By Pierson Luscy | LTVN Reporter/Anchor
Sony and Microsoft have been vying for who has the best gaming console ever since Microsoft released the Xbox in 2001 in response to the PlayStation 2. This generation’s console war will end with Xbox at the top of the gaming charts; I’m sure of it.
The present generation’s sales battle is now between the Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5. Both consoles made their debut within weeks of each other in 2020 with a price tag of $499.99.
Both companies also released a diskless version of their console at a cheaper price alongside their mainstream consoles. Microsoft launched the Xbox Series S at $299.99 and Sony released the PlayStation 5 all-digital version at $399.99.
As of December 2021, the PlayStation 5 was outselling the Xbox Series X/S in sales. However, I think 2022 and 2023 will be the years that people will look back to when Xbox took the gaming crown from PlayStation.
On June 1, 2017, Xbox Game Studios released Game Pass. This new way of playing games would give gamers unlimited access to a library at a low monthly flat fee. On March 9, 2021, Xbox bought the publishing rights to Bethesda for over $7 billion, giving gamers access to great games like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout Doom.
During Xbox’s E3 presentation, the immediate future and long-term plans of Bethesda and Xbox were introduced. Xbox Game Studios showcased the critically acclaimed Halo and Psychonauts 2 releasing in 2021, along with 2022 bringing new games like Starfield, Crossfire X and RedFall. Xbox also announced games beyond 2022 with Everwild, Fable, The Outer Worlds 2 and Elder Scrolls VI, with all these games being readily available on release date with Xbox Game Pass at no extra charge.
PlayStation made its own response in its Showcase keynote later that September, but it did not show anything too impressive. The only games that were worth mentioning were a Spider-Man sequel and a Wolverine game. It is starting to look like Sony is banking on the sales from its blockbuster exclusives and nothing else, while Xbox is pushing, and continuing to push, the envelope with great games coming at rapid fire.
With Xbox, it’s almost like there will be too much to play.
On January 18, 2022, Xbox opened its checking book, buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard is home to the growing fanbase of Overwatch, World of Warcraft and Call of Duty.
With Xbox’s purchase of Activision Blizzard, PlayStation is running out of companies to buy. It also doesn’t help that PlayStation has been known for taking a loss on consoles and making it back from its games, so it looks like an Xbox-like subscription service is out of the picture.
Xbox’s exclusivity with Activision franchises is unclear, but I am beginning to anticipate that the next iteration of these games will be included with their Game Pass subscription on release date because of what they did with Bethesda.
Xbox has been doing hard work behind the scenes when no one is talking about it. There are even rumors that Ubisoft will be joining the Xbox Game Pass family very soon after Ubisoft+ was made available to Xbox consoles.
The future is looking bright for the Xbox Series X, with the roadmap of the future for Microsoft being very lucrative. With all these games and the power of the latest generation of Xbox, it certainly makes it my console of choice.
