How Might PS4 Dominance Change The Industry?

OnlySP: When the generation changed over there was no immediate reason to believe that any sort of major changes in console hierarchy would take place outside of Nintendo’s impossible mission to win with another gimmick. Everyone expected the go-to console would wind up being the Xbox One, especially in the United States where Microsoft performs best.

[JBSleek]

"Where everyone in game development was trying to appeal to the young, twitchy nature of the Xbox fanbase before, they may now start to make more slow, serious, and thoughtful games."

Really?... Way to generalize...

[ThatKanadianKid]

Not sure how you see that as generalizing? The Xbox was the platform for the twitch shooters. There weren't a lot of first party exclusives for the 360 that had deep engrossing tales like the Last of Us or Heavy Rain or Beyond: Two Souls. Hell, that's why I stopped playing the Xbox because it was shooter after shooter.

Thankfully, the Xbox One is diversifying its lineup a bit this time and games like Ori and the Blind Forest and Playdead's new game look really great, amongst a lot of really great looking exclusives coming out for the platform.

It's a good time to be a gamer no matter where you play. Hopefully 2015 will see some better discussions about games rather than what we're getting now.

[Abash]

I feel Sony as the industry leader is what's best for gaming. When the Xbox One was announced, MS was beyond certain they'd be the industry leader this gen and they would make the rules. Their vision of DRM and all the other things the PS4 forced MS to back-out of doing painted a very dark and ugly future of gaming.

So the PS4 has already made the industry better and I bet even more awesome things will come from Sony being the top dog in the console market

[Wingsfan24]

Abash,

I agree that Sony forced Microsoft to make changes to stay competitive, which was a really good thing. Now that the Xbox One has made most of the changes it needed to make, we can now just focus on the games rather than which console is better.

We know that PS4 is a tad stronger, and most people downplay the notion of the Cloud on Xbox One right now.

Me, personally, I'm waiting to see what Crackdown does, because that's the first game being developed that is really supposed to utilize the Cloud, and if we get anything like that destruction demo that was early work for the game, my mind will shatter.

For right now, there's a lot to look forward to no matter which way you go. Xbox One has been rolling out new features and improvements to the dashboard and system, something that I think Sony should be catching up.

Again, my own opinion, but the dashboard could really use some cleaning up on the PS4. As for everything else, it's OK in my book.

[JBSleek]

Sony had more shooters they just weren't as popular therefore Xbox gets the shooter console label. Killzone, MAG, Socom, Resistance.

I see Halo,Gears and Crackdown as the only shooters exclusive to Xbox they just are two very popular ones. Xbox wasn't shooter after shooter.

[guyman]

@JBsleek

In terms of what exclusives the 360 has to offer, it is shooter after shooter.

[johndoe11211]

@abash

Basically what i gather this article is saying in a nutshell is that with sony dominating this gen it may finally put an end to all the BS moneyhatting and unethical gaming practices that microsoft began years ago. Your comment about sony leading the industry being best for gaming is spot on.

[Bigpappy]

Actually the Xbox360 had an older user base than PS3. They just let their kids play on them too.

But I really don't have a burning desire to play any PS exclusives outside of God of War. I am more of a WRPG gamer who also like sword play action games.

I don't see Sony dictating the direction of the gaming industry. The developers are the ones who do that. The things that affect the console side of gaming like: Online; Achievements; communicating... and other feature. I find that M$ actually did more to push new features, especially online related.

[aquamala]

lets see what games the Playstation fanbase prefer, these are the top selling ps3 games of all time

1. Grand Theft Auto V
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
3. Call of Duty: Black Ops
4. Call of Duty: Black Ops II
5. Gran Turismo 5
6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
7. Grand Theft Auto IV
8. Call of Duty: Ghosts
9. FIFA Soccer 13
10. Battlefield 3

and the best selling pS4 game is ... COD Ghost

[JsonHenry]

Pretty sure CoD sold just as well on PS3..

[KinjoTakemura]

To be fair, how many people who bought COD Ghost are actually playing it today? I bought it in January because there wasn't much to choose from. Haven't touched the game since Outlast came out.

[GamersHeaven]

Great article this is exactly how I feel with Sony in the lead they always brings diverse unique games regardless this will have a big affect on its competitors better for the industry for sure.

[ThichQuangDuck]

I think it is too early to declare dominance or a winner,but it will very much come down to exclusives and value. Value in terms of PS plus titles and Xbox sales or free games as well as what Microsoft does with PC. If Sony or Microsoft were to opt for cross platform with PC that would be a big move. Either way it will be interesting to see where it goes,but we cannot allow ourselves to become obsessed in the console war and forget that we all truly win

[Wingsfan24]

This article has nothing to do with the console "war". It's based on facts like Ubisoft's statement that they were having double the hardware sales on the PS4 over Xbox One and PC.

[HeWhoWalks]

Nope, I don't think it's too early at all to call a winner. Sony would have to, royally, "f" this up to lose the gen. They have have played their cards well, though, so they should keep their healthy lead while continuing to bring a diverse line-up of games.

Now on the flip side, the X1 and WiiU will have plenty to play that isn't available on PlayStation, and that's the good thing for everyone who games on home consoles.

[johndoe11211]

Microsoft were the ones who said that whoever got to 10mil install base first wins the generation. I don't see why that shouldn't apply now that they are behind.

[ThichQuangDuck]

Ha I have a PC and am undecided on what console to get. I was simply saying that this is only the beginning and there is plenty of this generation to go. If people want to focus on there being a clear objective winner, monitor sales, invest in stocks, make bets, buy jerseys and have their fantasy game lineups and hype they can. I was simply saying it is all about the games and enjoying the interactive fantasy experiences that are button clicks away.

[user5669510]

I didn't get what you said at first but cross buy and cross pay would be amazing . Each platform will still have exclusive but we can play together

[HaveSumNuts]

The stunt MS pulled last year is one of the main reasons PS4 is dominant. Don Mattrick sold more PS4's than a Naughty Dog exclusive could.

[HeWhoWalks]

It was, perhaps, one of the reasons, but definitely not the biggest. Price, perception, easy development = better multiplats are the biggest reasons. Don Mattrick's blunders are not.

[Vantage]

Domination is hardly the word I would use. More like "in favor".

[bleedsoe9mm]

the complete collapse of AAA gaming , sony won't need to spend the resources

[user7402931]

good guy sony

[RichardDawkins]

It's all perception of the console. Last gen it was 360. this gen it's Ps4.

[bleedsoe9mm]

that wasn't dominance it was marginally better sales

[RichardDawkins]

The 360 was still perceived as the better console last generation in North America. That was the point to my comment. Nonetheless, the Ps4 is ahead of the Xbox One in NA, which is a huge feat for Sony. How will this change the industry? It will force Microsoft and Nintendo to try harder in order to stay relevant, which is great for everyone.

[bleedsoe9mm]

@OP-Dragonite i agree if we can have ps3 -360 sales numbers or even a little more lopsided in favor of ps4 . its when your starting to talk dominate ps4 sales its not good for anyone , sony is already talking about reduced AAA exclusive money .

[XtraTrstrL]

Microsoft won't be able to instill horrible anti-consumer policies and rob developers and publishers in shady deals they can't refuse. They don't have that strangle-hold anymore. Their parity rule is dying, because only a few loyal publishers are forcing their devs to adhere to it like Activision with COD. And even with that, they adhere to it up to release day and add a day 1 patch to upgrade the PS4 version, in the case of Ghosts from 900p to 1080p. It happened to be a bad move in that situation since COD devs are horrible and are known for crappy unoptimized ports, so it made the PS4 version run like cow dung.

Sony isn't known for any policies that cripple devs or potential quality of games. They are doing the opposite with timed budgets and stuff, and letting tons of their exclusives have more time and funding, rather than rushing them to put out a buggy game just to fill in the library. Driveclub is a perfect example.

It allows the competitive nature of console makers to go back to the healthy warring it use to do. Microsoft can't be allowed to be on top, we've seen the hell they can cause when they are. There's so many irreversible evils they set into motion with Xbox and Xbox 360 already. One is the ridiculous nature and overpricing of $$DLC$$.

I remember them corrupting Epic Games with Gears of War 1. Forcing them to charge for map packs and causing the 1st one to be delayed months and months because they were in meeting wars with Epic, until they had 1 final meeting, and Epic stopped being transparent with fans after that and stopped calling Microsoft greedy. Obviously the money bag was dropped on them. After that, Epic became a lying company that just did as it was told. They went back on the promise to not leave PC gaming or UT3 in the cold. What happened after that? UT3 became the fastest dying UT in history from lack of support.

That's the type of stuff Microsoft does when it has the monopoly, and also why they can never be trusted to be able to be on top again. Their word means nothing, and that's why they can just 180 all over the place. Like now with the controversy about maybe not being able to turn your Xbox 1 into a dev kit like they promised before.

So, yeah, of the 2 - PS4 on top is for the best.

[Godmars290]

"Sony isn't known for any policies that cripple devs or potential quality of games."

Aside from the PS2's programming architecture, then the PS3's which really blew up in their face. Not that those were "policies" or that MS was anywhere close to where they needed to be to pick up the pieces with their "easier to program for" platform.

Not calling you out or saying that Sony didn't offer more diversity, just pointing out that they do have their schemes.

[CaptainObvious878]

Sony definitely were arrogant, but I think the big difference is that MS's motivations behind their DRM were pure greed. Also the console wide DRM that took away our basic consumer rights, imo, is far far worse than sony pushing their own complicated architecture.

Also back in the PS2 generation and because Sony were in a position to, we basically got a golden age renaissance of gaming. Where as MS basically dropped exclusive support for the 360 half way through the generation and we just got the bi-annual Halo, Gears, Forza, etc.

Both companies became arrogant when they were on top, but the difference is one company seems to do a lot more damage to the industry when they that happens.

[CaptainObvious878]

Don't know why you're getting disagrees.

Look what happened when MS thought they were on top and thought they could dictate to gamers what direction they wanted to go it. We got the draconian DRM and a less powerful console that was centered around tv.

I can't see why anyone, even an ms fanboy, would want ms on top.

[XtraTrstrL]

Yeah, and their hubris got shot down immediately. Yet, they didn't 180 until they realized that had no possible other choice with Sony in such favor of the consumers. It was a bad 180 too, cuz there was no excuse for all the 180s other than they were forced too. Still though, fanboys tried to turn it into something great and being about Microsoft listening. LMAO, they were listening to the sound of money flying away from them and into Sony's vault, that's what they heard that caused the 180s.

[KinjoTakemura]

I completely agree. If Microsoft is ever given the opportunity to dominate this industry they will do the exact same thing they have done to the PC market; Attempt to monopolize the market with buggy products, add more software usage fees, and there is no doubt that they would eliminate any possibility of buying and owning any of their software as they have attempted to do with Office 360, charging for products that were previously included with windows and charging outrageous annual usage fees for their software. Microsoft is beyond greedy.

[Godmars290]

When things were simpler and a dev rather than a publisher could see a profit from a title that was on one platform, when they could invest effort into getting the most out of one single platform, it might have mattered which system dominated.

Now though with the general mess the industry has put itself in because of greed, does it really matter?

[Artista]

Only bias dot com

Shooters were dominant on both platforms last gen, period. Some more "cinematic" than others.
What the author is trying to say is, XBL is/was the go to place for competitive multiplayer.

One of the highest selling games on PS3, Call of Duty? Then we've got the Killzones and the Resistances, MAG?
PS3 launched with a FPS, Resistance: fall of man
PS4 even launched with an FPS, Shadow fall. . Lol

What dominance? In less than a year, you can already see the future...
The competition between all three has only just begun.

[XiNarutoUzumaki]

There was only 1 MAG. Resistance is done, and Killzone is the only PS shooter active at the moment.

COD best seller on PS3. What do you expect? It's going to be like that always. COD isn't exclusive.
Playstation has way more diversity than Xbox

[XiSasukeUchiha]

100 percent true!

[mkis007]

I agree

The way I see it is for every Halo and Gears game that MS makes and sells 6-9 million, Sony releases 5 1-3 million sellers like Heavy Rain/Beyond.

Halo....Gears...Forza....Fabl e..Crackdown* (maybe, I really don't think it is THAT associated with the brand yet)

Find me something else to play only on xbox that is worth it.

Dance Central, Alan Wake, Lost Odyssey

how about PS?
God of War (personal favorite), Uncharted, Littlebigplanet, Killzone, Ratchet and Clank, Infamous, Socom, Gran Tourismo, Resistance, and Motorstrom... (see the disconnect in the acclaimed series that have recent releases? )

Find me something else to play on playstation:
The Last of Us, Beyond/ Heavy Rain, Demons Souls, Twisted Metal(not a fan honestly), White Knight Chronicles... What about one-offs like Star Hawk, Heavenly Sword, MAG, Modnation, and Allstars?

There are so many different kinds of games that many of them are niche, but they exist for those who want the best diversity on their console of choice.

I think the games released speak for themselves.

[SpinalRemains138]

Cerebral stories and better writing, resulting in much better games.

The other major console has been marketed as the "Xtreeeeeme machine" with super kewl machine gun games. Then super kewl machine gun game 2 w/ exclusive maps!!!

There's a very clear difference if what either machine offers.

[mochachino]

Well 360 gamers are now getting free games...

[LightDiego]

The best exclusives nowadays for me are from Sony and Nintendo.

[gamer7804]

360 did for ps3 what ps4 is doing for the xb1, all good things. It will level out as it did before. History doesn't lie.

[Goku781]

May right MS's wrongs.