How Xbox Could Dethrone the PS5

Script written by Ty Richardson How Xbox Could Dethrone The PS5 Sony’s PlayStation 5 is currently dominating the market and its upcoming exclusives will probably secure its place on the mountaintop. We’re not saying “PS5 is best console lul.” We are aware that Xbox still has a handful of cards to play, and surprisingly, it’s not what a lot of people seem to be talking about. Xbox clearly has a long-term strategy currently in play right now. It's a simple mix of classic IPs, Game Pass, and all those acquisitions that have occurred over the last few years. Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’re taking a look at How Xbox Could Dethrone the PS5! Sony already has made its plans for the PlayStation 5 public. Well, plans for the next few months to a year, anyways. In addition to several third-party titles, PS5 players can look forward to “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart,” “Gran Turismo 7,” “Returnal,” “Horizon Forbidden West,” and the sequel to 2018’s “God of War.” Sony is going to keep doing what it has been for the last handful of years: shell out a few big, exclusive first-party titles to use as tentpole launches, make one or two of them open-world, and make bank. It’s a strategy that’s been going well for them and is partially why the PS4 has been so successful. Xbox can easily replicate this strategy, as it owns many franchises that resonate with people, and Xbox knows this. Since its release in 2013, “Killer Instinct” has amassed over ten million players between Xbox consoles and PC, which is more than enough to call it a flagship franchise. A recent Twitch Rivals event with Maximilian Dood was loud enough to show how important the game is in the FGC. The world lost its mind when Banjo & Kazooie were revealed for “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate,” and even head of Xbox Phil Spencer took note of this. The same thing happened when Master Chief made his way into “Fortnite.” “Psychonauts” received a large enough following for Double Fine to finally make a sequel despite the first game being a commercial failure. While the 2020 “Battletoads” reboot and 2019’s “Crackdown 3” weren’t really shiners, Xbox is well aware of how valuable their IP is, and there are two games that serve as examples that more franchises could be returning. Though “Halo: Infinite” didn’t look pretty when we first saw it, the game was delayed an entire year just so 343 Industries could go back and rework the visuals. After the franchise has been dormant for six years (the last main game was “Halo 5: Guardians”), Xbox and 343 want to get this right and make “Infinite” a triumphant return for the franchise. Then, you have “Fable,” the next title in the comedic action RPG being developed by Playground Games. This studio knows how to have fun with its games - just take a look at “Forza Horizon 4.” While we have yet to see the gameplay of that, it’s safe to say “Fable” is in the right hands. Basically, Xbox is looking to dish out new games for classic IPs that have been neglected for years, and this could really help them in the long run considering how Sony has been treating its classic IPs as of late. When “MediEvil” was gearing up for launch in October 2019, PlayStation did little to no marketing for the game, only pumping out a few short trailers that didn’t really talk about the franchise’s significance. “Sly Cooper” has been absent from the platform since the fourth game launched in 2013, and while the raccoon was used as an avatar in a PS5 showcase, there’s no sign of him returning. Doesn’t help that Sucker Punch has moved on from both Sly and the “Infamous” games. Speaking of devs that have moved onto other projects, Guerrilla Games has been busy with the “Horizon” franchise. Its previous franchise, “Killzone,” is nowhere to be found… literally. Like, its website no longer exists. (You’d think with a franchise once classified as “Sony’s Halo killer,” they’d wanna bring the competition.) However, one of Sony’s biggest blunders when handling its heritage involves the “Twisted Metal” series. On the day “Twisted Metal” turned twenty-five, there was no acknowledgment of the anniversary from Sony - not through a social media post, not a video, not an announcement, not even a PlayStation Blog post. Instead, we were given a video showcasing “Destruction AllStars,” which launched to lukewarm reviews from critics and players alike. Sony is burning its older playerbase quite a bit, and with Xbox wanting to bring older IPs back, this could put Xbox at a bit of an advantage when trying to appease older fans. Still, it's going to take more than just nostalgia for Xbox, and don’t you worry - they have more cards to play. Another big part of their strategy lies in Xbox Game Pass, their landmark subscription service where players pay a small fee and get access to over 100 games every month. Unlike Sony’s subscription service, PlayStation Now, you don’t stream the games - you can download them and play them as you would with any purchased title. On top of that, the catalog gets updated twice a month with new games to try, and you can even net points for Microsoft Rewards through Game Pass, allowing you to get some free Xbox money. Is the deal still not sweet enough for you? Well, you can usually catch a deal on Game Pass. For example, one of our editors was able to nab one month of Game Pass Ultimate, which includes Xbox Live Gold, for one US dollar, and he got two months for free with it. So, hey - more gaming for a lower cost! Xbox is obviously trying to win new customers with sweet deals, and the bargaining got more intense when we were gearing up for the launch of the Series X/S. Upon revealing the consoles’ price tags, Xbox simultaneously announced a payment plan known as Xbox All Access. This would allow those on a tighter budget to buy the console without having to make a single, hefty purchase. Now, one could pay over the span of a few months and do so without any interest tacked on AND get two years of Game Pass Ultimate. So, really, if you’re someone constantly spending money on games and need a grip on your budget or if you wanna be smarter with your money, Xbox may be up your alley. “So, you’re saying sales and retro games are gonna put Xbox on top?” No, there are still a couple more things to cover. Remember how there was a period when it seemed like Microsoft was just buying everyone to put under the Xbox umbrella? Well, those studios most likely play a hand in why the Series X/S has had a quiet, arguably uneventful launch. We’re simply in the calm before the storm, the incubation period where we can catch up on our backlogs and get to know our machines before the bigger releases come. And my, there’s a good number of games to look forward to! Team Ninja is currently working on a sequel to “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice” as they wind down support for “Bleeding Edge.” The Initiative is working on a “Perfect Dark” revival, which confirms a rumor from long ago regarding Rareware IPs going to different studios. (We even saw this with “Battletoads,” where Rare only supervised and helped developer Dlala Studios.) Speaking of Rare, “Sea of Thieves” is seeing a resurgence with its continued support, and the UK-based studio is busy creating their next game, “Everwild.” Obsidian Entertainment is launching a second expansion to “The Outer Worlds” and is currently developing a charming survival game known as “Grounded” whereas Turn 10 Studios is still tinkering with the next “Forza Motorsport.” An Xbox summer event was dropped during a discussion with Bethesda recently, and we have a hunch we’ll be seeing some of these pop up again as well as games from studios like Compulsion Games, inXile Entertainment, and Undead Labs. What makes the studios under Xbox so unique is that they all tailor to different experiences and genres. You have your adventure games, shooters, platformers, RPGs, fighting games, etc, and they’re all genres that can be found within the first-party sector of Xbox. It's a palette that appeals to the gamer looking for new experiences and wants to dip their toes in genres they might not have tried before. However, Xbox is providing those experiences in a very specific way, and it all ties back into Game Pass. Our aforementioned editor was intimidated by the fast-paced nature of “Killer Instinct” at first. But because of Game Pass, he ended up downloading it. Now, it's all he ever wants to talk about. When you take away the possibility of financial consequences, you open the doors for more players to try things they may not have thought about playing. This has been especially evident when certain studios have come forward about the benefits of putting their games on Game Pass. For example, when talking to Eurogamer, Double Fine, Obsidian, and a few indie developers noted they had benefitted in both funding and player engagement because of Game Pass, with players even buying the games AFTER playing them on Game Pass! Somehow, Xbox has found a way to, more or less. Remove admission price from games through a subscription service and STILL make it beneficial for studios, players, and themselves. But how do you get more players on Xbox AND on Game Pass? Easy - you make your own games available on Game Pass on LAUNCH DAY, which is exactly what Xbox is doing. See an exclusive you’re interested in, but don’t know if you wanna pay for it? Just buy Game Pass! Sony, on the other hand, is already crippling itself in the long run. They’ve recently sized down their own Japan Studio, which was responsible for some cult classics like “PaRappa the Rapper,” “Vib-Ribbon,” “Everybody’s Golf,” “Gravity Rush,” and “LocoRoco.” As a result, some of the staff will be moved to Asobi, the studio behind the PS5 launch title, “Astro’s Playroom.” To make matters worse, Sony is slowly getting a little more aggressive with the $70 debate, tacking their first-party games with the price whether they’re actually worth it or not. (We were lucky they lowered “Destruction AllStars” to twenty bucks.) Add in an unusually intense focus on open-world games, and you have a concoction for a market that could easily become oversaturated and stale in the near future. Variety is the spice of the games industry, and this has been proven time and time again - the 1983 crash of the video game market, first-person shooters in the late-2000’s, “Anthem” releasing in an endless sea of live-service games, the battle royale craze… If Sony keeps churning out open-world games, it could bite them in the backside. They already have at least three open-world games (or games with open-world elements) likely releasing within the next year - “Horizon Forbidden West,” “Marvel’s Spider-Man 2,” and “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.” Sony’s studios may have to start doing more than visuals to stand apart from each other. And then, you have the bigger player in Xbox’s plan - Bethesda. It sounds ridiculous at first considering how badly Bethesda has fallen in recent years. No one is ever going to forget “Fallout 76” and how almost all of Bethesda’s IPs have been Kronenberg’d into becoming live service games. However, Bethesda has a bigger role in Xbox’s strategy than it may seem, and it all lies within how Microsoft’s acquisition has been worded. Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has said that Bethesda will be operating “semi-independently,” which means a number of things and yet is so definitive. What Spencer is saying here is that Xbox will still call the shots on several things, and as Spencer has pointed out, many of Bethesda’s titles will still be launching on other platforms, but whenever this is spoken, it is spoken under the phrase “contractual obligations”. So, PlayStation fans don’t have to fret about losing certain Bethesda games. BUT this could mean different for other games, most notably “The Elder Scrolls VI” and “Starfield.” These are the two biggest titles Bethesda has in the works right now, and neither game has been confirmed for specific platforms, only that “Starfield” could possibly be a cross-gen title. While Spencer has said they’ll continue putting Bethesda titles on other platforms, Xbox can play the “exclusivity card” in more than one way, not just the obvious “you can only play it here” way. Future Bethesda games could potentially become timed exclusives, popping up on Xbox first and other platforms a year or two after release. Or, if Xbox wants to get a little dishonorable, they could have Bethesda prioritize Xbox optimization over PlayStation, meaning if you want to play a Bethesda game that looks and runs better, you’ll probably have to jump on Xbox. Heck, they could release games on every platform, but if you want DLC and expansions, you’ll have to get the Xbox version. There are several ways that Xbox could make Bethesda games exclusive to their platform, and it isn’t them being “anti-consumer” - it’s just business. Many have claimed that PS5 has won this generation, and we may have jumped the gun as well. But Xbox has us in the waiting room, and time is just about up. With Summer Games Fest on the horizon, Xbox can very easily steal the competition in a number of ways, and they have a hell of a hand to make that happen. It could happen earlier if reports of monthly announcements prove true! If there was anything Spencer has said that defines their strategy, it was this - “...this is about delivering great exclusive games for you that ship on platforms where Game Pass exists.” Where does Game Pass exist? Only on Xbox and PC. What does Game Pass offer? Not just open-world games, but a wide selection of games from different genres and studios. Who can afford Game Pass? Well, if you got fifteen bucks, you can get the biggest package they offer. And that is how Xbox could dethrone the PS5!