Microsoft vs Sony: The Future of Gaming

Lynx122
Microsoft vs Sony: The Future of Gaming

The Situation

Microsoft has announced game streaming on phones and other devices.

To many people this might sound like a good thing, but to me it's not.

The reason is the overall strategy that Microsoft has been pursuing for some years now. They've given up on competing in the console market. They will still make a console but that's not their focus anymore. They're focused on games as a service, now game streaming etc. They don't want to make a good platform they want to be on all platforms and make money off that.

There's nothing wrong with that from a business point of view. It's probably the smart thing to do for them but I don't like it.

The reason is I like high quality games and in the future that Microsoft is trying to create I don't see too many of those.

Their goal is to be everywhere, sell Xbox Live and Gamepass etc. But what kind of games are they going to offer? Games like Sea of Thieves that are empty at launch and then announce 2 DLCs right after launch? They want to string people along so they keep paying for Game Pass. Or games that launch with bugs and have no innovation or quality like State of Decay?

I don't see any good games coming out of it and the reason is they have much less incentive to make a system seller game if they don't have to sell a system.

That's what the whole crossplay thing was really about, not about Microsoft being "pro consumer" it's about them wanting to get on Playstation to sell their services. Playstation has the biggest player base so they want to get their hands on that. Crossplay was just the first step in their plan.

The Danger

Some people say let everybody play everything but they don't understand how business works.

If Sony had to give God of War and Spiderman and The Last of Us etc. To Microsoft then they wouldn't get anything out of their hard work. They'd still get game sales, but the real purpose of the games is to sell consoles. That's why they invest a lot of time and money to develop studios and let them develop games that are great. If they can't be exclusives then those games wouldn't exist at all.

Microsoft vs Sony: The Future of Gaming

Sony is doing great this generation but I don't want more and more breakdown between the Platforms. Because the barriers between the platforms is the reason these companies try to make their platform great to attract customers, the competition drives innovation and creativity and risk taking. Everybody understood that until Microsoft gave up and now they're going down a different path.

I don't care about cross play or playing slightly better mobile games on a phone, I do care about amazing games. Of course there will always be third party developers like Rockstar and CD Projekt Red but why only have those games when you can have PS exlusives on top of it?

Right now Sony is doing great but things can change and I don't like how this sounds. Also as soon as Microsoft has established this service in many places these games will start to fill up with Microtransactions. I can already see it coming. They will be the mobile games of the future.

The Future

This is not about if you like one company more than another. It's about what they stand for. Right now Sony is standing for great single player games that come out finished and without microtranscations. That's why I'd like them to keep succeeding. It's not about being a cult follower. But right now I can't see a lot of good coming from what Microsoft is doing not for me anyway.

I'd like to see more games that are art and tell a story that grips me.

How do you think the future will turn out and what would you rather have?

#futureofgaming #protectexclusives

Microsoft vs Sony: The Future of Gaming
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