All signs indicate that PlayStation 5 came roaring out of the traps when it went on sale at the end of last year. It was to be expected: the new Sony console had a number of advantages over its Xbox rivals, including momentum from the previous generation, brand loyalty in many markets and a stronger line-up of launch software (which is to say any new exclusive games at all).
Xbox Series X and S sold well too, though, and Microsoft can point to several strategic initiatives to show that it is playing a long game: its cloud gaming platform, its mass-market play with Series S, its Game Pass subscription service and its recent studio acquisition spree, culminating in the purchase of Bethesda. The acquisitions won’t see full fruit for a couple of years yet, but Microsoft can afford to bide its time and watch these plays gather momentum. Sony, by contrast, needs to hit the ground running and push hard to sell, sell, sell PS5s while selling games consoles is still a thing. It really only has one strategy for this: exclusive games.
Fortunately for Sony, this is the best strategy, proven time and again over the years, not least by Nintendo. And it is a strategy Sony is enviably well equipped for, having spent a quarter-century building a network of talented first-party studios and publishing eye-catching marquee games to critical acclaim. This is how come the company was ready for PS5 launch – in terms of quality, if not quantity – with cross-gen crowd-pleaser Spider-Man: Miles Morales, brilliant freebie Astro’s Playroom and PS5-exclusive fan-bait Demon’s Souls. It looked a little thin on paper but in the real world, at the end of a pandemic year, it was a mighty impressive showing.
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