How this gen started:

Xbox: Buys a bunch of studios, looks to be a generation of great IP output, a great system. Could be the best Xbox generation ever. 

PlayStation: Zero worries, just keep that previous generation energy and it’ll be a great generation. 

Nintendo: 🙂

How it’s going:

Xbox: Fambase in chaos, fully third party, system sales are dead, studios closures. Worst generation of Xbox, a complete failure.

PlayStation: Forgot first party games are thing, no energy, no commitment to anything. Gone third party, a catastrophic GaaS push that failed. A terrible generation for PlayStation. 

Nintendo: 🙂🙂

Consequently, I am om my way out to my local mom-and-pop store now to pick up a Switch 2 and DK Bananza. For all the annoying things Nintendo also does, they still offer a “classic console experience” for old people like me.

Enjoy the monkey, I’ve put around 15ish hrs into it and it’s a surprisingly addictive game and I’ve never played a DK game before. 

I think a lot of the older generation of gamers really struggle mentally with the idea that the younger generation of gamers don't really give a fuck about exclusives or closed ecosystems. Our generation grew up on console wars and exclusives being everything, there were also far fewer games releasing on a weekly basis and no blackhole games so exclusives were really put on a pedestal. But we're a dying breed, literally and figuratively, and as we grow up, have families, children, etc. It's those younger gamers who will take us over.

This young generation has grown up with mobile devices with access to their content wherever and whenever they want it, they grew up with blackhole games sucking all their time out, Roblox has over 30m CCU and that is just one example. They grew up with a marketplace which put a focus on things being accessed on whatever device they're using, the blackhole games are available everywhere, things like Netflix are available everywhere, their games are perfectly playable on mobile too. There's also hundreds of videogames releasing every week now, it's overwhelming.

If they can't have access to *insert random exclusive* do they care? Not really, they have access to their blackhole videogames like Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, etc. They have access to TikTok which is absolutely a competitor to videogames now due to how much time it sucks out of peoples lives, I have nieces who endlessly scroll that shit instead of playing their Xbox, Lol. They have access to the literally hundreds of videogames releasing on a weekly basis, they aren't running short of videogames to play.

Blackhole videogames and changing consumer mindset is a major problem for content locked to a single device.

With my nieces and nephews, I have 7 and if I broke it down, only 2 of them actually play on console, but they literally only play Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft, I don't even think they've ever heard of most exclusives, Lol. I have a 3rd who has an Xbox with Roblox, but the Xbox collects dust, they literally never play it, they prefer to play Roblox on their mobile/tablet. The rest AFAIK don't care about consoles at all, they just play their games on their mobile and/or watch TikTok/YouTube, Lol. So 2/7 only bother with consoles and only use them to play blackhole videogames, I've even told them about Game Pass and they have zero interest, Lol.

It's funny to remember how much people were viciously mocked for suggesting PlayStation games would eventually come to Xbox too, times are changing, it's difficult to let go of the past, Lol. The goalposts keep moving though, like they did with Xbox, first it was "Bungie doesn't count cause they're independent" then "MLB doesn't count because Sony had no choice" then "Helldivers 2 doesn't count because it's multiplayer only" This is the exact same shit we went through with Xbox with them slowly getting people used to the idea, Lmao.

You don't hire this level of role just for MLB and Helldivers 2 and I'm pretty sure Marathon isn't included since Bungie is independently operated, this is clearly a business wide role, it's obvious now that more PlayStation IP are coming to Xbox, likely even before Xbox even makes the switch to PC Hybrid and honestly there's no logical sense in saying Sony shouldn't do it, what's the difference between doing it now or having all their IP available on a Xbox device in 3 years from now? Lol. Either way Sony IP WILL end up on an Xbox branded device.

As for what is next? I feel confident in saying all of Sony's multiplayer projects will be coming to Xbox, not at launch since they haven't even got there with PC yet but I do think PC day one releases will happen soon with Sony too, they keep decreasing the length of time. Xbox will be delayed releases, but I could see smaller projects like Lego Horizon too and I now even think Spider-Man is a possibility since it's a grey area of not being a Sony owned IP and ridiculously expensive between the development budget and Disney licensing fee/cut.

It's all inevitable anyway, Xbox/PC hybrid is happening, Sony IP are coming to an Xbox branded device either way, they might as well start porting shit now to Xbox Series X and already start building up a fanbase for their games from Xbox userbase. I'd be more interested to see if they actually port to Windows Store on the Xbox/PC hybrid, I think they will, especially as they're explicitly hiring for a role which calls out Xbox support, they wouldn't need to do that if it was just about providing Sony IP on Steam which a Xbox/PC hybrid has access to automatically.

Here is a bold prediction. Nintendo will start releasing their games on Xbox, PC and Playstation ten years from now. 

Ten years is quite some time, so it might be possible.

Xbox won't even exist in 10 years. Be rebranded as Microsoft Copilot Games or a similar name. No more layoffs as all of MS will be run by AI bots and Nutella will be a brain in a jar.

Despite the chaos and mass changes happening to both Xbox (layoffs and structure changes due to buyouts) and Playstation (Failed attempt at making several GaaS products) and Switch 2 doing good so far.......this gen is shaping up to become one of my most favorite gens.

Having access to all the platforms with how there's so many games available through b/c , ports/remasters and new games coming out - I'm not really affected by "droughts" that people are experiencing.

If Playstation cant make as many new games as they did in the past, I think they should focus on remastering/porting titles.

Xbox after acquiring a ton of major IP seems to be depending on that instead of their consoles - if there's new entries coming out or ports/remasters coming out, I'm fine with that too - as long as I can still access my entire library. The rumor of them trying to combine it in a platform that also works on PC intrigues me and I'm excited to see how the future is for that.

As for Switch 2 - I just bought DK Bananza yesterday - gonna play it soon after I finish a couple of games I'm playing right now.

As for the PC platform - I'm glad I got into PC gaming in 2011, I've been able to build a large library of games that span multiple generations and that are still playable/accessible which imo should be the ultimate goal for the console makers, to make it where its consumer base can still access older games by both old and new customers alongside the new games.

Speaking of PC gaming, I've hit a record lol (A lot of great bundles this year lol)

Yeah and I'm sure Nintendo and Sony, the companies from the country which already started to replace humans by robots in restaurants and other places way before any other country, won't use a lot of AI in 10 years!