The console “war” rages ever on. If it were indeed a battle, Microsoft would be very much on the defensive. There are more than double the number of PlayStation 4 consoles in homes than there are Xbox Ones. Taken on its own, that stat is meaningless, but when you factor in the fact that Sony’s sold through over 20 million PlayStation 4’s the picture becomes a little clearer. Sony’s winning the imaginary war. According to Unity boss and former EA head John Riccitiello, says the victory is well deserved.
Speaking to Gamesbeat, the candid and upfront Riccitiello said that the war of market dominance was a clash of great big ideas. Microsoft bet big, he mused, on entertainement over games – and lost.
“That’s one of the more — in my opinion — depressing stories in the last couple of years,” Riccitiello said. “In the battle of big ideas … there was a clash of ideas that really separated Sony and Microsoft.
They actually had very similar architecture that they were trying to bring to the table. But Microsoft focused … a lot on entertainment beyond gaming. Microsoft was trying to [compete against] Apple. They didn’t feel gaming was big enough to justify the pent-up desire … to have the recognition they wanted as an innovator.”
Sony instead fostered what he calls a “gamers first” approach, and were rewarded for it.
“Sony just said, ‘We’ve made the best fucking game system we could’ … partly because they didn’t have the resources to do more about it,” said Riccitiello.
“Microsoft was focused on the shot after the one they needed to make, putting the 7-ball in the corner pocket, but they missed the first shot and didn’t get another shot after it.
Sony focused on the shot they needed to make, which was win the hearts and minds of the gamer. The broader scope of entertainment might be a bigger idea, but not with an unfocused execution. A tight execution on the 50 million people that matter, which are the people currently lapping up consoles … Sony fucking nailed it, and they deserve the victory.”
The war is far from over though.
Last Updated: May 7, 2015
ReaperOfSquirrels
May 7, 2015 at 08:37
I totally agree with him.
But this console “war” will never end.
Frik van der Hewerskink
May 7, 2015 at 08:42
The “war” you speak of might be a good thing though, it promotes growth and a lot of new features. At least that is how I think about it.
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 08:43
DAT BOOMBOX AVATAR JISSSSS
Emily Johnson
May 7, 2015 at 17:27
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Ir0nseraph
May 7, 2015 at 08:46
I agree the competition between Sony and MS is a necessary evil.
ReaperOfSquirrels
May 7, 2015 at 09:06
Yeah, I totally agree with you too… the industry needs the competition and the “war”.
Consoles wouldn’t be what they are today if this “war” didn’t exist.
Drake
May 7, 2015 at 09:08
I respectfully disagree. Look at the PS3.5, oh sorry, the ps4. Shortly before its release, Sony said the PS3 still had many years left in it. But them Microsoft came up with XB1, and Sony had no choice but to retaliate. So they released a system that is marginally better than its predecessor (the gap between the consoles is large, but the jump from 3 to 4 was much smaller than 1 to 2 or 2 to 3). They were also forced to release the system incomplete, promising many features that are to come, some of those are still on their way 1.5 years later.
Personally, I would have wanted Sony to hold off on the PS4 till it was ready to be released. A larger gap between consoles would make Sony appear more innovative and more gamer-focused rather than business focused. They are a business and profits come first, yes. But I liked their gamers-first ‘appearance’.
konfab
May 7, 2015 at 09:10
I disagree, I think the gap between the PS3 and PS4 is massive. It will only get larger as developers refine their tools.
Dawid Eduard Roestorf
May 7, 2015 at 09:30
Sony announced the PS4 almost 3 months ahead of the X1. I don’t believe the PS4 is an incomplete system, it is doing the primary functions. Gaming, Streaming, and Internet connectivity.
PS3 was like the X1, a media centre, not a gaming console.
Sean Carbutt
May 7, 2015 at 10:32
Disagree with your comment. Having owned a PS since the original PS1, the gap between the PS3 and PS4 is massive. Mostly processing and graphics wise. Downloading is much faster and smoother. features are much better. Yes there is no media player at the moment, but that will come. IT is a gaming system, not a Fagbox entertainment system. At the end of the day, our opinions are just that, opinions. The sales numbers indicate reality and Sony is kicking the crap out of MS to the degree that almost 40% of Sonys new customers are ex Fagbox owners
Michel Simmons
May 8, 2015 at 04:02
Actually the only huge disparity from the PS3 to the PS4 is the amount of ram and the type team being GDDR5. Otherwise the cpu in both the X1 & PS4 are marginally weak. The Xeneon and Cell Processor were powerful custom chips. All they needed was more ram, slightly better gpu those consoles were the truth.
Charl van der Merwe
May 7, 2015 at 13:29
haha, the gap between the 3 and 4 is small ? Go check system specs and then come say that.
Ricardo Harvey
May 7, 2015 at 08:38
With so few REAL exclusive games is there really a difference or a reason to get one over the other.
K1FF J1MB0B (sizzle edition)
May 7, 2015 at 08:51
Yes there’s a hundreds of different reasons why you could choose one over the other. Take practicality for example. My lounge space can’t support a horizontal standing box… unless I put the thing on the floor. Anything no matter how small it might seem can be a justifiable reason.
FoxOneZA
May 7, 2015 at 09:00
Yes. It comes down to exclusives, online gaming, controller preference, etc
Skyblue
May 7, 2015 at 09:00
Most of those exclusives are on PS4 so there’s your answer. Play Resogun, love life.
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 09:01
Get both, I plan on getting a XBOX One. Eventually. Maybe.
Lord Chaos
May 7, 2015 at 08:40
Weak use of header. That’s Pin-Head, not Nail-head. 😛
Umar
May 7, 2015 at 08:47
Didn’t Spencer drive nails into his own head? I’m pretty sure Spencer nailed it…hard.
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 09:00
Nailed it!
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:25
Jenna Jameson would have required royalty fees…
The Illuminaartjie
May 7, 2015 at 08:41
I fucking love the fact that this fucking site has fucking profane language.
So much better that MyGaming.
Brady miaau
May 7, 2015 at 08:46
The article does not include bad language. It has a quote from someone else, who used the bad language.
If the people running this site used bad language on a regular basis in their articles, to punctuate points perhaps, I wonder how many regulars would revisit. Good, old fashioned English (Queen’s, please) , should suffice to drive points home.
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 08:47
^This
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 08:47
I’d like an article in Afrikaans once a week
Lord Chaos
May 7, 2015 at 08:47
En wat gaan ons daarmee doen?
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 08:47
Ag sommer maar net geniet is al 🙂
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:05
Reg! Ek sal dit vir julle skryf! Ons kan dit “Kom ons gaan Dutch!” noem of so iets!
Ir0nseraph
May 7, 2015 at 08:50
Seker lees. 😛
Brady miaau
May 7, 2015 at 09:23
En wie gaan dit skryf? Die Amerikanse vrou? (en ek kannie spel nie!)
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:24
Ek sal! Ons kan dit “Kom Speel met Dutch” noem!
Lord Chaos
May 7, 2015 at 09:25
O_o
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:28
“Dutch se Vreugdestokkie” het dit nie verby die sensuur raad gemaak nie…
Brady miaau
May 7, 2015 at 09:29
Eish. I seen some of your comments. It would be interesting to say the least.
So, most certainly an opinion piece then? 🙂
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:31
Oh Yes! I would love to “air” my views on gaming once a week. my 30+ years of experience in gaming across a whole range of formats and me not towing the party line most of the time would make for an interesting other side of gaming article or two, I would say.
fred
May 7, 2015 at 09:26
So is dit rekenaarspeletjies of tv – speletjies of beide. .. Dit klink bietjie snaaks. Solank daar afrikaanse vloekwoorde in is sal dit ‘n wenner wees.
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:27
Ek neem aan jy kom van of Brakpan of Boksburg af… 😛
fred
May 7, 2015 at 09:28
Ons onderskei nie hier aan die oosrand nie , almal drink saam.
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:29
Ha ha! Goeie comeback! Hoe voel julle oor ‘n drink maat vanuit die Vaal?
fred
May 7, 2015 at 09:31
Lekker man , bring net jou bottel klippies saam.
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:32
Klippies? Nee. Sorry. Ek kan nie saam met julle lae klas paloekas drink nie. Ek drink net Jack… 😛
Geoffrey Tim
May 7, 2015 at 08:52
You are correct. We only use the bad language when it’s a quote from elsewhere. 🙂 We have no qualms with it appearing, but we’d prefer it to not come from the digital pens of our writers.
Greylingad
May 7, 2015 at 08:44
There is a System of a Down song that relates to this situation, I believe the Microsoft side were singing it constantly during the Xbone developement, the songs name is Cigaro, “My c*ck is much bigger than yours, my c*ck can walk right through the door”, how madly mistaken were they….
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 08:44
System of a Down ftw!
The Illuminaartjie
May 7, 2015 at 08:46
Greylingad
May 7, 2015 at 08:51
I like this, it is good, it was my filling of System for the morning, but now I have to calm down and avoid headbanging while walking from office to office…
Admiral Chief
May 7, 2015 at 09:09
You know what is damn weird? About the same time we were speaking about this, the EXACT song pops up on my random playlist
Ghost In The Rift
May 8, 2015 at 00:20
This made my day,NICE!!!
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:04
Rammstein FTW!
Lord Chaos
May 7, 2015 at 09:23
IN FLAMES!!! 😛
Blood Emperor Trevor
May 7, 2015 at 09:03
Well if there’s one person who’s qualified to judge that, it’s the guy who lead EA to become the much-beloved company it is today & the winner of not one, but two golden poos.
Skyblue
May 7, 2015 at 09:03
This
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 09:04
The XBOX dropped the Kinect and got two price cuts….. maybe another one is needed?
Dutch Matrix
May 7, 2015 at 09:39
I think what they need is less articles saying they can only manage 920p or whatever resolution as opposed to 1080p from Sony.
People read that, and interpret the Xbox as being the weaker console. I personally would opt for a PS4 myself because of that.
Reason being: When Sega and Sony was duking it out with the Saturn and Playstation 1 respectively, the Playstation ended up being the clear winner and Sega’s console went the way of the dinosaur.
I personally don’t want to risk that happening to me again.
Brady miaau
May 7, 2015 at 09:43
Windows 10 and DirectX 12. I think some of the punters are waiting to see what effect that has.
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 09:55
Agreed, I don’t want to say it’s all or nothing but everyone is already hyped for the improvement it’ll bring to the XBOX already.
Dawid Eduard Roestorf
May 7, 2015 at 10:17
MS is putting all their money on Windows 10 improving X1, but they still fail to make the most important connections. Make it about the gamers.
The more Core gamers you get onto your system, the more hype their will be, the more hype there is, the more casual people will buy it.
The X1 is still about how can we integrate all our TV features, which core gamers don’t care about.
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 10:26
Couldn’t have said it better
Brady miaau
May 7, 2015 at 11:07
but people like me do care. So there is a market. But big enough? Hmmm. I want both. Games AND multimedia.
Dawid Eduard Roestorf
May 7, 2015 at 11:31
True, I also want both. But it should not be what you base your sales on. It also should not be what the system is designed around. The X1 was made as a media center first, and games is an after thought.
Think about the console reveals. The PS4 was revealed as a Games Machine, thats it. For the gamers, to say thanks to the gamers.
The X1 reveal. TV TV TV TV Sport TV TV TV TV Sport Sport Sport TV Sport TV games
Now, the people who rush out and buy a console at launch, is not your TV people, why should I buy a $500 system, that I plug my cable into, when the cable can be plugged into the tv????
No, the people who pre-order and buy at launch is your core games, and that is what MS has forgotten, and is still forgetting.
Hammersteyn
May 7, 2015 at 09:06
http://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/axZeoPb_460sa.gif
Martin du preez (D4RKL1NGza)
May 7, 2015 at 09:31
So since SONY has won the hardware race by producing the worlds most powerful video game console to have ever been created, do we all expect MS to just try and barley keep up?
After all they are driven by the by gamers for gamers mantra all the while practicing the Live, Learn and Love lifestyle.
fred
May 7, 2015 at 09:38
Vittory , haha
Chule Gcanga
May 7, 2015 at 10:50
Next war Hololens Vs Morpheus, Augmented Vs Virtual reality…. Place your bets, which ones gonna take the next round
reVelske
May 7, 2015 at 12:53
What war? Both sides already lost ages ago whilst Nintendo is happily sailing along not giving the slightest crap.
mildsilence
May 7, 2015 at 18:53
What if MS is destroying their own console to release the xbox app on Win10 and make every windows PC a xbox…
*puts tin foil hat on
Ghost In The Rift
May 8, 2015 at 00:29
The only way i see the Xbox One playing catch up is to heavily develop windows 10 on the console for better resolution and fps,hence counting on DX12, i still don’t think its gonna help tbh, unless they have a sneaky trump card for the slim version up there sleeves.