In the wake of Sony’s price hike on their PlayStation 5 consoles, (in most markets) it is finally time to admit that it is advantage Xbox, in terms of value and mass market appeal. Xbox Game Pass has been touted as the best deal in gaming at the moment, but Sony have competed by ways of compelling exclusives. Somewhere Xbox is still falling short. But with holiday 2022 coming and 2023 STACKED with games, including Xbox first party exclusives releasing day one into Game Pass. For single system owners ‘normies’ Xbox definitely looks like the more attractive proposition.
Where did PlayStation start going wrong?
Since mid-way through the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation Sony have barely put a foot wrong but since the release of the PlayStation 5 we are starting to see elements of the old ‘people should work two jobs to buy a PlayStation’ Sony .- albeit nowhere near that much of a disaster. It seems to have started around the time that the Xbox Series and PlayStation5 were announced and being teased.
Sony were very clear with their marketing of next generation ‘we believe in generations’, as a tech enthusiasts here at Gamerhub this is something that we were on board with. But there has since been a huge degree of back peddling, most new PlayStation being available as cross-gen titles and Sony themselves saying that they will be continuing to support the PlayStation 4 for longer – (paraphrased). Games that were going to be PlayStation 5 only were suddenly coming to PlayStation 4 too.
Sony are a business, and there is a global chip shortage at the moment so this is pretty forgivable, but it does put a lot of their prior messaging to the sword; including that of their games only being possible because of the power of the PlayStation 5 as a way of pushing consumers to the next generation asap. It’s understandable, but as a consumer it feels pretty slimey; especially when this was used as a way of justifying the new $70 price point of games.
The tipping point
Sony leading the the charge towards $70 dollar games set a new industry standard for most other AAA publishers too. This is something that Microsoft and Xbox are yet to implement, as well as charging for ‘next-gen’ patches. For someone who only buys or plays one or two games a year this could be a key difference to affect their buying decision. Admittedly though, this could be overlooked but when the competition is offering all of their games in a cheap subscription service on the day of launch, AND one of those games will soon be Call of Duty… That could be pretty compelling.
Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation+ and the subscription wars
Xbox Game Pass was already a great deal for the consumer, even before Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, let alone Activision Blizzard. Sony’s reluctance to pivot their business model to properly compete with the change in consumer spending habits is all but their own doing, and it is evident from their recent comments brought to light by the Brazilian regulators analysing the upcoming acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft. Sony themselves claimed they felt the acquisition of Activision Blizzard would represent a ‘tipping point’ in the subscription wars which would see Game Pass subs drastically increase to a point that it could not be caught.
Sony have recently announced and launched the revamped PlayStation+ subscription service, effectively merging the PlayStation+ of old with PlayStation Now (PSN), but it is nowhere near realistically competing with Game Pass, but this isn’t because it they couldn’t. It is because Sony want to double dip. Sell their games and then drop them in a subscription service a year or so later. What they fail to realise though, is that Xbox Game Pass didn’t start to really grow quickly until they day they announced first party games would come to the service day one!
PlayStation 5 consoles to increase in price due to greed ‘inflation’
Okay, first of all yes inflation and economic issues are problematic for most, if not all businesses at the moment. The pandemic, the chip shortage and the war in Ukraine all to blame, but on top of increasing the price of games from $60 to $70 dollars, earlier this week Sony announced that they have decided to increase the price of the PlayStation 5 in most markets (pretty much all of them excluding the US). This is unheard of in console history AND when asked if there was any intention they would follow suit, their competition came out and said no.
Historically, consoles were always sold at a loss and profit made on the sale of games. This hasn’t been the case now for a while though. With Sony already announcing that they are already making a profit per unit on the PlayStation 5. So this passing of the buck (excuse the pun) to the consumer in times that are already tough reeks of corporate greed and on top of their recent run of ‘taking advantage of their position as market leader’, it is getting harder and harder to defend the actions of PlayStation. Compelling exclusives can only get you so far.
With the price disparity on games AND consoles, the value difference between PlayStation+ and Xbox Game Pass and the upcoming acquisition of Activision by Microsoft, Xbox DEFINITELY looks like the more attractive buying option for normies who only pick up one console – that is not including the Nintendo Switch which is not a direct competitor in terms of console experience offering.
Aside from the US, which is closely contested between Xbox and PlayStation every year, it will be interesting to see how consumers react to this. If consumers vote with their wallets, Sony will have not choice but to re-think this price hike. Just as Sony forced Microsoft to compete by buying quality studios to produce AAA games, Microsoft and Xbox are certainly leading the marketing in terms of their value offering. Will this tilt the non-US markets enough to cause get Sony to reverse this shameless price increase? Considering how the value offering that Xbox currently has across Xbox, PC and Cloud, Sony are definitely giving Xbox a foot in the door in these other markets that Sony and PlayStation normally DOMINATE.
To conclude this critique, it is fair to say that the objective ‘normies’ in this current economic climate, it is quite clear to see that Xbox theoretically should be THE go-to console, at least this coming holiday season. One thing is for sure. It is going to be an interesting next couple of quarters, from an business analysis point of view.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
