its not conteversal enough to get clicks. they talk about the holidays because its the most talked about time frame when it comes to sales, and the only one that can stir up some debate. last year we saw month after month talk and articles about PS4 winning NPD, but when it became the norm, it stopped generating as much clicks, so they gotta do something else. 

gaming journalsim isnt about news, its about money, and everything they do is to get it. 

What is the PS4 Going to do this Christmas?

Sell well.

They don't have one big title like Halo but they have plenty of games for different demographics which I think is more important for hardware sales.
While MS concentrates on a few titles and Holidays, Somy has always been about providing games throughout the year for all different tastes. And it's obvious what strategy is better.

If they have a down Christmas this year then it means they'll have a fantastic year next year and we'll be talking about how Microsoft needs to up their game to compete. Everyone always speaks like this particular point in time is the most crucial.

Is friction really the only way of generating traffic though? I think it's just a lack of imagination and the pressure of running a smaller site that creates this nonsensical cycle. We could just cut and paste articles year after year and they'd all read exactly the same.

Sony will just drop the price. They don't have to worry. But from a "savvy customers" point of view Sony have no excuse for this holiday. Last holiday wasn't good exclusive wise. I expected better treatment.

If you already have a PS4, why would you care about there not being many exclusives at a time when there are multiple big third party games releasing every week? Seems better to me to release most exclusives outside of the holidays, which is what Sony is largely doing.

This. I find MS's system of loading everything on the holidays silly. Most of the big AAA game release Sep-Nov. Why would you put an exclusive in there. When people are buying a console they are taking into account the entire library. It might help a little if you have more exclusives fresh on the consumers minds but what matter more around the holidays is deals. That is why the XB1 had a good holiday 2014, people saw it as a good deal. FH2, Sunset OD, MCC had very little to do with it (as shown by the sales of those games).

If someone is buying a new console this year they have a library of over 2 years to consider.

Exclusives are the main reason I entered console gaming after a long time. For me exclusives are important. Last year Xbox One got halo MCC (it had issues but SP mode was enough), forza horizon 2 and sunset overdrive. We got DC and quick cash grab lbp3. And I am not interested in yearly rehashes COD, AC (will never touch AC after playing unity). Currently I m loving bloodborne but holiday scares me. If I had to rely on multiplatforms then I would have gone PC only gamer.

Yeah, in the holidays, third party games and price are what moves consoles. Exclusives at quieter times of the year, like inFamous and Titanfall in March last year, give consoles a far bigger comparative boost compared to what exclsuives do in the holidays. Halo may be the only exception.