GribbleGrunger said:
Yes ... they were told it was 'better'. That's all the masses needed to differentiate, but the initial push was from the established PS audience. Let's not forget that the XB1 was selling brilliantly too to begin with. I agree that social media has made it much easier to spread a consensus of opinion and I do understand that which ever console gets the best reputation is likely to get more possitivity attached to it. There is a difference here though, and that is when the PS4 and the XB1 released they were BOTH next gen consoles and so people were looking for reasons to make the right choice. What I'm pointing out is IF MS can successfully blur the lines between 'mid gen' and 'next gen' then the initial messaging will follow suit. There are bound to be counter arguments if that narrative takes roots but it's going to be much more difficult to explain than to simply say 'the PS4 is more powerful'. The Scorpio has that AND the idea it's 'next gen' and as I've said, that gets people excited. I'm not saying this strategy will be successful by the way, I'm just pointing this out because I've seen people dismissing the Scorpio as a threat to Sony. I see it as an extention of the XB1 and so know it isn't going to make much difference in that regard, but it could be seen as a success if it's perceived as a 'next gen' console, especially if MS decide to start showing numbers for it. To put that into perspective: I'll know, in 'reality', that the Scorpio only adds to the XB1 numbers and so will still be behind, the less than educated gamer (or current XB1 owners who desparately want to eek out a victory) will accept the 'perception' it's a next gen console in order to imagine it 'leading' and not 26m behind. Call it 'comfort thinking'. |
The reason I don't think MS is going to try that is its going to look very bad if they are still being outsold by the PS4 and Pro. They can boast all they want, if sales for the Scorpio are even good enough to brag about, but they are going to stop REAL quick once they get a bunch of gamers replying to their tweets with PS4 sales numbers. Or PS5 info once that's starts to leak. Or even ones comparing it to XBO's launch.
I just seriously don't see MS trying to go that route with the crap they had to go through with the XBO launch. And if they abandon XBO gamers to focus on making the Scorpio a success, they are going to get almost the same amount of shit they got from their attempt at DRM. Of course, the big elephant in the room for MS is that the Scorpio is no longer going to have any exclusives to push the system, which is something that's really important in the launch window of a console. They're all on the PC and XBO, if they continue support for it. Might as well call it MulitplatBox. Lol, which is definitely something I could see being picked up by the gaming community, like Xbone.
I think some are putting too much tout into the words of someone with an obvious MS bias, who's just trying to push their new system as if its something more than it really is. I'm sure MS aren't going to be quick to change this messaging, but I don't see them pushing it themselves, cause they would be corrected really quick by sites, like DF, and by gamers in general, if the specs aren't up to snuff.
