Sony are really screwing up. Xbox is already way down there but at the speed Sony are accelerating, even as a Sony life longer, I'm starting to dislike them atm.

It's a shame too. While their software output does remain pretty solid (I mean, they have pumped out some of the best of the best this generation e.g. Astro Bot, GoW:Ragnorak, Ghost of Yotei, HorizonFW, Returnal, SM2, with GoW:Lafae and Intergalatic reportedly coming next year), they really have stumbled as of recent. Too many studio shutterings, too much focus on live service, too little focus on AA/smaller projects/reviving legacy IP, not to mention their radical pivot away from physical, and it's just been a very mixed generation for them.

Sony has made its mistakes, but Microsoft is still running this race like a champion marathon runner. Picking up Kojima and Sharma grinning for the cameras isn’t going to change that.

At this point, does it really matter? In addition to damage caused by external factors like "A.I." and the Orange Dumbass's trade war, they've both given themselves serious self-inflicted wounds. I have no interest at all in the PS6, and my interest in the Helix is hanging on by a very thin thread (I'll consider it if and only if physical is still an option). Nintendo is still hanging on, but I fully expect them to eventually engage in some corporate bullshit that destroys all the goodwill they've built up for nearly the past decade (probably by making the Switch 3 digital-only). The future of gaming is looking pretty bleak right now, and I'm just not excited for it anymore outside of a handful of specific games coming out in the next 15 months.

Xbox has a lot of work to do to rebuild trust with their costumers, they were inches above the bottom when Phil Spencer left. If you asked me half a year ago it would hence be a no-brainer. However, the way Sony has acted the last couple of months, has already made them far worse, which I didn't even think would be possible. Not since the Xbox One fiasco of 2013 have I seen any of the big video game platforms act so disgracefully towards costumers.
To me it is not just the fact that they are ending physical media, but the way they decided to do it, and their communication strategy afterwards as well as the digital games rights on their platform compared to competitors. Even if they decided to backtrack now, my faith in the PlayStation brand has tanked so much I refuse to buy their hardware for the foreseeable future or buy any digital game through their storefront.

Well, Sony just patented a controller where you tap your credit card/phone on the controller to pay them more money:

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-patent-would-let-you-tap-your-card-or-phone-on-your-playstation-controller-to-make-a-payment

Meanwhile, Microsoft, not wanting to be outdone, patented game-interrupting ads:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/09/microsoft-files-patent-which-could-bring-game-pausing-ads-to-xbox

I guess Microsoft wins that round. Ads in games sound awful!

If you include the end of the 360 era and the Xbone span, Xbox.

If you’re talking just this gen, Sony pretty easily imho.

Xbox is trying to get up from the bottom. I don't know if it's working, because they sure keep stumbling on the way, but at least they're trying to improve. Sony, on the other hand, has its sights aimed right towards the bottom, and they're moving there with great determination. If either of them is going to hit the bottom, all the signs are pointing at it being Sony. Unfortutely that doesn't necessarily get reflected in sales...

That said, Microsoft never ceases to surprise with how stupid their decisions are, so you never know. The new leadership still hasn't shows what it's actually going to do.

I didn’t cast my vote, because I don’t have either of those consoles, I only have the original Switch and Switch 2 and the new Steam Machine.
I hope both xbox and PS doing well and doing better, otherwise, the industry will be occupied by PC and Mobile gaming, then, there might not be a Switch 3 (or a new console) any more.

I don’t think Microsoft and SONY intentionally piss of their customers, it’s the economics behind modern gaming forcing them into those weird behaviors: live-service games, subscriptions, always online demand, micro-transactions, etc…

Maybe utilizing AI in the game creation could render their ROI better? Even so, Mobile gaming is still growing faster than console gaming in terms of total market revenue.

What are your thoughts?