I mean, they
do have hardware advantages. That much is obvious. Mainly in the CPU and GPU area, the latter probably by some amounts bigger than most are thinking due to customizations that haven't been divulged yet. At the same time, we know PS5 has some advantages too, mainly in the SSD I/O department, if we're talking about raw performance metrics in these areas.
Frankly, this is the kind of assertiveness MS needs to do more of. You can't be a leader by being meek, and this isn't near the type of burn Sony did to MS back in 2013 (which was good of them to btw, and more of an aggressive measure. Sometimes, being a leader also means you have to be aggressive from time to time).
I think they're realizing that (With them buying up 16+ studios). They need compelling titles/exclusives to keep customers on their platform. Forza, Gears, and Halo aren't cutting it.
But they are? Forza's pretty much GT's equal (in some ways superior) these days. The latest Gears game did quite well with critics
and gamers (something that can't be said for the latest of another major IP with another platform holder, tbh), and Halo Infinite looks like it'll be a big deal and has both fans and a lot of outsiders pretty excited for what it'll bring.
Yes, they need
more than just those three (as tentpoles; it's hard to say Ori is a tentpole for example, when the releases are five years apart. Plus some people unfortunately automatically rank 2D games lower than 3D ones even when some of the former are superior experiences), but the notion that they're "rung out" or people by and large are tired of them, is false.
Microsoft is focusing on performance, and while that is good, they MUST have good games! It's not enough to have third party games running better on Xbox, or having Tetris having 120 Fps. People want new games, with great story, great gameplay and great performance. Not just the performance part.
The problem with Microsoft is that they think games as anything that can be played. They don't care what it is, as long as it's called a game. It's like when your mother brings you Call of Doody 2 for your 12th birthday, because for her, it was all the same. She just sees video games.
Sony on the other hand, knows what gamers want. They learned people want AAA games from them. They know people want epic single player experiences, and that's what they are doing. They also have a lot of variety with many genres, PLUS they have third party games.
Nintendo also knows their audience. They know they like Nintendo IPs, and they keep them coming.
Microsoft doesn't know that. Microsoft hasn't learned what their audience is. They need to do something that make people wow, and want to go buy their console.
How many people actually buy an Xbox because of their games? It's a third party console. That's why it failed this generation, because casuals will buy the console that most of their friends have, and this time it was the PS4. The Xbox One because a secondary console, and with the Switch, not even that.
Microsoft needs to give experiences to people that make them want to buy OVER the competition. They need their God of War, their Super Mario, their OWN identity.
Man, this is kind of a misguided post. First off, Tetris at 120 FPS? This isn't the Atari VCS, they aren't stooping that low.
Not everyone likes Sony's offering the same way. I can tell you right now, if Sony's vision for their 1st-party going forward is stuff like TLOU2 (in terms of the overall package), they can count me out. There's a right and wrong way to do those types of epic, story-driven single-player experiences and imho TLOU2 does a lot of it the wrong way. Thankfully they look to have things like the new R&C and Horizon 2 coming which will do it the right way (though, there's a chance both of those games will have multiplayer components too, especially Horizon 2).
I would say MS already have that identity you speak of, the issue this past gen was in efficiently leveraging it. If you look at the rumors surrounding some of their unannounced projects (revivals, new IP etc.), they definitely seem to be leaning to stuff on that front Sony and Nintendo don't specialize in. If a MS studio announces they're doing a modernized 4X game, that'd cement their direction imo.
Also, your idea that the exclusives drive the sales isn't 100% true. People keep forgetting the Wii U; tons of 1st-party exclusives, still ended up being Nintendo's worst-selling home console. What you
mean to say is the XBO lacked a
balance in its offerings of value proposition, and that would be the correct answer.
Yet they haven't showed anything that show Xbox Series X advantage over PS5 in fact most people are wondering if Xbox Series X will match PS5 lol
The RT in the BMI demo showcase looked better than any RT from Sony's show and that's a 3rd-party title made by a single guy.