Gaming

I don't think it's hardware. It's a differentiator. Tell me why I (or whoever) should pick an Xbox over a PlayStation?

What else differentiates it from the PS5 in a positive way?

The thing is, it's not even Games Pass or the hardware. For me, as a PC gamer, having an Xbox would be redundant. Anything an Xbox can do, my PC just does strictly better without a cumbersome UI and additional online subscription.

I own a PS5 for access to Sony exclusives when they launch, instead of waiting 1-5 years for the PC ports. I also get access to PS Plus' extensive classic collection and indie collections, which, regardless of the price of the subscription, broadens my gaming library extensively--something Xbox simply doesn't do.

Why would I purchase a console that only gives me access to the same games on a worse system vs a console that expands my library considerably?

Whenever people ask which console they should buy, my first question is "what do your friends play on?" Hardware/Games you can argue till you're blue in the face. Playing with friends should be a main motivator in deciding what platform you choose, if you are limited to one.

I used to think that not having a built in rechargeable battery was a dull idea.

However: Whenever I wanted to play on my PS3 the batteries were empty and the controllers needed to be recharged.

Around the time I got my first Xbox I came to the realization that I had more units than I ever thought consuming AA or AAA batteries, so I decided to go all in on rechargeable batteries.

I love it. Whenever my Xbox tells me that the controller needs new batteries it takes me 20 seconds to swap in a new pair.

I don’t ever think about having to plug the controller. I don’t care if I pick it up and it’s dead. Etc. etc.

And best of all, there’s literally no drain when it sleeps. My switch controllers drains the battery when it’s resting. The PS3 drains the controller. Don’t know about the PS4 and PS5.

I don’t think it’s hardware. It’s a differentiator. Tell me why I (or whoever) should pick an Xbox over a PlayStation?

They know it's a losing battle to try to build the same product as an entrenched competitor after they burned themselves with the Xbox One, which is why they much prefer you're a subscriber to Game Pass, with an Xbox or not.

Some people may love Game Pass, but most people I know either never subscribed to it or only tested it when it was like 1,-€ for a month or whatever.

They've got like 25-30 million subscribers, so it's quite popular. Probably half or a third as popular as Microsoft would like, but it's popular. I myself have plenty of friends who want to play more games than they can afford, and now they can afford them because of Game Pass. Especially the flash in the pan zeitgeist stuff like Exoprimal or Rainbow Six: Extraction that they can say they've played but will never touch again.

What else differentiates it from the PS5 in a positive way?

Quick resume. To be honest, what sets the PS5 apart from the Xbox hardware in a positive way? The SSD speeds that ended up not even mattering much for Ratchet & Clank, from what I hear of the PC port.

The controller is…well, a decent controller. It doesn’t do anything special like adaptive triggers, yet it costs almost the same as a DualSense, and if you count in the optional (!) battery pack, it’s quite a bit more expensive even.

By contrast, I know tons of people who hate the PS5 controller, not the least of which for its short battery life and inability to swap batteries like you can for Xbox. As a fighting game player, I know competitive players who hate the d-pad, and Sony did everyone dirty by requiring the use of a PS5 controller only even though the entire scene has had controllers for a decade that would work just fine, and even work on the PS5 when running a "PS4 game" on a PS5. Xbox's controllers are backward and forward compatible. If Sony had some kind of reason for requiring the functionality of the new controller, sure, have at it, but they put this requirement in place for games that make no use of the new controller's features at all, which is a dick move.

If you want to win market share, deliver a better product. With better services. With better conditions. For lower prices.

I think they did exactly that, but as far as which console sells more units, it's still PlayStation, because they have a couple of games that, at least for a couple of years, you can only play on PlayStation. But I think Microsoft saw that they were never going to be able to compete with that directly, at least before their acquisition spree, so the Xbox is just a low-cost machine that gets you into Game Pass, long-term.

Xbox owner here. I love the xbox for gamepass, have been subscribed for years. Think I also prefer the xbox controller. I miss some of the exclusives of PS5.

But it's very much an opinion I believe. I totally understand if people buy a PS5.

why do you have to pay extra to play online in 2023, anyways?

The one-time cost of a game isn't going to cover the ongoing costs of hosting the servers hosting the game.

It's ironic and somewhat revolting to see the behemoth that is Microsoft crying that it can't compete and it needs to acquire other publishers, when it already has a collection of studios and franchises, means to fund brand new studios and make even better hardware. If they aren't competitive now, it's because of their own bad decisions.

Although it seems that despite their hardware not being as popular, they seem to sell GamePass for PC at least decently.

You're right. Hardware is close enough to parity to be irrelevant. The competition in the 2-party console market (Nintendo doesn't count, they're in a different league) is in exclusive titles. It's why the MS-Activision merger had so much focus on Call of Duty and such: MS will take all their new titles exclusive as soon as they can and that's what drives sales. People choose consoles based on what games they want to play, or what consoles the friends they play with use if there are cross-platform titles.

They're just following the naming convention established by Windows: 1, 2, 3, NT, 95, 98, 2000, Me, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11

Exactly. Microsoft also has the benefit of double-dipping - they have Xbox, but they also get a healthy cut from PC as a vast majority of gamers are going to be running Windows.

This article feels very much like a fanboy wanting to keep the stupid "console wars" going, when really Microsoft is happy to just rake in the cash.

Xbox because it doesn't have exclusives appealing enough to make them pick it over the alternatives.

Soon. Their acquisition of Bethesda and now Activision will push a lot of in-demand titles to Xbox and PC going forward. They'll be a lot more "competitive" with Sony now.

Also I can buy Microsoft games on Steam and play them on PC, no Xbox required

They could be pushing out perfect dark games, banjo kazooy, what else do they have? So many things!

I agree with you about the brand loyalty. But the fact remains, they put out a console in 2020 that in some ways was actually weaker in power than the console they put out in 2017. Great for customers since it's so cheap, but not great for developers when other modern systems are so much more powerful. Larian can't even put out Baldur's Gate 3 on XSS because it can't handle split screen for that game, which means no XSX version either.

As for games... Everyone's different but as a big fan of the Xbox during the 360 era, the Xbox Series have no (exclusive) games that have appealed to me personally. And the ones that I am excited about (Fable, State of Decay 3, Everwild) have no release dates and are almost certainly years away.

Yeah. I stopped buying XBox after they let my account get hacked and restored none of my purchased content.

I occasionally consider giving Xbox another try, but then the whole tiers of systems and naming nonsense takes long enough to parse that I remember why I stopped buying Xboxes.

I still rock my Vita, and it makes me unreasonably angry that Sony didn't seem to take it seriously.

Well Sony tried twice and it didn't really pan out either time.