The PS5 and Xbox 2 thread - it's happening

[Abu Antar]

Build quality of consoles has just gotten worse since the PS2 era. Same goes for controllers.

 

[Old Bald Bad]

The USB ports and the HDMI port on the console aren't as sturdy as the ones on your GPU and motherboard. However, they are generally alright as long as they aren't abused.

Controllers with stick drift and the liquid metal problems, though, are really terrible.

 

[The Decline]

I wonder why they designed it like shit, was it the case with old consoles too? My PS/PS2/PS3 never had any issues with ports, was I lucky or it's just the new thing to screw customers on the most basic stuff?

Thanks,
Sherry
This post is pending Infinitron's approval

It's due to cost cutting. Older Sony consoles had reinforced ports, the ones on the PS5 are barely soldered to the PCB. The whole thing is cheap and hollow.

The Xbox One X on the other hand is built like a tank except for the ports which are just as fragile as the PS5's.

 

[tommy heavenly6]

What went wrong, Xbox sisters?

 

[ghardy]

Game Pass didn't work to improve things? I spent an afternoon with a friend who has an Xbox One. I had no idea about Game Pass, so we sat down and looked through the games on offer. We must have browsed some 50 games. He chose:

• DooM (2016)
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Prey
• Diablo IV

There was so little that was eye-catching or immediately interesting. Seeing Age of Empires 2 was surprising. People play RTS on console?

I suppose that porting Stellar Blade to Xbox might send a mild electric shock into this ailing body.

 

[flyingjohn]

What went wrong, Xbox sisters?

Buy the biggest publisher for billions and than make said publisher release games on the competitor console.

 

[Ravielsk]

What went wrong, Xbox sisters?

Nothing happened. Nothing at all.

Microsoft simply released the xbox one onto the market and then did nothing ever since. They somehow expected success to come to them and that asshole just never showed up.
Yeah they made some feeble attempts with backwards compatibility but the xbox family of consoles never had that much of a line up to ever make that into a major selling point. Oh, and they also killed the platforms whole identity when they sabotaged Halo so I guess they did something, just not in any way that would help.

 

[deuxhero]

Microsoft never recovered form the always online and kinect only shit they tried to pull with Xbone so nobody wanted to buy the console and nobody wanted to develop for it. Then they further hobbled themselves with the Series S, which essentially meant anyone who wanted to port to them 1: had to port twice 2: Had to have their game function on anemic hardware. The ONLY route I see forward for them is UMPC, taking advantage of literally owning Windows, and even then I'm not sure they could do anything of value.

Sony isn't doing much better. Lots of consoles shipped, awful software sales. Pretty much just a Madden/FIFA and CoD machine.

 

[Ravielsk]

Sony isn't doing much better. Lots of consoles shipped, awful software sales. Pretty much just a Madden/FIFA and CoD machine

For Sony that is a very fixable fuck up. The public is not entirely apathetic about them and they have franchises that would be in demand. Problem is they would have to actually start pumping out good games that would appeal to a broad spectrum of players. And by appeal I mean make a game for each segment of the market and then keep making them, not try to make a non-game movie for everyone and then wonder why nobody gives a shit.

 

[deuxhero]

The problem is most of Sony's IP have been idle for literally 20+ years (especially when not counting spinoffs) because of their PS3 fuckup. If anyone still cares about the IPs, it's because they dread modern takes on it. Even if they did, Sony's shoving their stuff on PC for a quick buck devalued the point of having a console in the first place, and they show no signs of changing that (Vice confirms the Ape Escape minigame is on PC).

 

[Elttharion]

Sony is fucked because their 'fanbase' is obsessed with ultra expensive third person action adventure cinematic games, they are also getting diminishing returns with these games and their fanbase has barely supported the stuff they released that didnt fit this mold. In fact their fans spends more time defending Sony on twitter than buying and playing their games considering the fact they are selling less and less copies. Plus their 'core' fanbase is incredibly hostile to multiplayer games, despite the fact Sony always had strong modes and games in that category in the past and they need some forever games to help fund their expensive movie games.

Their model isnt sustainable and thes moves they tried to fix this failed almost completely, partly from their own incompetence, partly because they were stupid from the beginning and partly because their own players kept screeching at them to go back to the very same thing they were trying to flee from.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Build quality of consoles has just gotten worse since the PS2 era. Same goes for controllers.

Did they move manufacturing out of Japan to China and India?

 

[Tehdagah]

Sony can stop making games and the PS5 will keep selling well because most consumers play third-party software, especially live-service. Fortnite, Roblox, Call of Duty, GTA and sport franchises are the most played PS5 titles.

There's a reason Sony can afford multiple flops and cancelled projects.

 

[Modron]

sport franchises are the most played PS5 titles.

Those annual money printers are starting to fail to meet sales expectations. Years of EA shitting the bed and making worse installments probably have cooled some hearts.

 

[DemonKing]

Pretty accurate take...you have to wonder if Gamepass is really viable unless they somehow get it on the larger install bases of Sony/Nintendo.

 

[Tehdagah]

Pretty accurate take...you have to wonder if Gamepass is really viable unless they somehow get it on the larger install bases of Sony/Nintendo.

Gamepass is viable (PC is the biggest market) but most consumers prefer to pay $70 to "own" the digital license of a single game.

The gaming community is the only place where people like to pay more for products.

 

[ghardy]

Xbox Boss Says He's Given Up Trying to Convince PS5 Players to Switch Systems

[Emphasis added]

Talkative Xbox executive Phil Spencer says he’s given up trying to convince PS5 owners to switch to Microsoft’s machine, as his company increasingly becomes multiformat.

“I’m not trying to move [PS5 players] over to Xbox anymore,” he told the XboxEra podcast. “We’re all so invested in where our games are, let’s just allow more people to play.”

During its attempts to acquire Activision Blizzard, Spencer told courts that every time Microsoft sold a game on the PS5, Sony would pocket 30% of the income and use it to cut deals with third-party publishers, blocking the release of those games on Xbox.

The 30% fee applies to all third-party publishers releasing their games on PlayStation, and is generally considered an industry standard for any platform holder.

As his company brings more and more games to PlayStation, Spencer was asked if he still feels the same way about effectively lining Sony’s pockets with his own company’s software.

“It’s maybe not what I was going to say [during the Activision Blizzard trial] at the time but yeah, I would love to make all of the money for all the games that we ship right now,” he explained. “Obviously we make more on our own platform, it’s one of the reasons that investing in our own platform is important.

“But there are people – whether it’s their libraries are on PlayStation or Nintendo, whether it’s that they like the controller better, they just like the games that are there – and I don’t want to then look at that and say ‘Well, there’s no way that we should be able to build a business there, find fans of our franchises there.’”

Spencer continued that the 70% it makes on other platforms ultimately will help his company to build a “great portfolio” of games.

The reality is that Xbox spent close to $100 billion buying two multiformat publishers, and with sales of its hardware torpedoing, it threatens to devalue those investments by restricting its releases to a flagging brand.

As a trillion dollar company, Microsoft may have deep pockets, but it’s not immune to the rising costs of development, and considering Game Pass has also affected full-price software sales in its ecosystem, it needs to start finding some income somewhere – even if it is only 70% of the software it sells.

 

[PlayerEmers]

Xbox Boss Says He's Given Up Trying to Convince PS5 Players to Switch Systems

[Emphasis added]

Talkative Xbox executive Phil Spencer says he’s given up trying to convince PS5 owners to switch to Microsoft’s machine, as his company increasingly becomes multiformat.

“I’m not trying to move [PS5 players] over to Xbox anymore,” he told the XboxEra podcast. “We’re all so invested in where our games are, let’s just allow more people to play.”

During its attempts to acquire Activision Blizzard, Spencer told courts that every time Microsoft sold a game on the PS5, Sony would pocket 30% of the income and use it to cut deals with third-party publishers, blocking the release of those games on Xbox.

The 30% fee applies to all third-party publishers releasing their games on PlayStation, and is generally considered an industry standard for any platform holder.

As his company brings more and more games to PlayStation, Spencer was asked if he still feels the same way about effectively lining Sony’s pockets with his own company’s software.

“It’s maybe not what I was going to say [during the Activision Blizzard trial] at the time but yeah, I would love to make all of the money for all the games that we ship right now,” he explained. “Obviously we make more on our own platform, it’s one of the reasons that investing in our own platform is important.

“But there are people – whether it’s their libraries are on PlayStation or Nintendo, whether it’s that they like the controller better, they just like the games that are there – and I don’t want to then look at that and say ‘Well, there’s no way that we should be able to build a business there, find fans of our franchises there.’”

Spencer continued that the 70% it makes on other platforms ultimately will help his company to build a “great portfolio” of games.

The reality is that Xbox spent close to $100 billion buying two multiformat publishers, and with sales of its hardware torpedoing, it threatens to devalue those investments by restricting its releases to a flagging brand.

As a trillion dollar company, Microsoft may have deep pockets, but it’s not immune to the rising costs of development, and considering Game Pass has also affected full-price software sales in its ecosystem, it needs to start finding some income somewhere – even if it is only 70% of the software it sells.

 

[ArchAngel]

Game Pass didn't work to improve things? I spent an afternoon with a friend who has an Xbox One. I had no idea about Game Pass, so we sat down and looked through the games on offer. We must have browsed some 50 games. He chose:

• DooM (2016)
• Aliens: Dark Descent
• Prey
• Diablo IV

There was so little that was eye-catching or immediately interesting. Seeing Age of Empires 2 was surprising. People play RTS on console?

I suppose that porting Stellar Blade to Xbox might send a mild electric shock into this ailing body.

Xbox One has a more limited number of games than Series S and X.
For average player Game Pass is more than enough, it has over 400 games at all times and rising.

For PC players that switched to consoles what is available is more limited as you kind of want to play similar games.

And yes RTS games do exist on Xbox and yes they support K&M

 

[911 Jumper]

Original Xbox designer says the idea the Series X is 'more powerful is not helpful today'

Original Xbox console designer Seamus Blackley has said that good games are more important than powerful hardware today.

Speaking in an interview with VideoGamer, Blackley said that marketing the original Xbox as the most powerful console "really worked and was relevant then because we were still [in] the nascent stages of graphics."

This is not the case today, however, where the differences between the likes of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are significantly less pronounced. "I remember seeing Gran Turismo when it came out for PlayStation, and I had to buy it just because I couldn't believe what was happening on the screen [...] that was compelling and that doesn't exist anymore," he continued.

He argued that the games themselves are now more important than ever. "The battle [...] has switched away from that sort of technical achievement into other things [...] you have to create an experience where, when people see it, they have to have it."

He highlighted the record breaking sales of the Nintendo Switch as an example of a console that has succeeded despite lacking any real cutting edge specs. "That's all you need," he said. "I have played through Breath of the Wild maybe three or four times. I'll just keep playing through it and I can carry it with me."

He also commented on the current state of Xbox. With the Xbox Series X touted as the most powerful console out there (at least, before the arrival of the PS5 Pro), but falling significantly behind the PS5 in sales, it's clear that raw power isn't the way to win. "How they managed that brand and the story going forward is not my f***ing fault," he remarked. "I would not have done things the same way [...] I certainly think that this narrative around being more powerful is not helpful today."

Source: TechRadar

He's right, but winning the console war wasn't part of Microsoft's plan this gen. This gen was about managed decline in regard to hardware and eventually getting rid of the fixed spec bespoke home console because it doesn't fit in with Microsoft's wider platform agnostic software-as-a-service vision.

They couldn't just pull the plug after Xbox One as it would make Xbox look untrustworthy and they'd lose the income stream from GamePass on console (most of GP's revenue comes from console players), so they had to make the console biz failure look “natural” and build narrative that shifts the blame for Xbox's console failure onto consumers - “we tried, but the way people play games is changing and we have to adapt.”

When has a company so willingly devalued and mocked its own platform like Microsoft has?
The “This is an Xbox” campaign reduces Xbox Series hardware to being on the same level as a cheap Android tablet.

Sega didn't trash the Dreamcast in its final year, just one reason why the Sega/Dreamcast comparisons can only go so far.