PS5 vs. Switch vs. XBOXSX - THUNDERDOME Version 2.0

[SuperMatt18]

In general the PS5 / Xbox Series X generation has been a dissapointment IMO.

Lots of console power but not as much fun games.

Part of it is so much investment being put into GaaS, the other part of it is just games all being realistic.

Feel like the days of fun IP are gone.

[TorqueDog]

I think for the Xbox side of the house anyway, part of what took away from the launch was not having the typical hype / build up of anticipation for launch titles. Xbox One -> Xbox Series was a big hardware improvement, sure, but literally every game that could be played on an Xbox One (sans Kinect) could be played on an Xbox Series console, day one. So it felt less like a shiny new toy and more like another mid-generation upgrade. A huge advantage to be able to use virtually your entire back-catalog of games on your new console, but I don't even remember what the big native launch titles were for this gen.

Indie/AA aside, so many games in this gen have been remasters / re-releases of existing titles, which I also think sort of softens the excitement.

[chemgear]

Costco pulled Xbox consoles off their shelves. But it sounds like Walmart and Target are now ceasing to sell consoles (and maybe games too)? Are sales that bad that you'd completely leave retail and not pay for retail displays?

And everybody knew game pass killed crippled game sales if your game went on the service. Is game pass all that will be left?

Is this really their plan for the Xbox ecosystem?

[SuperMatt18]

I don't really get what they were thinking with the mid life-cycle price increases.

Who is paying $700+ for and Xbox when a PS5 is on sale for around $500 regularly

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I don't really get what they were thinking with the mid life-cycle price increases.

Who is paying $700+ for and Xbox when a PS5 is on sale for around $500 regularly

It's not like Xbox starts at $700, you're comparing a full-fat Series X to a discless PS5.

Xbox Series S is $449 CAD, PS5 Digital is $579 ($649 with disc drive), Xbox Series X is $679 CAD (or $729 with disc drive), and PS5 Pro is $959.
Nothing really seems to align all that well for pricing, though if you're looking at the cheapest entry-point to that generation of consoles, it's the Series S.

The pricing of consoles is just stupid no matter which way you look at it.

[Hemi-Cuda]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

The pricing of consoles is just stupid no matter which way you look at it.

First console generation I can remember where being an early adopter meant you saved money. I bought both a PS5 and Series X at launch, and just sold the Xbox to a buddy for $100 less than I paid for it. I probably could have gotten all my money back if I went the marketplace route, but $100 isn't worth the headache of dealing with that bull####

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I

The pricing of consoles is just stupid no matter which way you look at it.

I don't have a problem with the hardware pricing. Graphics cards that can target 4K60fps are expensive and probably make up most of the cost along with general inflation since my childhood.

What I see lacking is value-added.

I think the days of people buying consoles to play exclusives is dead, because everything worth a damn is on PC now with more power to mod and customize. And for us adults, there is no longer urgency to play a game right away. Sometimes we don't have time to play a game until six years after its release, even if it intrigues us. So timed exclusives are not even a factor.

People who will continue to buy consoles are the ones who just play 'chel, fifa, fortnite etc but they're also the ones least impacted by steps forward in technology. They just want to get online with their friends and probably don't even have their resolution settings configured.

The era of a game like Uncharted 2 pushing the PS3 to its limits and dropping jaws, or even a game like wii sports getting the whole family engaged, is never going to happen.

Add to that, the auteurs of yesteryear - e.g. Kojima, Miyamoto worked for big companies. These people made games that were such an innovative experience, gamers felt immense FOMO.

The auteurs of today work for indie studios who often don't even publish hard copies of their titles.

I skipped the PS4 AND PS5 At the moment there are exactly two games I wish I could have played on these systems - Bloodborne and Demon's Souls Remake. But even then neither strikes me as a truly innovative system seller.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

I don't have a problem with the hardware pricing. Graphics cards that can target 4K60fps are expensive and probably make up most of the cost along with general inflation since my childhood.

What I see lacking is value-added.

I think the days of people buying consoles to play exclusives is dead, because everything worth a damn is on PC now with more power to mod and customize. And for us adults, there is no longer urgency to play a game right away. Sometimes we don't have time to play a game until six years after its release, even if it intrigues us. So timed exclusives are not even a factor.

People who will continue to buy consoles are the ones who just play 'chel, fifa, fortnite etc but they're also the ones least impacted by steps forward in technology. They just want to get online with their friends and probably don't even have their resolution settings configured.

The era of a game like Uncharted 2 pushing the PS3 to its limits and dropping jaws, or even a game like wii sports getting the whole family engaged, is never going to happen.

Add to that, the auteurs of yesteryear - e.g. Kojima, Miyamoto worked for big companies. These people made games that were such an innovative experience, gamers felt immense FOMO.

The auteurs of today work for indie studios who often don't even publish hard copies of their titles.

I skipped the PS4 AND PS5 At the moment there are exactly two games I wish I could have played on these systems - Bloodborne and Demon's Souls Remake. But even then neither strikes me as a truly innovative system seller.

This is a bit silly. Consoles sell because they are plug and play and provide better cost-to-performance than PC gaming rigs (aka you’d have to spend more building a PC that could perform the same as a PS5/XBX). And while consoles lack the auteurs building 10 hour platformers in the style of SNES’ Super Mario Bros, Flight Simulator, or Civ 4, guys like Kojima are still making great console games.

The top PS5 games last month were Fortnite, COD, Roblox, FC25, and GTAV. The top PC games were Counter Strike, Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and League of Legends.

Appreciate the swagger of the PC master race, but this seems like a stretch just to justify paying twice the price so y’all can play Roblox and have a Steam catalogue of 115 unplayed games you’re “gonna get to.”

[TorqueDog]

Yeah, anyone trotting out the PCMR thing is entirely missing the convenience of buying a box where that exact hardware profile is tested to death with the software you've bought before release so that the experience should be the same every playthrough.

Consoles provide a frictionless, consistent experience. No fecking about with driver conflicts, compatibility issues, or optimizing your settings for every game based on how well that particular title runs with your setup. For people who just want to sit down, turn it on, and play with friends, that simplicity is a huge part of the value proposition.

Don't get me wrong, I love having a PC around for certain titles that I feel a console just doesn't do justice *cough* Flight Simulator *cough*, but on the whole, my time spent gaming is dramatically on the side of my Xbox... and considering how little time I spend gaming these days, that means the PC is basically an overbuilt work machine.

[The Yen Man]

I'm still a console gamer because the plug and play factor. I never have to focus on if it will run properly on what graphics card. I just pop in or download the game, and I expect it to run properly on my console. No fuss, no muss.

Being able to customize or optimize full graphical fidelity isn't really a thing for me. My gaming sessions starts by me going to my couch and hitting the PS button my controller. Anything further required from me to start up a game kind of turns me off on gaming in general.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

It's not like Xbox starts at $700, you're comparing a full-fat Series X to a discless PS5.

Xbox Series S is $449 CAD, PS5 Digital is $579 ($649 with disc drive), Xbox Series X is $679 CAD (or $729 with disc drive), and PS5 Pro is $959.
Nothing really seems to align all that well for pricing, though if you're looking at the cheapest entry-point to that generation of consoles, it's the Series S.

The pricing of consoles is just stupid no matter which way you look at it.

You are comparing a full powered system with nothing missing but the drive to a "lite version" with lower specs almost everywhere.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by dino7c

You are comparing a full powered system with nothing missing but the drive to a "lite version" with lower specs almost everywhere.

Other than us nerds who care enough to discuss it in the first place, who gives a sh-t? We make the same cost-benefit analyses for hardware spec decisions about our gaming PCs, too; do I buy the RTX 5060 for $450 so my crotch-spawn can play Roblox, or do I buy the RTX 5070 for over double that so I can squeeze 5 FPS more out of Flight Simulator? Either choice will play Roblox and Flight Simulator.

Car people make this error the time by applying enthusiast logic to a mass-market business model, so try thinking about it like a market strategist and not a gaming enthusiast. If you're talking about an entry-point to console gaming (as in sports cars), there's a spectrum to choose from. As a casual gamer wanting to dip their toe in, or a non-gamer parent debating buying it for your kid, you probably don't really give a crap that it's a lower spec. Rather, you care which one is cheaper yet gets the job done so you can still afford to buy a couple games for the thing. It's not meant to be an equivalent, but the cheapest ticket into the ecosystem.

Are you buying the Ecoboost Mustang or paying double for the Dark Horse? This thread is full of Dark Horse people, the majority of people are content with the Ecoboost.

The original comparison was still high, it's a $100 difference between the two consoles if you want to talk about 'full-spec' hardware. Sale pricing, who knows, I own two XSXs -- and one television, heh -- that I paid under $450 for so I am not exactly hunting around for opportunities to buy consoles at today's prices, sale or otherwise.

[dino7c]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

Other than us nerds who care enough to discuss it in the first place, who gives a sh-t? We make the same cost-benefit analyses for hardware spec decisions about our gaming PCs, too; do I buy the RTX 5060 for $450 so my crotch-spawn can play Roblox, or do I buy the RTX 5070 for over double that so I can squeeze 5 FPS more out of Flight Simulator? Either choice will play Roblox and Flight Simulator.

Car people make this error the time by applying enthusiast logic to a mass-market business model, so try thinking about it like a market strategist and not a gaming enthusiast. If you're talking about an entry-point to console gaming (as in sports cars), there's a spectrum to choose from. As a casual gamer wanting to dip their toe in, or a non-gamer parent debating buying it for your kid, you probably don't really give a crap that it's a lower spec. Rather, you care which one is cheaper yet gets the job done so you can still afford to buy a couple games for the thing. It's not meant to be an equivalent, but the cheapest ticket into the ecosystem.

Are you buying the Ecoboost Mustang or paying double for the Dark Horse? This thread is full of Dark Horse people, the majority of people are content with the Ecoboost.

The original comparison was still high, it's a $100 difference between the two consoles if you want to talk about 'full-spec' hardware. Sale pricing, who knows, I own two XSXs -- and one television, heh -- that I paid under $450 for so I am not exactly hunting around for opportunities to buy consoles at today's prices, sale or otherwise.

The majority of people went for the PS5 though they have a 70% market share and it will probably grow now.

Poor naming and confusing skews didn't age well. Developers also don't like being forced to make things run on inferior hardware.

[TorqueDog]

Originally Posted by dino7c

The majority of people went for the PS5 though they have a 70% market share and it will probably grow now.

Which PS5 SKU has sold the most once the cheapest discless model was released?

Sony's 70% share didn't come from people reading spec breakdowns, it came from brand inertia and timing. Xbox's naming didn’t help and I really hope they do something less stupid next time, but the hardware spec argument is largely noise for the majority of the market that just wants to plug in and play.

As for optimization, meh. Developers gripe about optimization parity nearly every generation, and the Playstation 3 already taught Sony how painful that can be when your architecture is powerful on paper but a nightmare in practice.

[chemgear]

More studio closures, cancellations and price increases incoming for sure. They're going to have to scrape and cut to try to increase things versus their historical numbers.


https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...uverify%20wall

Microsoft Pushes Xbox Division to Hit Higher Profit Margins

Management’s goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects

Microsoft Corp. is asking its Xbox gaming division to produce profit margins that are well above the industry average, ratcheting up pressure on its video-game makers during a difficult time for the field at large.

Over the past two years, executives at the Seattle-based software giant have set an across-the-board goal of 30% “accountability margins,”

The average profit margin in the video-game industry in recent years has ranged between 17% and 22%, according to estimates from S&P Global Market Intelligence, while coming in between 10% and 20% over the past six years at Xbox.

The change has hurt Xbox game sales, according to the people — a continuing challenge that may make it even more difficult for the studios to achieve a 30% profit margin. To account for the lost sales, Xbox offers its developers a credit, which it calls “member-weighted value” and is calculated based on several factors, such as the number of hours that Game Pass players collectively spend on a particular title. The opaque formula seems to favor games in which players can spend the most amount of hours, such as online multiplayer titles, according to people familiar with the calculations.

[chemgear]

Is this the strangest timeline?

https://twitter.com/user/status/1982638578913206632

[cam_calderon]

What the ####

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by cam_calderon

What the ####

The corruption is now completely out in the open in the United States, whereas before they at least put in an effort to hide it.

Tech (and other) companies are openly bribing the government and praising Trump's ego for favorable treatment.

[Erick Estrada]

That's a total disgrace to the Master Chief.

[TorqueDog]

Seeing Trump's head on Master Chief makes me want to barf.