How would Xbox One have fared without the initial fumble

[EricHiggin]

curl-6 said:

EricHiggin said:

I was kinda joking based on your 'can't be more than a million' guess. I'd think 75M-85M would be the range.

Question is how many people cared more about first party XB1 games vs PS4 games? If you didn't like the VCR design you could just get an eraser instead and the only difference really would be the exclusives. *Actually you'd also need to consider silence or an indoor airport.

Also, cross play likely doesn't become a thing this gen either in this timeline.

The first party lineup was a pretty significant factor too; games like Halo 5 and Gears 4 weren't exactly beloved by fans, while PS4 exclusives like Uncharted 4, Horizon, Bloodborne, etc were more positively recieved.

In this scenario, that'd the arguably the only major factor separating the two, since we're eliminating power, price, and the PR handicap.

Yes. PS4 still clearly has the better exclusives and still wins this alternate gen. It wins bigger than PS3 did, but not as large of a gap as PS4 does in our actual timeline. Solid hardware and a strong start to the gen matters quite a bit in terms of momentum going forward. First party software matters, but not as much as third party. MS and SNY never really had non stop, heavy hitting, blockbuster AAA, first party bangers, one after another, until PS4. Most consumers wouldn't have known this until later in the gen, so it wouldn't have been as obvious to buy a PS4 for those reasons. Plus the casuals just really don't care much about exclusives and they're the largest and latest buyers on the systems each gen.