Until a month ago, it seemed as if Sony and Microsoft had two completely different visions for the future of gaming. On the one hand, Microsoft wants to release its games on as many of its consoles (and PC) as possible, and on the other, Sony wants to make exclusive games for one generation. However, after the recent news that some of the biggest exclusives of the PlayStation 5 are also coming to the Playstation 4 and PC, it remains to be seen whether we can still trust Sony.
For the players
When Sony released the PlayStation 4, it seemed to have learned from its mistakes with PS3. The manufacturer emphasized the importance of exclusive first party games that cannot be played anywhere else. This turned out to be great and made the PlayStation 4 a whirlwind success. Microsoft was mainly concerned with reversing its choices that went down the wrong way with gamers. This gave Sony more confidence and eventually an image as a real gamer machine “for the players” and the Xbox seemed to have the opposite image.
Play has no limits…
It seemed that both console giants would continue their same course for the next generation. Sony changed its slogan to “play has no limits” (no longer for the players) and smashed it with its showcases full of “exclusives”. Microsoft, on the other hand, was little to charm with a lot of disappointing multiplatform games and one Halo game that was not yet ready to show the true power of the Xbox Series X. Everything pointed to a smashing start for Sony. But then it suddenly started to rattle.
But pre-orders do!
For example, on Thursday morning September 17, the PlayStation 5 pre-orders suddenly went live. In the US it was after midnight. This created a huge run on the uber-hyped next-gen console and sold out everywhere within two hours. The same was true here in our little frog country. For example, this writer was at work and did not have time to check his mail for any order notifications from the PlayStation 5. When I finally had a break around 10:30 and checked my mail it was already too late. My joy and enthusiasm that I felt during the showcase the night before gave way to depression and disbelief.
Sony plays games
Because why had they already gone live? After all, Sony hadn’t announced anything before I went to bed. And how could they run out of supplies so quickly? I had read a few days earlier that they let A: know in advance when the pre-orders went live and B: that more PlayStation 5s had been produced than had previously been made for PlayStation 4s. I thought this could mean two things. On the one hand, demand was unprecedentedly high, higher than Sony had anticipated. On the other hand, Sony has only released a limited number of pre-order copies. Ultimately, the second turned out to be closer to reality. So it was a conscious move by Sony to create scarcity among the customer. I was used to this kind of practice from Nintendo (or Disney), but not from Sony. But this was just the beginning of the loss of confidence in Sony.
“Exclusive to PlayStation 5”
Because all those coveted exclusive games turned out not to be that exclusive at all. So comes the showpiece Spider-Man: Miles Morales now also on PlayStation 4 And to top it all off, Horizon: Forbidden West is also coming to the PlayStation 4. In addition, the games would be built around the new functions of the DualSense controller and for that reason you would not be able to use your old DS4 controllers for this. But that is very strange when the same games are playable on the PlayStation 4. In short, Sony is starting to look more and more like Microsoft, but the difference is that Microsoft has been transparent all this time and Sony only shows its true colors at the very last moment. has shown.
Give us confidence again, Sony!
I think pre-order gate and the fake exclusivity are inextricably linked. If Sony had previously admitted that the system sellers were not exclusive to PS5, they might have sold a lot less pre-orders. It probably doesn’t take much of the hype that this total sell-off has brought to the console. And it didn’t “defect” me to the Xbox camp either (because I’m poor and can only buy one console). But it is the first time in times that I see Sony in a different light. Hopefully they can boost their image a bit, because you can only get away with such actions a few times. We may be fans, but we are not retarded. So Sony, learn from this failure action, because honestly is the best policy!
In the meantime, Sony has apologized and promises more pre-order copies, but that is of course harm reduction from the PR department.
I am very curious about your opinion on this. Do you think Sony can still be trusted? Let me know below!
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