PlayStation versus Xbox is arguably the biggest rivalry in video games. I don't know if any others have been quite as direct, highly publicized, or impactful. I mean, it has been referred to as a console war.
And you know, it must be intense if they're using the word war to describe it. In a weird way, I almost feel like I've been a part of it because unlike most other rivalries on this scale that go way back and take place mostly behind the scenes, I've been watching this one progress almost from the beginning in the early 2000s. Another thing that makes it unique is that PlayStation and Xbox are not companies themselves.
They're products each made by a much larger company that was already wellestablished before entering the video game market. Sony is a Japanese company that was primarily involved in electronics and entertainment before releasing the PlayStation. And Microsoft is an American company mostly concerned with computers, specifically software like the Windows operating system before releasing the Xbox.
So, you can see how these companies are actually a lot different from each other with video games being the only major area where they overlap into each other's territory. And before I say anything else, I want to acknowledge that Nintendo, of course, has been right there alongside the other two, releasing consoles and games, sometimes even at a higher level. However, I think most would agree that they have been kind of doing their own thing and have not been as directly competitive as the other two.
So, to keep things simple for this video, I want to leave Nintendo mostly out of it as I outline what has been happening between PlayStation and Xbox from the beginning throughout four generations of consoles. Though, oddly enough, it was Nintendo that first got Sony involved with video games, being an electronics company from the same country. Sony created this advanced audio chip for the SNES that sparked a friendly working relationship between the two.
From there, they worked together to create a wild gaming system called the PlayStation that would play SNES cartridges and CDROMs. It was never officially launched to the public and one of the few that was ever produced was later sold at an auction for over $300,000. So, the Nintendo PlayStation has become a legend in gaming.
The reason it was never widely produced is because the two companies could not agree on the terms and Nintendo was a bit disrespectful in the way they handled it. The story goes that at the last minute, right as everything was being announced, they abandoned Sony in favor of a European partner called Phillips. Understandably, Sony was upset with the situation, so they ended up pushing forward with the PlayStation on their own.
They released it in late 1994, initially in Japan, and from day one, it was a big success. Three-dimensional gameplay and some iconic series like Resident Evil, Gran Turismo, and Crash Bandicoot attracted millions of customers and helped it become a sensation. It only took four years for the PS1 to surpass The Walkman as Sony's bestselling electronics product.
In total, it sold over 100 million units. And the craziest part is that the second PlayStation was even more popular. That is going to lead me into my first comparison, the PlayStation 2 versus the original Xbox.
See, throughout the second half of the 1990s, while the PlayStation 1 was making its way into people's homes, Microsoft was aggressively trying to get Windows 95 and then Windows 98 into people's homes. And when Sony started developing the more powerful PlayStation 2 that was likely going to have the ability to play DVDs, it made Microsoft nervous. They were looking at it as like a computer for the living room, which is venturing into their territory.
So, they felt that they would be losing ground unless they got involved in it in some way. At first, they tried approaching Sony and Nintendo wanting to develop, I guess, a special version of Windows for their consoles, but they all declined. It is rumored that Microsoft then considered acquiring Sega, but ultimately ended up developing their own computer-like gaming console that ironically did not utilize Windows.
It was revealed to the public on stage by Bill Gates in early 2001 and released toward the end of that year. And I have to say, Microsoft put a lot of effort into it. At the time, during an interview, Bill Gates said, "We are so committed to this thing.
When we do something, we stick to it. " They acquired the developer Bungie so they could have Halo Combat Evolved as a launch title. They spent $500 million marketing the Xbox in just about every way that you could imagine.
I'm talking about television commercials, instore displays. They had trailers touring the country, setting up in spots with DJs where people could test the system. They gave away thousands of them through a promotion with Taco Bell.
And to establish themselves in the market, they were selling the system at a loss estimated to be as much as $100 per unit. I would say that Microsoft did as much as you could reasonably expect. But unfortunately for them, for this generation, PlayStation was simply unstoppable.
The PlayStation 2 was everything people wanted at the time. It was backwards compatible for the 100 million people who had already bought PS1 games. It added a bunch of cool new titles.
It had that DVD player. And it was released well over a year before the Xbox. 25 million people had already bought a PS2 before they were even able to buy an Xbox.
The movie Lara Croft Tomb Raider based on the popular PlayStation game made over $200 million in the months leading up to the Xbox release. Even though Xbox had the incredible power of Microsoft behind it, it was always a massive underdog. And in the end, I think the numbers reflect that.
In fact, nothing has ever outsold the PS2. It remains the bestselling console of all times. So, that was a tough battle that I cannot really blame Xbox for losing.
For the next generation, it was the PlayStation 3 against the Xbox 360. And this right here is where Sony made some of their biggest mistakes. Going in, they had two major things going for them.
Obviously, the momentum from the previous two consoles and the Blu-ray. Blu-ray, as I'm sure you already know, is like a higher definition DVD format that is made by Sony. To help promote their two products, they made it so that the PS3 could play Blu-rays, which was a very attractive feature that Xbox simply could not match.
They did not want to integrate the Sony product into their system. So, their best answer was to separately sell an accessory that could play the competing format HD DVD, a format that was quickly discontinued, partially because the PS3 helped make the Blu-ray so popular. But aside from that, the Xbox 360 was probably the more attractive console.
Xbox Live had become popular. It had exclusive titles like Gears of War and of course the Halo series that was setting sales records with the release of each sequel. Also consider the fact that the 360 was launched almost a full year before the PS3.
So during that time, all the PlayStation fans were stuck on the older generation unless they switched over to Xbox. And then even when the PS3 was finally made available, it cost a whopping $499 for the lowest 20 GB model and an extra hundred for the 60 GB model. Back then, customers almost expected a $299 price point.
That was the price of the PS1, the PS2, the original Xbox, and the base model for the competing Xbox 360. So, due to all these factors, the 360 outsold the PS3 for many years and ultimately did outsell it in North America. But on a global scale, when it was all said and done, the PS3 did sell more units than the 360 by a small margin.
So, setting the stage for the next generation, it was really looking like Microsoft might finally be able to come out on top. And well, the next comparison is the PlayStation 4 versus the Xbox One. And I know the naming gets more confusing with each generation.
Unlike the others, these two were released within a week of each other in North America in November of 2013. The issue here is that the Xbox team at the time seems to have had a very different vision for the console compared to what the users wanted from it. The Xbox One was initially announced as some sort of all-in-one multimedia device where the outside features were seemingly emphasized more than the gaming aspects.
It came with an HDMI input where you could plug in your cable box and it was bundled with connect for voice and motion commands. That turned out to be a disaster. If nothing else, it was surprising and confusing.
And on top of that, they announced this digital licensing system where games had to be linked to your account, making it difficult to share them with your friends or sell them when you are done playing them. Actually, PlayStation took advantage of that opportunity by making a comedic video showing how easy it was to share their games. So, Xbox did end up changing that system.
It is hard to convey the extent of this without going into all the details, but I'm just going to say that Xbox had never gotten more backlash from the public. the person in charge of the department left the company in the time between the announcement and the launch. So, it was clearly not the strong follow-up to the 360 that they were hoping for.
I think they were also trying to limit their losses here because they had been losing money on these consoles for over a decade now. Not to mention over a billion dollars that they had to spend repairing 360s that were victim to that red ring of death issue. So, considering the cost of including that connect sensor, they set the price point at $499.
$100 more than the PlayStation 4. Phil Spencer, the current leader of the department at Microsoft, later said, "We lost the worst generation to lose in the Xbox One. " Comparatively, about twice as many PS4s were sold, proving that a lot of people made that jump from Xbox to PlayStation during that time.
Finally, the last comparison is between the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series S or the upgraded Series X. This time released only a couple of days apart. Honestly, this matchup is probably less important than any of the ones before it.
Phil Spencer has essentially admitted that Xbox has lost the console wars and shifted the company's strategy to value the games and their streaming platform, Game Pass, above everything else. See, throughout all of this, having certain games exclusive to the console has been one of the main ways to attract users. I've not talked about it too much here because it is subjective depending on which games you like, and they have mostly kept up with each other in their own ways.
But we have to recognize that compared to Sony, Microsoft is a much larger and more powerful company. That is pretty much how they forced their way into the console market in the first place. And lately, Microsoft has been using that advantage to acquire various developers and publishers of video games.
A few of the bigger examples would be in 2014, they paid $2. 5 billion to buy the company behind Minecraft. In 2021, they paid $7.
5 billion to buy Zenax Media. And in 2023, they paid almost $70 billion to buy Activision Blizzard. I mean, they own the rights to multiple mega franchises.
And if they were to make them all exclusive to Xbox, well, then yeah, Xbox would almost certainly pull ahead of PlayStation, but they have a wider focus beyond the consoles and have even been releasing former exclusives to the PlayStation 5. Not surprisingly, the PS5 has sold considerably more units than the new Xbox series, but the console war is not exactly what it used to be. Let me know in the comments what do you think about everything that has happened between PlayStation and Xbox, and which side have you favored over the years?
Have you switched sides between generations, or have you remained loyal to one of them? I also want to ask, what do you see for the future of these consoles? Will Microsoft eventually discontinue the Xbox in favor of making only the games similar to what happened to Sega?
Or will something happen to reignite the war and restart with a new generation. And any other thoughts you have about PlayStation or Xbox, leave them in the comments. I'd like to hear what you have to say.
It is truly the future of video games, and I'm very excited to simply be a part of it. If you smell what The Rock is cooking, thank you for watching.
