Why Xbox Main Competitor isn’t PlayStation - YouTube

In 1994 Sony released the first PlayStation,

a console that was revolutionary for gaming.

At the time Microsoft was dominating home entertainment

with their windows operating system, software and games for personal computers.

Concerned that Sony’s successful PlayStation console would damage its personal computer market,

Microsoft initiated plans to make their own gaming console

The Xbox.

This started a huge rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation that continues to this day.

It all started with the original Xbox that competed with the PlayStation 2.

A few years later Microsoft created the Xbox 360

and Sony made the PlayStation 3

In 2013 both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were released.

And finally, in 2020 the latest generation Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 were launched.

Although the PlayStation has always outperformed the Xbox in terms of the number of units sold,

Microsoft seems to be ahead in certain ways.

You are about to learn why Xbox's main competitor, surprisingly, isn’t PlayStation.

Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s head of gaming

boldly declared that Microsoft no longer sees gaming companies

like Sony and Nintendo as their main competitors.

If you check the sales of the Xbox One compared to the PlayStation 4,

you may likely doubt this claim.

The PlayStation 4 sold more than double as many units as the Xbox One.

However, one of the main reasons why the Xbox One didn’t perform well

may be the very reason why Microsoft no longer sees PlayStation as the main competitor.

As you may recall, the reception of the Xbox One came with many controversies.

At first, users were expected to stay connected to the internet to have access to the game.

Although Microsoft quickly reversed this,

the damage had already been done and the PlayStation 4, that was cheaper at launch,

quickly outperformed the Xbox One in terms of sales.

Microsoft might have gotten ahead of themselves by trying to release a console

that needed to be connected to the internet at all times in 2013.

However, new trends show that online gaming plays a massive role in the future of video games.

The number of people purchasing games online is now more than the number of people buying physical discs.

Spencer said:

So it isn’t PlayStation and Nintendo who they see as their main competitors,

but Amazon and Google.

But why these companies when they have never even launched their own consoles?

In late 2019, Google dived into games with Stadia,

a cloud gaming service that would be supported on multiple devices.

While there are mixed reactions to Google’s Stadia,

the company has spent the past two decades building a global cloud network

and has the potential to become very successful.

In 2020 Amazon also launched its cloud gaming platform called Luna,

that is also available on multiple devices.

One of the challenges of cloud gaming is that it requires a fast and reliable internet connection.

However, global internet infrastructures are getting significantly better as time progresses

and it is probably only a matter of time before we see cloud gaming taking over.

In 2017,

the Xbox Game Pass was launched

and it was described as “Netflix for video games”.

It is a subscription service that gives players access to different games online,

which allows them to play games not only on their Xbox console or PC,

but also on tablets or mobile devices.

How cool is it that you’re able to play games like

or Halo Infinite on any device you prefer?

Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are all trillion-dollar companies

with several years of experience in cloud service.

Although Sony has the PlayStation Now since 2014,

which is also a cloud gaming service,

Xbox believes that Amazon and Google with their huge data centers

will become the new major gaming competitors.

What do you think?

Is Cloud Gaming the future of gaming?

And which companies will dominate?

Let us know in the comments!