Sony Won the Battle, but Microsoft Can Still Win the War

It may not have hired Justin Long and John Hodgman to roll out "I'm a Mac" ads, but it's doing something even more sneaky by hitting Mr. Softy below the belt.

Sony has been the unexpected star of this week's E3 expo. It not only moved to price its upcoming PS4 for $100 less than Microsoft's Xbox One, but it's laying into Microsoft's requirements that gamers perform periodic online check-ins to validate game ownership. It's also making it easier for gamers to trade in used games.

[doctorstrange]

Sure, but they just made it way harder for themselves

[jaredhart]

Sure, they just lost Round 1, badly. This is a scheduled 9 round fight.

[JokesOnYou]

Well at E3 they showed they weren't lying about their investment in games. DRM has obviously been an issue. I suspected despite the hiccups X1 would do just fine especially now as more people learn about conveniences of things like its sharing policy, I think its going to be a very popular feature among gamers.

[Transporter47]

If you want to say by Battles how about Announcements Feb for PS4 destroyed MS reveal
then E3 Sony destroyed X1. so that's 2 fights they have lost in a row enough said.

[mikeslemonade]

PS3 at $200 more and came out one year later still sold more than 360 last generation, so I don't see how they Microsoft has any chance to win this generation when Microsoft is $100 more to start off.

[zebramocha]

How can they,when this happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

[sinjonezp]

Really? I mean how many times we have to go through this. Wait for reveal, wait for e3, wait for 2 years. Gamers are blinded by what? That microsoft bought up third parties and spending a ton of money to help employ there ideas? Consumers will speak with there wallets, and hopefully that will ignite microsoft to adjust. I play all games. Gaming pc, ps3, vita, my kid has a 3ds, and I mostly play 360. I for one will not be picking up a X1 until Microsoft makes significant adjustments. I don't hate microsoft. I love windows phone 8 , I play the heck out of my 360, but people need to realize that these policies are methods of control. And who in their right mind would defend such bs? Unfortunately, ignorance is bliss.

[dedicatedtogamers]

Historically speaking, the most expensive console has never won the console war, never once. Historically speaking, a Microsoft console has never won the console war. Historically speaking, the console with the least 1st-party support has never won the console war. Historically speaking, a console has never had this much negative press surrounding it prior to launch.

Sure, maybe Xbox One really could "win the war", but, historically speaking, it's pretty dang unlikely.

[dcbronco]

This is a very different generation. There will be a lot of other things that will play a part that gamers don't pay attention to. MS will have a lot of other supporters that will be there just because of the way One is designed. MS will win this generation by a mile. Sony may win with gamers. But they will lose the war.

[badz149]

war against consumer rights?

yeah...that will end well! /s

[Mounce]

Well, if Xbox 360 couldn't even win the war against the PS3 which was released 1 year earlier than it, was cheaper than it, grew a strong fanbase while PS3's architecture made it a pain for most developers to port games to it or develop any games to it.

And 360 still fell behind and didn't technically win the war against the PS3....

I'd really fucking be lying if I said Xbox One had any hope in 'Winning a War' against the PS4 when the fucking 360 couldn't win against the PS3 with all the hurdles Sony and the PS3 had to jump through during 2006-2007 and some of 2008 before the 'Years of Sony' came kicking in.

Fool.com . . . . How....justified of a name.

[jc48573]

the only way Microsoft can win is by not buying xboxone and play the waiting game. I feel sorry for those picking the consoles at launch.

[jaredhart]

This is what's happened so far:

[NextGen24Gamer]

What if publishers price Xbox One games at lower price points than PS4 titles? It can happen. In fact, it should happen. If Xbox One discs are less valuable to gamers because they lack trade-in value, then the perceived value will be lower. Why can't software companies pass on those savings to the gamers in a move that will shift the value proposition of the Xbox One console itself?

What if they decide to only put out Xbox One versions of some titles? Each platform has its exclusives, but what if publishers begin holding back on one platform to favor the one where the margins will be higher?

[ltachiUchiha]

Goodluck with that. U really think devs will do that & miss out on an opportunity to make more money? Also go check xbl right now, if u own a ps3 & 360 & have ps plus & xbl, u will see the difference in prices of games. Steam is the only service that beats out ps plus in pricing but ps plus also offers free games so its a good step going forward.

[pop-voxuli]

Why in the blue hell would they want to sell 5000 copies of a game on a system that a scant few own and that prohibits resales when they could sell 5,000,000 copies on the system that damn near the entire world owns and that does not?
Sorry but the math checks out and publishers know it.

[HammadTheBeast]

Not happening.

[NextGen24Gamer]

The Fanboys are the people like YOU who press disagree when I just quoted what the article stated. LOL...Silly Sony Boys are hoping against what the article states.

For me its common sense.

I have two xbox ones pre ordered and a ps4. All paid in FULL. I'm a fan alright. Fan of games and I actually spend my money and time playing them unlike half of the trolls on this site!

Comedy at its finest!

Let's see how many Trolls disagree! LOL...

Some of yall just don't understand how the industry works....Game developers don't get money when copies of their game are sold at 54.99 used. And if you seriously think that games will only sell 5000 copies on the xbox one, you are mentally challenged. Xbox has always SOLD MORE GAMES than Sony! That won't change. There can be 80 sony fans that troll this site voting disagree on anything postitive for the xbox one...but guess what? It's only 80 sony trolls that don't matter! The xbox One will sell 5 million consoles from launch and 7 to 10 million a year there after. Like it or not! Games like Halo, TitanFall, Call of Duty, Forza, Dead Rising, Gears of War, and Ryse will sell in the millions! Those are facts, and developers will love the xbox one and xbox one will continue to get the best games!

It's an exciting time to be a next gen gamer!!!!!

[pop-voxuli]

Oh good lord.......

Anybody wanna take this one?

[pop-voxuli]

OK, OK fact is there will be many times more PS4s sold than xbones ergo the publishers will want their games on and cater to the one that has the larger user base.

[MysticStrummer]

"The Fanboys are the people like YOU who press disagree when I just quoted what the article stated."

...as if it's impossible to disagree with the article.

"There can be 80 sony fans that troll this site voting disagree on anything postitive for the xbox one...but guess what? It's only 80 sony trolls that don't matter!"

https://www.facebook.com/Am...

[dcbronco]

pop-voxuli I think you're wrong but that was funny as hell.

[pop-voxuli]

@dcbronco fair enough! I dont expect everyone to agree with me, hell I'm glad some don't it'd get quite boring if everyone did. It's nice when someone who does not agree does it in a civil manner.

I just really enjoy calling out people who spout useless nonsense and declare it to be biblical truth..... like ^dude^ up there.

[tarbis]

Whatever you're smoking. It's really strong.

[bobtheimpaler]

lol. What a great analytical mind you have. /s

Look on youtube and everywhere else on the internet. Believe it or not, but it's the gamers that buy the consoles early. No average joe in their right mind would pay $500 for a remote control that doubles as a surveilance device. Not with the advent of smart TVs, DVRs and set top boxes that do the same thing and much cheaper.

I was actually thinking about typing more about games...y'know about exclusives and multiplats and how they'll be better on the PS4 as well, but I realised you have poor taste in games anyway.

Get your head out of the clouds....Microsoft's farts aren't healthy for you.

[Dape]

I dont think you are a fanboy...you something else I have to say!!! Way beyond...

[The_Truth_24_7]

Haven't you heard? The war is already over. Sony won.

[pop-voxuli]

Ya know, making these flame bait threads over, and over, and over, and over ain't gonna make it happen no matter how much you want it to.

[dethpuck]

How do games lack trade in value? You can trade them in at stores yes there could be fee that might come off the value of the game but you can still trade it in. When you buy the game the fee is included in the price if there is on. no publisher has said the will do this yet.

As far as lending my bros I play with are all going to be in my family and we are going to share game. I'm getting FIFA he's getting in madden we both get to play both. For the cost of one and he lives an hour away ! no disc ever needs to given. Win win in my book!

[NextGen24Gamer]

Exactly! Don't take these Sony Fans serious bro! They just troll the comment section making it seem like the sky is falling and good news for xbox one is bad news for them. You are absolutely correct. You can form a clan of 10 friends or family and if you all buy 4 games each, you will all have access to 40 games. That's exciting and anyone that disagree's is NO GAMER! And from what I have read, two can be playing the game at the same time. So if you have 5 copies of Call of duty with 10 people in different cities, you can all jump in and play together! WOW...Thanks Microsoft. Now that's the Real Next Gen. Meanwhile Sony fans have to do it like cavemen...they have to hand their physical game to a friend and can't play it till they get it back from the friend. And if a friend in another state wants to play it, they have to ship it to them and wait for them to ship it back. How stone age is that? LOL...LOL...LOL....

Microsoft was genius for that! All 10 people in my circle are going to be gamers who buy games and we are going to save money big time. Who cares about buying used. That's soooo old school its hilarious.

MS will do a better job of advertising it to the average consumer and the xbox one will sell like crazy!

[MysticStrummer]

"So if you have 5 copies of Call of duty with 10 people in different cities, you can all jump in and play together!"

Publishers will be lining up to support a console where sales can potentially be cut in half. ; ) Microsoft has deals with some of them right now but we'll see how that goes, especially if online polls are anywhere close to accurate.

Hell they thought losing money on used games was the main problem, but MS is extending that loss to new games also.

Truly next generation.

Piracy as a policy. Who'd have thought?

EDIT - That means the One is anti-consumer and anti-industry at the same time! Forward thinking indeed.

[SpinalRemains]

You actually convinced yourself that not being able to play from a disk is wonderful, because now you have the ability to share digital games.
..

.
Like PS3 has done all Gen

Wow. You tricked yourself into thinking MS is helping you!
Classic. They love you.

[Dape]

You better go read the policy again bro... http://news.xbox.com/2013/0...
Stop spreading false information!!
Only one friend can access your game sharing library at a time!!
So that 5 games for 10 people at the same time is not going to work. I guess that's how Microsoft confuses people, they throw things out there but never clarify it fully, then people like you just take what they want from it, and spread false information around!!!

[Godmars290]

After this is launch day and any threat of RRoD. For either the PS4 or XBO.

[dethpuck]

xbox one does not prohibit resale. Read the policy! It just has to be done at a participating retailer

[dcbronco]

Ur wasting your time. They don't hear truth. Sony must win.

[denawayne]

"I hate MS for DRM!!!"

Why?

"They're killing gaming and stealing my rights and and and and...."

No, the way the Xbox One is designed to work requires DRM, for example, downloading games onto hard drive for easy access and switching between games without getting up, lending games to remote friends, and accessing your library from ANY Xbox One

"But they want to spy on me, kill the used game market, make me come home every day to check in, force me to watch tv through it....."

[PirateThom]

This is disgusting.

Why would anyone want to jump through Microsoft's hoops just to trade in a game?

Participating retailer means smaller retailers suffer, not your GameStops or Game stores.

Selling to a friend requires them to be on your friend list for 30 days, so there's eBay out of it. I'm not even in the habit of selling my friends games, I usually give them an "indefinite loan" because I actually trust my friends will return it when finished or they decide to also buy it if they want it.

You can access your library from any XBox? Yeah, how often are you in such a situation where you need to access your entire library from another XBox and why is waiting for the entire game to download when you are there more convenient than bringing the disc you've likely brought to a friend's house just to play for a few hours?

It's all convoluted and you're towing the line that it's actually very convenient when, in reality, it's actually less convenient than just.... bringing the disc with you or being able to just sell the game.

Why even bother with that? You fanboys are absolutely shocking at how you simply give up so easily and think this is OK. You know for a fact that this is bogus [being used as a replacement for a much stronger term] and I stand right behind my comments that whether or not you like the console and its games is one thing, supporting the god awful DRM and other crap makes me think you are a Microsoft employee or paid marketer because no consumer is really this far up a company's rear.

This is before you even get to the fact comments like "No internet, get a 360" come into play.

There's no excuse that makes sense, stop pretending there is. Like the console, like the games, stop defending this nonsense.

[Hicken]

Truth? dcbronco, you haven't been about truth since I joined this site.

PiratThom just went over it, so I feel no need to, but the truth is more than just one or two lines: it also includes all the "howevers" and "excepts" that modify it.

You and the rest are so quick to cry out about Sony fanboys, but it doesn't help your argument that you only pay attention to what you want to.

[dcbronco]

Suddenly everyone feels like their rights are being stolen. Tell me, do you feel anything else. Or do you have to wait until someone else tells you what you feel.

I don't like the check-in either. But it's not a killer for me because Internet rarely goes out more than a few hours here. It has maybe twice in the last 15 years gone out period. And never more than a day. So the fear of it going out is unrealistic for me. Live has only gone done for a few hours. Or has been shaky for a few days. And none of it would have been a problem with the check-in policy. People are complaining because they are told to complain. Others are saying it so they repeat what they hear. What makes that obvious is the fact that on used games, MS and Sony have the exact same policy. It's up to the publisher. But people continue to whine because they haven't gotten permission to stop whining. Look at paying for MP. Suddenly it's not a problem. It had to happen. Only sheep turn on a dime like that.

Look at Hicken and Piratehom. Talking about trade-in policies. Like Sony's are any different. It's what the publisher decides.

Gifting requires them to be on your list. But you can also share with them with out gifting or selling. SO you can loan to a friend 2,000 miles away easier than you can walk over to your neighbors house.

I watch my nephews dog when they go on vacation at their house. He also travels with his school and they don't miss his events. So for me, I would access my library about ten times a year. Add holidays at relatives houses, visiting friends houses. You might go on vacation. Hotel has a One in the room. You get to use all of your games. That covers a lot of time I would do that and I'm sure a lot you would. One games can start before they are through downloading. Have either of you even read anything about the console. Reality is it's far better than carrying everything with you. And every disc remains in excellent condition because once you load it, you're done with it.

What makes sense is that I'll never allow myself to be led around by the nose by a bunch of people that don't understand things. That have an agenda. And most of all,have no vision. Thom you're still repeating things that have been dispelled. Besides the participating retailers(and we don't know the requirements to be one, small retailer argument is weak, model probably fits them best, no large advertising budget to cut into profits) part, the policies are the same. And Hicken will just run around disagreeing with anything I say. He's a angry sheep.

What this. Hicken the sky is blue on a sunny day.

Thom the fact that you couldn't see all of those potential uses for having your library in the cloud means you ain't looking for a reason to like it. You want to complain. I'm not the fanboy. I wish I was an employee. I have some ideas for some of their other tech. I just like the direction they are going.

[denawayne]

@PirateThom - MS has already stated that you don't have to wait for the entire game to download to be able to start playing the game. Once again, an uninformed person making an uninformed statement. It's like a disease on this site.

[optimus]

they could lower the price, only because developers will be convinced that they can add more contant through the cloud and charge you the difference (if not more) for that content...(It's already happening with killer Itstinks)...

on the other hand, today they stopped packing games with instructions and they "could" have lowered the price by at least 5 bucks and yet they haven't...so i doubt they will for next gen.

[vigilante_man]

If you inflict such heavy damage in your first round of battles then the war is affectively over - for gaming purposes.

To get this much negative press even before your launch is unusual and very hard to counter. Sony must be in dream land because their product is looking even better for the comparison. The anticipation for the PS4 is hitting fever pitch already - and its only June!!

But we will have to wait until MS come back strong with their multi-million adverts. They have almost unlimited resources.

[strickers]

People still believe MS will continue to invest in exclusives further into console lifespan ?? Idiots. Do you learn nothing from 360? Are you really that thick? Fool you once,and heh I'll keep sucking the tit.