"Five years ago, Sony and Microsoft both launched next-gen consoles with very similar PC-based architectures. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X (and its less-powerful sibling, the Series S) promised even bigger and more realistic gaming experiences with near PC-quality graphics and responsiveness. We were told that ray tracingthe recreation of realistic lighting, reflections, and shadows in gameswould be worth spending $500 for a new box to plug into our 4K TVs."
"Where Microsoft has fumbled again and againtrying to turn Xbox into the Netflix of gaming with Game Pass, pivoting to a larger publisher by buying Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and hiking hardware prices multiple times because of an internal mandate to turn a 30% profitSony has expertly navigated the same industry challenges with smart expansions for its PlayStation brand."
Console gaming entered a turbulent period after Sony and Microsoft launched next-generation, PC-like consoles. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S promised near PC-quality graphics and responsiveness, including ray tracing, but only about 6% of PS5 games support ray tracing. The PS5 significantly outsold the Xbox Series X/S, reaching roughly 84 million units shipped versus an estimated 30 million for Xbox as of November 2025. Microsoft pursued Game Pass expansion, an attempted Activision Blizzard acquisition, and hardware price hikes tied to profit mandates. Sony pursued strategic PlayStation expansions and achieved greater commercial and consumer success over the five-year span.
Read at gizmodo.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]