XSX vs PS5

[Potato]

There are a lot of good deals around at the moment and after 3+ years on the market, there is finally a decent prospect of some actual games that are exclusive to this gen coming out in 2024.

I thought it might be a good time to discuss the pros and cons of each platform.

I'm planning to buy whatever Nintendo puts out next (barring some monumental Nintendo fuck up), so what's the deal with both of the other platforms?

PS5 
Pros

• Seems to be the default again this gen. 
  
• I have an existing PS+ library (currently inactive).
  
• Will likely get a bunch of cool niche games that XSX won't get.
  

Cons

• I don't care much for Sony angry dad sims.
  
• The only live service games I care for are multiplatform anyway.
  
• Hardware is much more expensive.
  
  

XSX
Pros

• MS's acquisitions make things interesting. Likely lead console for CoD etc.
  
• Cheaper hardware.
  
• I already have Xbox controllers for PC so even less hardware costs.
  

Cons

• XSS seems like an anchor around the platform for ports.
  
•  I don't play enough games to make Gamepass worthwhile.
  

General considerations

• I probably won't use a subscription service this gen
  
• I'm not really a Day 1/Season Pass kind of guy. Most games I buy will be bargain bin specials.
  
• Kids will be playing most often.
  

What are your thoughts going into the new year for your platform of choice?

Do you have buyer's remorse on your exciting choice?

[Nintex]

Because of backwards compatibility I went with Xbox Series X upgrading from the Xbox One. The Xbox One was very dissapointing, while the Xbox One X was fantastic in terms of hardware but not a single game really took advantage of that hardware.

Especially by the end of the gen PS4 Pro and Xbox One X were punching above their weight, which made Xbox Series X and PS5 dissapointing as just the 'better' PS4 and Xbox One they were at launch. I picked up the Xbox Series X about a year after release when it was suddenly in stock right after Christmas.

Hardware wise the Series X packs a punch but often you can tell you're dealing with a system in a distant third place. The optimization just isn't there sometimes as it is for PS5. Microsoft first party is still a joke, much of what they announced at the start of the gen still hasn't shipped and what did like Infinite, Redfall and Starfield, didn't have much impact. Games are also starting to skip Xbox as Sony clamps down on exclusivity for the likes of Final Fantasy 16. But there is also the odd PS4/Steam/Switch combo which is getting more common. Some big features are also broken. Take quick resume, which is pretty much useless in the biggest 'always online' games like Elden Ring. The big graphics upgrade this gen, ray tracing, is also not utilized much on both these machines outside of select titles. I feel like we're in the same spot now as with the Xbox One X, great hardware but very few games take full advantage of it.

Apart from big third party games there just isn't a whole lot of buzz or excitement surrounding the Xbox ecosystem like there used to be. The rebel spirit is completely gone, it's all safe accessible and corporate now. As for the acquisitions, they have Machine Games(Wolfenstein) working on Indiana Jones, Crystal Dynamics(Tomb Raider) on Perfect Dark and rumor has it ID Software(DOOM) is working on Star Wars Mandalorian. Arkanes Marvel Blade game is apparently 3 years out. Hellbade 2 is out next year, which looks really good but that took 7 years after the first game.

If you're looking for a soulless machine to play the latest video games at decent settings without breaking the bank Xbox Series X is well worth it.

If you don't want to miss out on the odd Japanese exclusive title or future Switch2/PS5 weeb games the PS5 is your best bet.

Putting aside the woes about the corporate strategy this generation has seen some excellent games.

[chronovore]

I really like my PS5, but I am on my 3rd DualSense controller, experiencing analog stick drift. The first lasted 2 years, the second was an older unused one from my son -- it lasted 5 weeks. As it had been opened, I was unable to claim against warranty. I'm on my 3rd, and these things are now like US$100 or something? Crazy.

Caveat emptor.

[booomer]

Cons

•  I don't play enough games too make Gamepass worthwhile.
  

General considerations

• I probably won't use a subscription service this gen
  

Xbox without Gamepass is really a dropped ball.  You get all the first party games day one on gamepass but they will still be there if you decide to play em a year later. You get a bunch of random games you might have never tried due the purchase price and end up loving. Some examples for me were Spiritfarer, Forager and Medieval Dynasty.

Most gamepass games can be played via the cloud so you can try them first before deciding on downloading to the hard drive for better performance. You said the kids play games. Go look at the gamepass library and see how many games are available to them.

I am an Xbox guy with 500 hours in Starfield, so I am biased, just felt like dismissing gamepass if going the Xbox route was a mistake.

[Nintex]

Big con for Xbox, it's fucking dead

[Potato]

Yeah, this thread aged liked milk.

[Puffy Fucking Baby]

i prefer the deadbox over the soystation tbh, 90% cos i prefer the xbox controller and can get the gaemz cheaper for it off cdkeys

[Potato]

My gut feeling after reading basically none of the rumours is that they are transitioning towards Xbox being a Game Pass subscription service that is platform agnostic and the Xbox brand will be licenced out so that hardware like Steam Deck etc can be Xbox Game Pass certified.

This idea might be obvious or already out there in some form, but I just don't read gaming news enough to know.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Call me an idiot if I just stated the obvious.

[Nintex]

My gut feeling after reading basically none of the rumours is that they are transitioning towards Xbox being a Game Pass subscription service that is platform agnostic and the Xbox brand will be licenced out so that hardware like Steam Deck etc can be Xbox Game Pass certified.

This idea might be obvious or already out there in some form, but I just don't read gaming news enough to know.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Call me an idiot if I just stated the obvious.

The problem is that GamePass is dead too.

If Microsoft drops their biggest games on PS5 and skips out on lots of (Day 1) GamePass releases like Call of Duty, why would third parties release their games on GamePass?
Sony and Nintendo aren't going to put GamePass on their systems. Microsoft is stuck because they are forced to release Call of Duty mutliplatform and with just ~20 million Xbox Series consoles out there they don't have nearly enough GamePass subscribers to make a good return on ever larger development budgets for other games. This was only going to work if GamePass would grow fast enough but it hasn't. It's more like the Windows Store / Steam situation. They just can't compete if PlayStation is outselling them 4:1 and people still prefer consoles to streaming apps. They need to sell full priced games on as many platforms as possible otherwise the business isn't sustainable. They are basically a bigger Activision now.

They will of course try to keep Xbox hardware alive but a Digital Only Xbox Series X or Samsung/MadCatz Xbox or whatever will look even worse in comparison to PS5 than the current hardware offerings.

I didn't understand why they literally destroyed the physical copies of Starfield, until I realized that if those are sitting for $3 in the bargain bin, they can't sell it for $80 on PlayStation 5.

[who is ted danson?]

I think Bobby K technically killed Xbox

[nachobro]

My gut feeling after reading basically none of the rumours is that they are transitioning towards Xbox being a Game Pass subscription service that is platform agnostic and the Xbox brand will be licenced out so that hardware like Steam Deck etc can be Xbox Game Pass certified.

This idea might be obvious or already out there in some form, but I just don't read gaming news enough to know.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Call me an idiot if I just stated the obvious.

some of that has been "leaked", the licensed hardware part specifically. but who knows if that's a leak or random speculation. imo it makes sense to have "xbox certified" hardware that can run their OS and games, especially in the handheld area. or maybe even streaming stuff like firestick. you can already run steamlink and game pass streaming on google tv and they work pretty well too.

i can see a set top box of some sort existing though, don't think the console is completely dead yet. but imo they'll definitely be moving it to a digital only platform, like how pc is now. i also don't think every game will be multi-platform but bigger stuff like cod and starfield make sense, they were already doing multi-platform with minecraft and its worked out quite well for them.

[Nintex]

Toys for Bob already shuttered, folks at Xbox don't know whats going on. It's going to be an absolute bloodbath. 

FTC is not happy, Microsoft promised no lay offs following the Activision Blizzard acquisition so they might force Microsoft to divest Activision/Blizzard after all.

[Potato]

Pretty interesting times in the hardware scene right now.

You have to think Nintendo are monitoring things very closely (not that they will deviate their plans) with a new Switch announcement imminent.

[RetiredSkunk]

My gut feeling after reading basically none of the rumours is that they are transitioning towards Xbox being a Game Pass subscription service that is platform agnostic and the Xbox brand will be licenced out so that hardware like Steam Deck etc can be Xbox Game Pass certified.

This idea might be obvious or already out there in some form, but I just don't read gaming news enough to know.

Spoiler:  (click to show)(click to hide)

Call me an idiot if I just stated the obvious.

The problem is that GamePass is dead too.

If Microsoft drops their biggest games on PS5 and skips out on lots of (Day 1) GamePass releases like Call of Duty, why would third parties release their games on GamePass?
Sony and Nintendo aren't going to put GamePass on their systems. Microsoft is stuck because they are forced to release Call of Duty mutliplatform and with just ~20 million Xbox Series consoles out there they don't have nearly enough GamePass subscribers to make a good return on ever larger development budgets for other games. This was only going to work if GamePass would grow fast enough but it hasn't. It's more like the Windows Store / Steam situation. They just can't compete if PlayStation is outselling them 4:1 and people still prefer consoles to streaming apps. They need to sell full priced games on as many platforms as possible otherwise the business isn't sustainable. They are basically a bigger Activision now.

They will of course try to keep Xbox hardware alive but a Digital Only Xbox Series X or Samsung/MadCatz Xbox or whatever will look even worse in comparison to PS5 than the current hardware offerings.

I didn't understand why they literally destroyed the physical copies of Starfield, until I realized that if those are sitting for $3 in the bargain bin, they can't sell it for $80 on PlayStation 5.

Bro.

BRO.

[Nintex]

Xbox is fucking dead jim

[RetiredSkunk]

Xbox is fucking dead jim

Were you really in to the OG Xbox and worse an Xbox t-shirt the day you asked your high school crush to Danish Prom and she just laughed at your shirt? Cause that would explain a whole lot.

[nachobro]

Being surprised at MS renaming and rebranding all their shit every few years

[Nintex]

Xbox is fucking dead jim

Were you really in to the OG Xbox and worse an Xbox t-shirt the day you asked your high school crush to Danish Prom and she just laughed at your shirt? Cause that would explain a whole lot.

NintendoXbox

NintendXbo

NintenXb

NinteX

[RetiredSkunk]

Xbox is fucking dead jim

Were you really in to the OG Xbox and worse an Xbox t-shirt the day you asked your high school crush to Danish Prom and she just laughed at your shirt? Cause that would explain a whole lot.

NintendoXbox

NintendXbo

NintenXb

NinteX

OK, so I was right on the money then.

Did Phil Spencer fuck the girl you wanted to ask to prom?

I like this lore building.

[Nintex]

After the Xbox 360 I was excited for the next generation.

The Xbox One sucked, probably the worst console I've owned next to the Wii U.
They came back with the Xbox One X and while it had zero first party exclusives there were many good third party games that played best on Xbox One X.

So when Microsoft unveiled the Series X and Perfect Dark and everything else it looked like a true return to form to build on the Xbox One X.
But then they decided to focus on soy shit instead and anchored its potential with the Series S. Except for the Matrix demo no game ever came close to actually using that Series X hardware and with that parity bullshit they also held back third party games on the PS5, at least or a while.

All the games they announced vanished and reworked, all the most promising studios they bought set to work on Marvel/Disney shit or stuck in eternal development hell.
They couldn't even do Halo and Forza right. A lot of features simply don't work anymore, quick resume was awesome at launch, barely works now. The BC program was fucking awesome, now dropped. 

Starting its 4th year the Xbox Series X is a big flop. Only 7 million sold.  
Selling 20 million lepered streaming boxes out of bargain bins can't hide that.

[nachobro]

27 million sold is nothing to sneeze at, though it does put them at a pretty sad 3rd place. but, if anything it just shows that there's no reason to go so hard with hardware cause people want the $250 box. either way, i don't see them completely leaving hardware. 30% of every game sale on those consoles is pretty hard to give up.

[Potato]

Is this really the start of the 4th year for these shit boxes?

Wow. I can't think of a less inspiring generational shift in the history of gaming and I've been here since Atari 2600 days.

I know I've said this before, but what compelling reason has anyone had to upgrade outside of better graphics malarkey?

Even with only one viable choice, I still don't see any reason to spend the money.

I guess I'm going to wait to see how Microsoft can fuck their business even harder and then wait until Nintendo announces their plans. Depressing times.

[who is ted danson?]

Wait for Switch 2 and Steam Deck 2.

I am going to lmao if MS quit hardware. It will give Sony a free pass to do dumb shit 

[Nintex]

Is this really the start of the 4th year for these shit boxes?

Wow. I can't think of a less inspiring generational shift in the history of gaming and I've been here since Atari 2600 days.

I know I've said this before, but what compelling reason has anyone had to upgrade outside of better graphics malarkey?

Even with only one viable choice, I still don't see any reason to spend the money.

I guess I'm going to wait to see how Microsoft can fuck their business even harder and then wait until Nintendo announces their plans. Depressing times.

I think the previous gen simply lasted too long to a point that instead of next-gen games you simply got late-gen and cross-gen games.

The Switch sort of has the same thing going on despite the games being awesome.
In a 'normal' 5 year cycle Tears of the Kingdom would've been the 'cross-gen' or 'next-gen' Zelda.
Xenoblade 3 would've been the next-gen follow-up to Xenoblade 2 etc. . 

It doesn't help that Microsoft and Sony have shifted their focus again. Sony bet big on GAAS but then changed their minds. Meaning those GAAS titles aren't coming out and what replaces it isn't ready to ship for a long time. Who knows what will happen to games like EVERWILD and Perfect Dark with the Xbox shift in strategy. They already rebooted development on Fable. Stellar Blade was announced in 2019 for PS4 and Xbox One and is just now rolling out as a PS5 exclusive. Developing games takes almost an entire generation now and these lay offs are unlikely to speed things up. Kojimas new project is probably a PS6 launch title or something.

[Potato]

The AAA focus, especially among the second and third tier developers, was always fucking stupid and unsustainable.

The video game industry has to be the poster child for accidental success. Some of the decisions made are ridiculously stupid and dreadfully shortsighted.

[RetiredSkunk]

After the Xbox 360 I was excited for the next generation.

The Xbox One sucked, probably the worst console I've owned next to the Wii U.
They came back with the Xbox One X and while it had zero first party exclusives there were many good third party games that played best on Xbox One X.

So when Microsoft unveiled the Series X and Perfect Dark and everything else it looked like a true return to form to build on the Xbox One X.
But then they decided to focus on soy shit instead and anchored its potential with the Series S. Except for the Matrix demo no game ever came close to actually using that Series X hardware and with that parity bullshit they also held back third party games on the PS5, at least or a while.

All the games they announced vanished and reworked, all the most promising studios they bought set to work on Marvel/Disney shit or stuck in eternal development hell.
They couldn't even do Halo and Forza right. A lot of features simply don't work anymore, quick resume was awesome at launch, barely works now. The BC program was fucking awesome, now dropped. 

Starting its 4th year the Xbox Series X is a big flop. Only 7 million sold.  
Selling 20 million lepered streaming boxes out of bargain bins can't hide that.

TLDR

[Nintex]

[nachobro]

this "big deal" is becoming much less of a big deal. being announced on a podcast plus the supposed leakers all scurrying away from their leaks and backtracking. seems unlikely MS is the leaving the console business, as anyone with a brain could have predicted.

[Nintex]

Geoff has some more details

[Nintex]

That was quick.
- HiFi Rush
- Pertinent
- Sea of Thieves 

First multi-platform releases.

By gradually opening up Xbox games to Nintendo Switch and PS5, this also opens up questions over how many games will be multiplatform in the future. If you can play Xbox games anywhere — including PC, the cloud, the Nintendo Switch, and the PS5 — then why would you want an Xbox? That’s the big question that Microsoft needs to answer on Thursday.

I just don't see how third party hardware can work though, either they open up the hardware requirements to include off the shelf components,opening the door for compatibility and performance issues. Or they keep using the same APUs but if the hardware is the same apart from the plastic case, storage options and a few USB ports there is no reason to introduce it.