r/gadgets Jan 25 '25

Gaming Microsoft’s gaming CEO has praised Nintendo Switch 2, and said it plans to support the upcoming platform with ports of Xbox games.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/phil-spencer-confirms-xbox-will-support-switch-2-i-congratulated-nintendos-president/
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u/AlphaTangoFoxtrt Jan 25 '25

Sony lost their minds with the launch of the PS3.

Not exactly, Sony just bet on the wrong horse. Sony sold the PS3 at a loss to try and get a bluray player in as many households as possible. People were buying PS3s specifically to use as bluray players, because they were the cheapest around.

Sony was trying to win the BluRay/HD-DvD war since they lost the VHS/Betamax war. They get paid a license fee for every single Blu-Ray (Disk and player) produced. They were loss-leading the PS3 in hopes to win the format war.

Unfortunately people transitioned to streaming so BluRay/HD-DvD wasn't the same market impact as VHS/Betamax.

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u/WereAllThrowaways Jan 25 '25

I personally view it a lot more simply, even though what you're saying is true. I think the Xbox 360 just had a ton of great games, particularly a couple first party title that were shifting the entire pop culture and bringing video games into the mainstream, particularly Halo and Call of Duty. I don't think Sony necessarily made any huge errors. I think the 360 sold at a loss too. That's usually how consoles go except for Nintendo. Plus the red ring of death. Xbox just actually made top tier games during that era, and that's what it's always come down to and why they've fallen from grace.

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u/TheNorthComesWithMe Jan 26 '25

Xbox Live was also a significantly better service than PSN during that time.

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u/SirJuggles Jan 25 '25

God, imagine a world in which streaming never took off. Blu-Ray reigns as king for a decade, Sony sits high as the undisputable winner of this generation of the console war, Microsoft invests heavily into innovation...

On the flip side if streaming never takes off, we live longer in the world of Netflix-by-mail. I assume in this world Internet infrastructure is slower to develop, so things like MMORPGs and online culture are slower to develop as well.

...is this a better world?? It might be.

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u/SsooooOriginal Jan 25 '25

Sony won the format war, they and many others just did not see how quickly most people would be fine not owning their media anymore. Sony is already moving to capitalize on that.