PS5 And PC No More?

Play has no limits—except

Somehow we are at a point with videogames where exclusive doesn’t really seem to matter to much of the big boys. Xbox has run with their ‘everything is an Xbox’ strategy – basically putting Xbox games on, well, everything – and Sony has been happy to see games that they publish make their way to PC how a while now; it looks like Nintendo is the only one of the bug three console makers that still sees the value of offering something special to people who buy your console, something that they can only play on your platform. Could all this be on the turn though?

Xbox has recently appointed a new head of gaming in Asha Sharma, and she has said that she is looking to refocus efforts on what made Xbox what it is, that’s a console. So could that mean moving away from digital services everywhere and trying to get back to the pinnacle of Xbox’s gaming greatness in the original big black box and the slew of fun and unique games that the system had; or maybe the mass appeal of the Xbox 360 era? I think the answer is no. I don’t see it happening. To about-turn from the position that Xbox has been practically running toward with massive investments into development-studio acquisitionsto fill Game pass with ‘content’, as well as the move to put that service everywhere, not to mention the physical releases of some of Xbox’s biggest titles like Indiana Jones and Starfield, would surely be a very difficult idea to sell (as well as blyscaning) to Microsoft.

But there’s also the news that Playstation is planning to stop bringing their games to PC. Coming from a report in Bloomberg, the news says that we may no longer be seeing Playstation titles move to PC unless they have as a primary focus online multiplayer. That idea sounds more reasonable then the return to the console form Xbox, but at the same time it’s the case that games have done quite well for Sony on PC—though if that’s well enough to offset what Sony might see as potential sales on their own platform only Sony themselves could say. It’s also worth pointing out that, while this story has been widely reported, it is on the basis on unnamed sources, and even the article itself says Sony could change their mind—not a very firm confirmation then.

All in all I don’t think we will be seeing a return to the good old days when it was just taken for granted that console makers had to compete for customer.

Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Finally tackling Octopath Traveller 2.