The end of the console wars?

[marurun]

I found a neat opinion piece in my news feed this morning positing the console wars as we have always known them are dead, because Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all want different things from the market. While they are ostensibly competing for the same dollars, they aren’t trying to outdo each other as much as carve out a unique space. What do you folks think?

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/amp/2020- ... er-opinion

[Ack]

While the companies might do that, I don't think the consumer one-upmanship of the console wars will simply go away. We'll just find new ways to insult each other.

[marurun]

I don't disagree but feel like that's kinda always been the case to some degree whether intentional or not. I guess the PS2 gen was pretty homogenous hardware-wise.

What makes that interesting is that the actual architecture of the PS2 generation was pretty darn different between all 3 different major contenders, but they all wanted the same slice of the market. They could only really conceive of there being one video game market and one kind of video game market (Nintendo's handheld dominance aside). Now, the PS4 and 5 and the XBone and XB whatever actually have incredibly similar internals with only minor differences, and yet they're taking completely different approaches to the market. Though 3rd parties will help shape how those stated market goals actually turn out.

[Jagosaurus]

The Xbox gameplay reveal was much about why you should sign up for gamepass IMO.

In the past, the community almost got annoyed by cross gen games as they were seen as holding back future gen. Well... MS has really built an ecosystem to flip that mentality on it's head. Lockheart/Series S or whatever they ultimately call it will only amplify this with additional multiple settings, resolutions, framerates. Their backwards compatibility, cross gen, & multiple game settings approach is interesting even before you bring in X Cloud, Game Pass, & Windows 10.

Something they quietly have in Beta for Insiders is LAN Console Streaming from your console to your mobile device. I'm actually signed up but haven't tried it yet . They're trying to get you playing, however that is. I remember being extremely intrigued the Vita & PS3 (later PS4) could do this over the LAN... segway to Sony...

I personally haven't watched the PS events but read they seem to be much more focused on "here's why you need to upgrade." Also what it is... the top 100 PS4 games will be BC vs all Xbox One games. Wildly different there.

The PS5 will be wildly successfully (esp in JPN)... time will tell if XB attacked this gen right. I like their plan.

[pook99]

I definitely think the console wars are going in a different direction. Past console wars were just about who could out do their competition. I think Nintendo innovated here, after the gamecube nintendo just decided to stop competing directly and start offering unique experiences with the wii and continues to do so with the switch. Maybe microsoft took notice and also decided directly competing was a waste of their time and moved to having the best sub service as their means of competition. It definitely is going to be an interesting gen and it makes me wonder how future gens will play out