Can you explain how the Playstation’s ‘clean cut from older hardware’ leads to ‘bigger long-term potential’, exactly? Because I’m not really seeing an issue with the Series X being ‘limited’ by using an improved version of the One OS, any more than PC games are ‘limited’ by only the various iterations of Windows.

Exactly; there was definitely a little voice in my head when I first booted it up that was like ‘oh, man, it’s just like my Xbox One interface, how boring’. But five minutes later, when I was playing a better-looking version of the exact same game - same save file and all - that I’d been playing just before my console…

And long-term, you may well be absolutely right: I was talking more this generation specifically, where I still think Microsoft has an extremely uphill battle against Sony’s significantly larger install base from last gen, and their announced exclusives. When you start taking the longer view, it gets harder and harder…

I think that’s definitely their end goal; I just don’t know if they’re there yet (or if they’ll even get there this generation).

Sure, but that’s also true of Sony, in a way (and even Nintendo): the only difference is that their end goal is to sell you ‘multiple games’ rather than ‘a single subscription’. The profit doesn’t come from the consoles, and never has, from any of them - a console that sells, but doesn’t then accrue software sales (or…

I tend to think we are, too, but it’s always fun to debate incredibly specific metaphors back and forth anyway!

Mine’s also where I do all my streaming, too, though I watch enough Blu-Rays still that I’m glad the Series X still has the disc drive. And yeah, as far as hardware is concerned, the two boxes... really aren’t that different* (either that generation, or the prior one). Microsoft just fumbled that initial announcement…

Absolutely. (Hell, I liked the Clone Wars-era maps in Battlefront 2 more than the original trilogy maps, just because the prequel-era stuff hadn’t been done to death already.) Given the general disregard for the prequels in the larger culture, though, I wouldn’t necessarily count on that era getting further explored…

That was admittedly hyperbole based on my general grasp of sales figures rather than hard data, but a quick Wikipedia search shows Microsoft dropping from ‘rough parity with Sony’ during the 360/PS3 generation to ‘significantly under half’ during the Xbox One/PS4 era:

Microsoft’s definitely all-in on the GamePass model, though I think you’re selling their work on the Series consoles a little short, there - the goals of ‘wanting a console where GamePass users can play games’ and ‘wanting a really well-made console’ aren’t at all mutually exclusive.

I meant to Playstation consumers, yeah - the very people they’d like to shift over to Xbox (or possibly back to Xbox, depending on how many were 360 users before the mass exodus to the PS4). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Microsoft buying Bethesda was a ‘bad’ move, just that purely from a marketing/public relations…

Yeah, the gap between ‘what a last gen game can do’ and ‘what a current gen game can do’, in terms of graphics and presentation, feels like it’s been shrinking pretty much generation-over generation - the difference between a PS5 and a PS4 game feels smaller than a 360 over original Xbox game feels smaller than a PS2…

I think Microsoft’s also a lot more invested in ‘winning’ in multi-console households, just in general - they don’t care if you own a PS5, just so long as you’re spending more time (and more money) on your Xbox. (Whereas Sony really, really doesn’t want you to own anything other than a PS5). And features like this defi…

I still think it’s Sony’s game to lose*, partially because Sony had such an entrenched advantage going into this generation - and those intra-generational advantages mean more and more as our libraries move to digital spaces, I think. I also wouldn’t discount the impact of exclusives moving forward, and, as consoles…

For sure; it’s a little hard to spin ‘ease of use’ as a reason to pick up a console (especially when it’s up against ‘whichever Sony exclusive franchise is your favorite’). I just think it’s funny that, what, two months after getting a Series X, my favorite thing about it is probably ‘how rarely I remember I’m playing…

I feel like a lot of the Series’ improvements over last gen are like that: decidedly unsexy, but in terms of general quality of life, actually pretty impressive. Like Microsoft was working overtime to make sure you didn’t really notice the changeover in generations, which is... kind of thankless and boring in terms of…

That does sound cool (though it also sounds like the sort of thing I thought was awesome, and then personally just sucked at... kinda like Nioh, honestly). Hell, I’d love to see them apply stances to an RPG about Jedi; rather than trying to balance a Jedi Knight and a random smuggler with a blaster, just give me a…

Yeah, as much as I’m not particularly looking forward to the Ubisoft game specifically (the Ubisoft model of ‘open-world icon visiting’ isn’t exactly my favorite), I definitely find it an encouraging development, even if it feels a little backward: it seems like, here, Disney went to Ubisoft and said ‘make an Ubisoft…

Yeah, Deathwing definitely landed in that ‘you guys are really trying something... but you probably needed three times the budget and significantly more experience to actually pull it off’ area. Definitely encouraged by this one, though; hopefully, they’ll be able to apply the lessons they learned from Deathwing, the…

...I liked ‘Masters of Teras Kasi’. (I mean, I was like ten, but still.) And yeah, in general in terms of licensing, I’d rather see ‘a handful of mediocre-to-average games, two or three awful ones, and one or two really interesting ones’ than ‘a handful of very nice looking titles that more or less just play it safe…