We can imagine what you’re thinking about the headline: “The PlayStation 4 wiped out the Xbox One.” What kind of stupid question is that?” On paper, the “console war” between Sony and Microsoft has never been so one-sided. Sony sold more than twice as many consoles as Microsoft, clearly setting itself apart from its former arch-rival. The PS4 was sold over 117 million times, the Xbox One only around 58 million times.
But if you look at the parallel life cycle of the two platforms, it is also noticeable that the PlayStation 4 was a comparatively conservative generation of consoles, while the Xbox One necessarily changed more and came up with some interesting and successful concepts and services.
Messed up start and misalignment
A look back into the past also shows that the gap between Sony and Microsoft was once significantly smaller. If we go back a console generation, things look different.
With the Xbox 360, released in 2005, Microsoft delivered the most successful generation of consoles to date, while Sony’s PlayStation 3 struggled, not least because of the high price and the difficult hardware architecture for developers.
Many games simply ran more smoothly on the Xbox 360 and, on top of that, Microsoft’s online service Xbox Live also worked better. Sony was still slightly ahead in terms of sales, but overall they were on an equal footing.
However, Microsoft didn’t ride this wave of success, but wanted too much: the third generation of consoles, dubbed Xbox One, was supposed to be the multimedia solution in the living room at home. The first information leaked in the summer of 2012. The official unveiling finally followed on May 21, 2013.
But instead of focusing on gaming, the presentation revolved around the multimedia functions. First there were video game scenes only after half an hour. In addition, questionable decisions such as the “always online” requirement, strange licensing conditions that made borrowing physical data carriers difficult or impossible, or the need for the Kinect 2 gesture controller were disruptive. Who would want to be watched by a camera in their living room at all times?
In short: Microsoft ruined the launch in legendary fashion. Sony, on the other hand, kept shooting tips in their direction and making fun of them. Just a few weeks later, Microsoft backtracked on many of the announcements. But the damage was done. While Microsoft had to act, Sony was able to act comfortably and used this to their advantage.
The fact that the two consoles came onto the market at almost the same time was also not an advantage: the Xbox One was released on November 22, 2013, the PlayStation 4 a week later. At 399 euros, the PS4 had the price advantage over the 499 euro Xbox One. One of the reasons was the included Kinect 2, which was technically incredibly interesting but was never able to establish itself in the gaming sector.
The Xbox One was never able to recover from this false start, so Sony left unassailable with the cleverly designed PlayStation 4.
Innovation driver Microsoft Xbox
In addition to the price, the game lineup was also an important aspect in favor of the PlayStation 4. Of course, the Xbox One had its exclusive highlights such as “Halo Infinite”, “Sunset Overdrive”, “Gears 5” and the “Forza” and “Forza Horizon” series. But let’s be honest: the offer was manageable on the Xbox One.
With the PlayStation 4, however, you could look forward to several big exclusive games every year: no matter whether the “Uncharted” series, “Bloodborne”, “The Last of Us: Part 2”, “Horizon: Zero Dawn”, “Ghost of Tsushima”, “Nioh 2” or “Dreams” – there was something for every taste here. And you absolutely needed a PlayStation 4 to be able to play these titles. The slogan “This is for the Players” obviously said it all. Sony confidently downplayed its own dominance.
Microsoft reacted and upgraded: With an aggressive takeover strategy, studios such as Obsidian Entertainment, Ninja Theory, InXile Entertainment and others were brought on board in 2018. The takeover of followed in 2021 Zenimax and therefore also from Bethesda, MachineGames, Arkane Studios and id Software. Ultimately, 2023 should be too Activision-Blizzard will follow.
Microsoft invested billions and continued to expand its own ecosystem: From 2017, the Xbox Games Pass provided access to a games library and replaced the online service Xbox Live. This also included day-one releases of exclusive games.
In the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate premium subscription that started later, titles were playable across platforms on PC and Xbox. Microsoft also brought back backwards compatibility, allowing titles from old console generations to be playable on the Xbox One. Aspects such as cloud gaming were also discussed and implemented here early on.
Sony’s streaming counterpart PlayStation Now, on the other hand, received little support and never reached the masses. By March 2021, Sony reached 3.2 million players here. With Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft managed to reach around 18 million subscribers in a similar period.
Late bloomer Sony
As clear as the “console war” between the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One may have been, Microsoft put a lot of pressure on Sony from its role as an outsider. Over the years, the Xbox Game Pass has become the gaming flat rate and aroused desire among the PlayStation community. The “Netflix for gamers” was so attractive that Sony had to follow suit in June 2022 and significantly remodel PlayStation Plus.
The new PlayStation Plus offers the three categories Essential, Extra and Premium. In the higher price levels you have access to the Ubisoft+ Classics or a game catalog. Against day-one releases of exclusive games However, Sony is still holding up today. However, Sony has recently turned its attention to the PC market and ported titles such as “God of War”.
Microsoft was also earlier when it came to accessibility options. Although there were corresponding setting options on the PS4, there was no controller. This one appeared recently as an access controller for the PS5.
Microsoft’s Adaptive Controller came out in May 2018. Sony, on the other hand, took a different approach and was the only major console manufacturer to take the offensive step towards virtual reality. The PlayStation VR may not have been completely technically state-of-the-art, but it made VR suitable for the mainstream and also created another unique selling point.
The final verdict
Of course, the PlayStation 4 clearly won the “console war” against the Xbox One. However, if you only look at the devices sold, you only see part of the picture. This generation of consoles was extremely important and in many ways set the course for the current series with PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.
In particular, points such as the in-house online services or the expansion of the range with Pro or .
On the topic – PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S: Sales ratio this year at 3 to 1
The fact that Sony has clearly won the race here can once again be clearly confirmed at this point. Microsoft gambled away the credit it had painstakingly built up with the Xbox 360 with the disastrous launch of the Xbox One.
And no matter how big the turnaround was afterwards, you couldn’t recover from it. The PlayStation is and remains the console king – and this dominance dates back to the past generation!
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