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hiccupthehuman on 16 September 2021
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src said:

Acquisition is not what I include in third party. Once someone is acquired they are 1st party. MS cannot buy every single publisher. Third party exclusives (different from publishing titles) are big.

You'll notice Playstation has multiple with multiple pubs. I can't think of a single one for Xbox. While you are right that MS can buy studios to counter act this, this is a losing battle as the biggest pubs with the biggest IPs will not be bought out, so your competition can easily secure deals with them at your expense.


The sales data explicitly show how Xbox has gone from 50:50, even 60:40 in their advantage during the 360 days, to 70:30 or 80:20 against them. That's a 30-40% swing. A massive decline.Revenue up a lot due to Bethesda acquisition. Also third party sales can be down by while revenue is up due to how pervasive MTX are nowadays.

BTW gameindustry includes digital data so no its not just physical.

In comparison, MS estimates PS's third party revenue to be $8.6B. Almost 4.5 times bigger.

It doesn't make a difference. Those acquired studio were third-party. Why did they agree to join Xbox if it is such a bad deal to be exclusive with Xbox? Sony can't make timed exclusive deals for every title either. Sony tried to get Starfield. They really tried hard to get Bethesda games to be associated with PlayStation, but it's a lost battle now.

Besides, Phil Spencer had said since 2015 that he would no longer pursue third-party exclusivity deals. If they aren't trying, of course they won't have any. Simply different strategies from Xbox and PS.

"PS's third party revenue to be $8.6B. Almost 4.5 times bigger."

Source?

The official report Sony released shows that their entire software sales was 13.8 billion for the entire year. And that figure included first-party sales. So maybe that 8.6B third-party fit in that. But the 2 billion from MS I provided was only from the holiday quarter (3 months).

Source: Games Industry

If you want to compare the Q3 2020 holiday quarters, then on software Sony made

  • Physical Software Revenue reached ¥50.9bn / $0.487B (+20.8% YoY)
  • Digital Software + Add-on Revenue (PS Store) reached an all-time high of ¥432.8bn / $4.14B (+41.9% YoY)
    • the biggest quarterly revenue PS Store ever recorded

Source: Sony Q3 FY2020 (Oct-Dec) Results - PS5: 4.5m, PS4: 1.4m (LTD: 114.9m) / Record Year for PlayStation / Highest Quarterly Revenue in video game history News | ResetEra

0.487B+4.14B = 4.627 billion for the games revenue. But that also includes first-party.

Q3 FY2020 PS: 4.627 billion (first-party+third-party) vs Xbox: 2+ billion (only third-party). This is concrete proof that the ratio of PS: XB is nowhere near 80:20.

People who buy Xboxes also buy games. I don't know why some people find it so hard to believe. A gamer, whether he chooses to buy an Xbox or a PS, will still buy the games he wants, doesn't matter the device. No one buys an expensive piece of hardware just to never buy software.

Last edited by hiccupthehuman - on 16 September 2021