5 some-odd games I owned. Then the Switch came out and most of what I thought on gaming shifted.

The sheer fact the Switch feels so much more accessible kind of given me reflection on how much I had to go through to make time to get home, clean up the house a bit, and squeeze in the amount of time to play a game for at least an hour. And for anyone above the age of 30 already knows that almost never comes to fruition the way your like.

With the Switch, even as a PCMR mentality I generally have, I want more to enjoy on Switch. Even with the already towering pile of a backlog I would have to address as it is.

That and its amusing where the times Nintendo remained consistent with exclusives (port or not), only time we see a spike of trollish posts is on the cusp of the holiday season.

Exclusives Nintendo has no problem with, it's exclusions.

@Paraka your experience with the PS4 is what all my friends over the age of 30 have said, I'm 33 so i know EXACTLY what you're talking about.

This also further echoes my point about how few people actually purchase games on the PS4. Most like you or my friends buy the system with a hand full of games but find they rarely have time to play the games.

But the Switch just fits right in perfectly through acceptability.

Of my many gamer friends only 3 i know still game on PS4 and 1 of them owns a Switch too... The other two are still on the "Switch/portability is a gimmick" bandwagon.

@Razer - I used to play that free puzzle game knowing full well it was the only thing I may have time for. Lo and behold, my suspicion was always confirmed.

It's not even a bash against the system for being a stationary system, but it definitely lacks in of itself exclusives that I would desire more to make more time. However, for its 4+ years it has been out, there has not been a genuine exclusive that makes me regret not having time to play it. The last two games I bought for the system I ended up returning a week later just cause that time... Just not existent.

"But better graphics." - Cannot enjoy looking at pretty scenery when you're never available.

"But exclusives are better." - Not enough to make me want to make more time to play them when there is a market that adheres to the time slots I already do have.

"But Switch isnt getting X game cause Y reasons." - But most listed I can still get anywhere else except Switch, so the argument runs on fumes and doesn't get far.

"Switch is just gimmicky." - That gimmick has gotten me access to more games to play than the PS4 "features" Sony offered.

Still genuinely felt Nintendo blew their load too much last year (though still loved that) and now we’re having trickling exclusives until Smash comes out (really don’t be see the excitement over a Mario Party game and I’d like to play Octopath Traveler sometime). Meanwhile PS4 is killing it with a ton of exclusive games (Spider Man is now my GOTY so far and I still haven’t played God of War yet) and I especially need to get the Yakuza games sometime.

@Malcrash - Nintendo's major issue is most of the top system selling IPs for Nintendo are made by the same 3-4 studios. When they make a blowout like that, they still gotta make the next project, and that takes time.

@Paraka to be honest i was really hoping Nintendo would address some of these issues by making sure games on the caliber of Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, Celeste ect get exclusivity treatment.

Getting heavy Indie hitter on that level to commit exclusivity will add huge weight to your platform going forward.

I still hope that is their plan.

@Razer - Well their collaborations have garnered new exclusives, even if in just content. Hell, one of major sellers, Mario + Rabbids, are rumored for a sequel already. That an additional exclusive Nintendo would not have had otherwise. And if Nintendo was not involved, I could say Starlink would not have the interest across the board like they do now because of SF.

But getting indies on board exclusively will be hard. As the market abroad is damn near needed for their companies to flourish. And even the one they do have, Morphies Law, does not get the coverage it rightfully deserves.

This isn't surprising considering the competition involved. I suspect Nintendo's advertisement spending will tick upwards as we approach the holidays.

As others have said it shouldn't be surprising that a Disney/Sony joint ad campaign outspent everyone. I can't think of any companies that advertising duo wouldn't top. Surprising XBox got the #2 slot advertising anything but Horizon 4, their actual exclusive. I imagine that was a joint spend with Squeenix mostly, so not as much individual spending as it appears at a glance.

@CupidStunt To a degree exclusives sell consoles, but that's changing so much. The megapublisher IPs are now some of the biggest, and so many people buy consoles to play Fifa, or Fortnite, or COD, Assassin's Creed etc. Technically MS just pulled a page from Sony's age-old strategy. Sony runs a lot of ads for major 3rd party games and pays for advertising rights so the games all have the PS logo in front of them, making third party games look like exclusives to the masses. They've been doing that since PS2...MS just copied

@Cobalt You do realize you can get most of those games on XBox and PC as well, right?

Spidey and North Star are exclusive, DQXI is a timed exclusive before it comes to Switch (with what in Japan will be the definitive version). I'm not against talking about how good the industry scene is this month, or even how good Sony's exclusives have been over the course of the year, but it's a little too "fanboy" to be listing tons of multiplats as "this is how great PS4 is!" as an echo of their advertising that makes it look like every multiplat is a "Playstation game."

If looking at how good the whole industry is this month, can't exclude Forza Horizon 4 either.

Most of the time you've been coming across as a pure PS fan....yet in a locked thread yesterday by an anti-Nintendo troll I saw you actually defending Nintendo, so I'm convinced the pigs have gone airborne now

@Cobalt Well except for RDR2, Assassins Creed and maybe Soul Calibur 6 nothing interests me. I can get Warriors orochi for Switch, Fist of The North Star was a very big missed oppirtunity, COD might be better than its previous games but still doesn't look like it catches up to the best form, Fast Strikers doesn't seem interesting to me at all, i haven't heard of Call of Ctulhu and Resonance of Fate wasn't even that good on PS3, so i wouldn't expect too much.
In the end it's Assassins Creed Odyssey and RDR2 i'm missing out. And i have enough games to play so i'm not that sad. Hope you have fun with yours tho!

@NEStalgia Sure I realize that...

The multiplats are available on PS4 TOO ^^ It means that when you have a PS4 you can get the exclusives like God of War 4, Spiderman, Horizon etc... AND all the multiplats...
Don't tell me that you wouldn't have the Nintendo exclusives + the multiplats on Switch... ? I couldn't believe you

I refuse to be a fanboy...Nintendo, Sony, MS but I made just a cold statement... 2018 is really dry on Switch and full of games on PS4.
I would like to say the reverse but facts are facts...

@geheimxy I had and have fun don't worry about that ! I really enjoyed Octopath Traveler but that's all on Switch for this year... so yeah, I played a lot more on other systems than on Nintendo (and it's sad...) :/

@Cobalt Hey hopefully Smash and next year are to your liking, looks RPG and Single-Player heavy so maybe you'll get more out of the Switch next year. This year were a lot of Multiplayer games so i can understand if that's not everyone's cup of tea

@Cobalt No one will argue that 2018 has been a dry year for Switch owners that owned a WiiU (all 500 of us! ) though it's a blowout year for the Switch owners that didn't own a WiiU (all 15 million of them ) And certainly that it's been a great year for multiplats and Sony in particular (GoW + Spidey specifically) I just cringe whenever a conversation turns to "wow the exclusives plus all those multiplats!" when like 3/4 the list is mutiplats that also go to XBox and PC. It just smacks of the kind of market image Sony pays a lot of money to create. As a tri-plaform owner, I'll play most of that list on XBox, grab the exclusives on PS4, and play anything on Switch I can get on Switch.

@geheimxy I'm not a Smash fan at all... :/
I play 2D fighting games such as Garou Mark of the wolves or KOF or Street 3.3...

I'm waiting for Bayonetta 3, Metroid prime 4 and even Yoshi !

@Syrek24 There's a bit of a trend on here at the moment for posters to call people "fanboys" if somebody doesn't agree or flat out doesn't care about the poster's way of thinking, these people tend to only see things in black and white sadly.

I disagree with anti-matter on several views, but I do like how he goes against the "Sony does everything right" echo chamber that is strong on the internet.

Too bad $6.1 million of that was for the 3DS. I've never seen a company push a system that's dying more than Nintendo has the 3DS!!

@Razer you make some great points but also I think there's just a lot more choice on PS4, God of War was reported at 5 million just a month after launch and will certainly be over 7 million by now as physical copy sales are around the 5 mil mark and Sony have said it sold 2 million digital in its first month. Thats one thing we have to consider that digital sales count for a high percentage on PS4 and aren't recorded in weekly sales charts. Uncharted 4 is well over 10 million and we know Spiderman has had the best exclusive launch on PS4 so who knows where that'll go. Then you have the third parties and the monster that is GTAV that is well over 20 million with various COD and FIFA games around 15 million, probably higher with digital. Added to this you have the games people play in perpetuity such as GTA online, Destiny, FIFA and other live services, so these people won't be buying many other games.

Nintendo has always had far stronger exclusive IP's than SONY but also traditionally has had much less competition for them on their consoles and even on Switch, if you're not buying Mario and Zelda in terms of true AAA titles there really isn't much else there

@Razer you make some great points but also I think there's just a lot more choice on PS4, God of War was reported at 5 million just a month after launch and will certainly be over 7 million by now as physical copy sales are around the 5 mil mark and Sony have said it sold 2 million digital in its first month. Thats one thing we have to consider that digital sales count for a high percentage on PS4 and aren't recorded in weekly sales charts. Uncharted 4 is well over 10 million and we know Spiderman has had the best exclusive launch on PS4 so who knows where that'll go. Then you have the third parties and the monster that is GTAV that is well over 20 million with various COD and FIFA games around 15 million, probably higher with digital. Added to this you have the games people play in perpetuity such as GTA online, Destiny, FIFA and other live services, so these people won't be buying many other games.

Nintendo has always had far stronger exclusive IP's than SONY but also traditionally has had much less competition for them on their consoles and even on Switch, if you're not buying Mario and Zelda in terms of true AAA titles there really isn't much else there

@carlos82 You do make a solid point but that sorta applies to Nintendo too, for example last known figures for Splatoon where from March of this year... 6 months back... So "hypothetically" Sony could have a 10m selling game but so far they haven't mentioned any figures.

If you actually do some research though you will find out how deep this all goes.

Recently one of the biggest eye openers for Sony has been how Microsoft Live subscription numbers are over 10m more than PSN+, with PS4 sitting on 80m sales and Xbox ONE sitting on half that.

Which is why they have ramped up their offering in a bid to get people to actually play games.

Also i gotta be honest... 10m sales for a game is great but when the install base is 80m... It really is rather pathetic... And like i said there is no actual evidence they have ever reached 10m on any game other than "i guess they must have by now"... Which is very lame for "the best console this generation"...

A good comparison is the 3DS... Look at the best selling games on the 3DS... Has similar sales numbers to Sony... About 8m less hardware sales... Have like 10 games above 10m sales.... Because people actually use it to play games... Fancy that 😂

@Cobalt I loved dragon quest XI on ps4 but I do have to say I missed that portability when the evening was coming up and I felt ready to prepare for the night but didn't want to interrupt my game right away.

There's heavy chances that when XI releases on Switch, I'll just sell my PS4 to a friend who had yet to own one but already play games on one borrowed from her husband's job.

Wow, people talk about PS4 on nintendolife? XD

@NEStalgia I am sure Forza is great but it is fact the Xbox does not have the same number or high quality exclusives the other do. If it did I can assure you I would own one.

@CupidStunt sure ps4 has more exclusives per year, though until i got an x1 i underestimated the x1 exclusive library. It exists, some of it through backwards compatibility, more heavily than it seems. Forza, 5 gears games, 6 halo games, (with the upcoming games) but some cool stuff that never got the hype it deserved and i suspect i it were don't Sony games the media would have praised them...recore, ryse, sunset overdrive, quantum break (a very sony type game imo). Sunset is likea prototype of Spiderman (same developer) meets jet set radio. Sea of theves isn't for me, but i can see how it must be great for now social gamers. If i had a group it looks fun.

It's a solid library, it's just less quantity than ps4. That said it depends on taste. Both are probably equal to me. I don't do zombie games so that rules out several ps4 exclusives (and 1 x1 one). I love ff, but now most of ff is multiplat... That wasa big chunk of my favorite ps exclusives. Dq will be on switch. Nier went to xbox. If we include vr i still have a good number more exclusives on ps4 than switch, but I'f we exclude vr and games on switch the number is almost par. For what interests me, anyway.

@NEStalgia Actually that is a tiny number of exclusives considering how long Xbox One has been on the shelves.

In my opinion Microsoft lost a lot of fans when before the console released, they announced we would not own our games when bought physically. Sony have really allowed a lot of creativity and variety on PS4 this generation, and Switch has had 2 of the best games ever made. Most of those games on Xbox, bar Forza have released to middling reviews. I find Xbox exclusives to be very generic shooters and genres and people have moved passed the basic gameplay of games like Gears of War. I think now the Japanese games have evolved a bit we are seeing a new golden age in gaming, with plenty of variety and lots of games now in which there are many puzzles and you have to use your brain again, as during the previous Xbox generation those types of games were dying and gaming became much more simplistic and stale. I loved the first Xbox but they lost me after the 360. I find there is slways more variety of genres of exclusives on other consoles.

@CupidStunt
Huge textwall in bound. Fair warning I kind of started writing and got carried away, if you can make it to the end you get a free cookie (Send check for $14.95 S&H)

The number....yeah if you tally numbers overall there's more Sony exclusives total. Though I don't think numbers are really what hurts MS there. It's comparatively less but they have a solid number still. What hurts them is their lack of diversity/variety. The bulk of their exclusives are tied up in 3 franchises with huge numbers of sequels and spinoffs, and 2 of them are the same general type of game (shooter, cover-shooter) totalling 13 games of the same genre across 2 franchises, plus 2 spin-offs within that franchise. Sony comes out looking much better by splitting those 13 games up into a bunch of one-and-done experimental projects with that offer more appeal.

By numbers (hardly a complete list and probably some inaccuracies) excluding VR, the exclusives, (some old, some remasters, and for XB, some backward compatibility that counts since PS4 lacks that ability entirely, and is limited to the games that get re-releases/remasters/classics releases) that appeal to me and/or I own on both are:

PS4:

X1: Quantum Break, Halo MCC (1, 2, 3, 4, ODST), halo 5, (soon Infinite) Gears 1 (remaster), 2, 3, 4, Judgement, (soon 5), Crackdown 3 (soon), Sea of Thieves (not for me but I wish it were, it looks neat, and I liked playing with it), Killer Instinct (not my fav fighter), Super Lucky's Tale, Ryse (the criticism was unfair, it's actually pretty cool), ReCore (really great almost GameCube type game made by Armature, former Retro crew), Sunset Overdrive (Made by Insomniac, of Ratchet & Clank/Spiderman fame), Scream Ride (it's a small, kind of experimental game by Frontier (Elite Dangerous)....it's very much arcade fare but pretty cool.) Halo Wars, HW2 (best RTS to work well on consoles, so that's a thing.) Forza 7, Forza Horizon 2, 3, 4 (I wasn't even a racing fan but that series is just fun.) I'm probably forgetting one or two things. The Fable games are really 360 games, but PS4 is locked out of the PS3 library, so it counts. I won't count all the Sega/OG XBox (Jade Empire, still Bioware's best RPG other than BG2) type stuff. It's definitely worth keeping in consideration but PS4 also has a bunch of PS Classics stuff to include and that gets messy. They have a zombie series, but it's not for me.

So 22 there of the ones that appeal to me, including remasters and a few BC things (if we included full BC the list would be bigger with some of the Rare games and such in there.)

For PS4: Uncharted 1, 2, 3, 4, 4.5, Ratchet, Spiderman (I don't actually care at all about Spiderman as a franchise but Insomniac has never made a game that wasn't crazy fun), GoW, SoTC, Last Guardian (meh...I could live without it but it still appeals to me), Persona 5, KH 1 & 2 (I'll list only 1 & 2 the PSP games don't appeal to me and the others are remasters of what were Nintendo exclusive first, and I suspect it's not exclusive for long anyway.), Infamous (huge fan of that), Nioh, Tsushma (soon), Gravity Rush 1, 2, SFV, Detroit, Yakuza 1, 2, 0, 6, Horizon, Knack, Knack 2, Wipeout, NNk2.

27 there. Not wildly different of the stuff I find appealing really. Sony has more than that of course, but the strength they have in diversity also means not all their games will appeal to the same people, so for someone that does happen to like the types of games MS has, you kind of end up with a similar number of exclusives you like on each.

Now of course if we add in VR and some of the older classics like Jak trilogy, Dark Cloud, etc we can add a few more. And of course just a few months ago the entire FF collection and DQXI, Nier Automata etc really bolstered PS4 to be far and away above. Now that all that is going multiplat, it's a big hit to the dominance of the PS4 library.

Switch is so far anemic, but it has 1/4 the shelf life behind it. BotW, Odyssey, Octopath, ARMS, Splatoon, XC2, Torna, LGPika, Smash, DxM (soon), Yoshi (soon), Animal Crossing (soon), FE (soon), FE Warriors,

13 compared to 22 and 27 in a 2-2.5 year window isn't so bad.

Anyway, I do agree, Sony has more quantity, easily, but that strength in having greater diversity rather than sticking to safe franchises, also means that any one gamer is less likely to like the entirety of the library, so more to pick from and more to find to appeal doesn't always correlate to actually wanting much more of the available library. It's a much smarter strategy though to get more people in. For XBox, with so much tied up in Halo and Gears and Forza, a player that doesn't like old school shooters and racers will find very very little to like....so they did ok on the numbers really....but they messed up focusing on such a narrow type of gamer. I happen to like just about everything but Master of Orion: the Excel Spreadsheet simulator, and half the garbage on the Wii, so I find plenty to like on every console

But absolutely, XBox really lost the game back at the XBone launch. It was so stupid because they were really leading most of the prior gen. I was a PC gamer that shifted to PS3 during the 7th gen (I was Nintendo/Sega up until Virtual Boy soured me, and never got an N64.) But PS3 was honestly awful the first half of its life. I ended up buying a 360, begrudgingly (as a PC gamer I'd learned to loathe M$ ) because 3rd parties ran like garbage on PS3 and it practically shot flames out the back. I ended up really liking it. Then they went chasing the Wii with the Kinekt and stopped properly supporting it with software. 3DS really took over my gaming at that point along with WiiU. Then the disastrous XBone launch. I watched that E3 with a 50/50 chance of which one would join my WiiU. By the time XBox blew it badly and Sony kind of redeemed it I preordered a PS4 an hour after the conference

However, Sony gets an unfair pass on this. The truth is BOTH PS4 and X1 were supposed to have that horrendous DRM system. It was no doubt devised and pushed by the likes of EA, 2K, Warner and Ubisoft. Both of them were set to adopt that digital-only rental system. Sony did what they always do. They went second. They watched Microsoft implode and quietly rewrote their script back-stage to promise a return to status quo. It saved them, it made them the hero, but most people forget that if Sony was on Monday afternoon and Microsoft was Monday night rather than the other way around, it would be Sony that went down in flames with a horrible anti-consumer system and Microsoft that "saved gaming" by reversing course late afternoon. Reversing course was smart, and I'm glad one of them imploded to force both of them to abandon that system....but which one doesn't matter. At the start of that day they both intended to screw gamers. Neither should be praised for smelling like a rose. But you're absolutely right, that is precisely what set the big setback of XBox into motion. Yoshida said early on that most of the huge launch sales they saw on PS4 were not PS3 upgrades but X360 owners switching.

The wheels at MS turn slowly as ever, but Phil Spencer is really righting a very sunken ship so far. Mattrick really left a stink in the place and the MS corporate structure never helped repair it. I don't want MS to become dominant (at all)...but we need a strong MS to keep the consoles honest. All 3 companies get obnoxious when they get too dominant, and all 3 are better when they have to fight for it. An arrogant Microsoft gave us the disastrous XBone launch. A arrogant Sony gave us the disastrous PS3 launch (Only $600 and impossible to code for! ), and an arrogant Nintendo gave us the WiiU and the latter years of the Wii going downhill. This gen has been so lopsided in favor of Sony it's been hurting the industry at large, so it's nice seeing Ninty and MS finally getting into gear, which might be the only thing that makes PS5 good. A fully dominant Sony would almost certainly make an awful, anti-consumer PS5.

Regarding middling reviews, I've found, personally, that there's a very strong bias. Anything Sony (or for that matter, Nintendo) cranks out is given a free pass without much scrutiny. Because those companies have such solid track records and reputations for blockbusters, nobody examines them too deeply or is willing to criticize them. OTOH, Microsoft games don't come from storied studios, and the press is much more likely to dig into every little flaw.

It's similar for things like judged sports like figure skating. You can watch one athelete get scored with top marks, and then another one who seemed to do an excellent performance get reductions. The reasoning is the first one is famed for rarely ever making mistakes. Knowing that, the judges don't spend time watching and scrutinizing details of replays. The other may be known to error more often so they carefully examine them in slow motion and mark down every mistake. But yet, often, the "perfect" one made a more serious mistake than the "imperfect one" and gets higher scores....because nobody bothered to check them, because they're known to not need checking as often. The games work the same. Sony and Ninty "usually get it right" so the details are ignored and assumed to be right by many critics. MS has been more hit or miss and so they're raked over the coals. Recore, Ryse, Sunset, etc all got middling marks. Until I played them I believed those impressions before realizing how unfair they were. Recore, if it were a GameCube game would have been praised to no end. It feels very GameCube. Sunset Overdrive...it's an insomniac shooter. It's experimental. It isn't perfect. But it mixes Ratchet & Clank and a prototype of the Spiderman gameplay with a little bit of Left 4 Dead and Jet Set Radio. It's a very Sega type game actually. It would have been at home on DreamCast (and arcades) and would have been praised as a lost gem. Instead it got middling reviews. Ryse and Quantum break are flawed but good. They probably deserve their middling reviews, but I can think of a number of PS games that should have deserved middling reviews when they were really not great games (I'll say it: Jak trilogy is not a very good set of games. It was never a very good set of games. The first one was arguably the best. Uncharted is deeply flawed. It gets perfect scores. I happen to be a big fan, I like the series. But it deserves no higher a score than Ryse or Quantum Break. It's a better screenplay than the former, more interesting characters than the latter, but the gameplay is very bland and by the numbers. Naughty Dog in general can be summarized that way. I remain a fan, but I know it's kind of like watching a B movie. But what's weird is everyone classes it as Gone with the Wind.

I never paid attention to Gears of War before about 3 months ago. I actually believed it was a zombie shooter and was uninterested. When I played it and found it was a cover-shooter with bug aliens I figured I'd try it. It's actually good. I've only played part of the first one so far, but what makes it good is A: It's good, and B: It's built around co-op. that makes it more limited in appeal, but it's one of very few series (other than some of the newest Ubisoft games and of course Nintendo) built totally around the ability to play coop. It's very similar to Killzone, but I've found that I never really could enjoy Killzone....it's generic as heck and highly repetitive (I'm impressed Guerilla turned out the masterpiece that is Horizon....I'd kind of written them off as a studio based on the really bland Killzone series), Gears seems to keep a more interesting pace. Definitely a good series. But the problem is when half the exclusives are Halo and Gears, and another quarter is Forza it doesn't leave a lot of diversity for someone that doesn't like shooters (I don't love shooters but I can enjoy them.)

Aside all that, though, I certainly agree and am heartened by the return of Japanese gaming in a big way. That has always been and will always be my bread and butter of gaming and it was a void while it was missing (well it was never missing thanks to DS/3DS ). Still, Nintendo is where I go for the vast majority of that, as even Sony's exclusives are largely western fare now. Good as they may be, GoW, Spidey, etc are fully western fare, and most of the good Japanese games are either multiplat or Nintendo exclusive. Which is definitely not a bad thing