For the first time in many years, the opponent has “crushed his neck”, at this time, Microsoft seems to dominate the console battle with the newly launched weapons.
With 2020 being the new console battle between Microsoft and Sony, the next consoles are Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X, with plans to hit shelves later this year.
As has been the tradition for many years, before the launch of his pet to the market, the two fathers will start a campaign to “rectify” the opponent, and this time the wind seems to have changed. After so many years unable to beat Sony, this time, Microsoft is full of confidence to dominate the opponent, with an almost hegemony mentality different from the prickly head-start in 2013 when Xbox One launched.
Why is Microsoft so confident in this console war? That’s because they just announced their Xbox Series X will own the GPU up to 12 Teraflops, nearly equal to the RTX 2080 Ti, with the ability to raise the resolution to the highest level ever and achieve more than 90 FPS. Of course, at this point, people are not too surprised by the configuration of a console-like before, because the technology of the two sides has almost reached the peak, and it isn’t easy to create astonishment in the same way. They used to be like Playstation 2. But that’s not all of Microsoft. Their main card is the Smart Delivery policy.
Smart Delivery means that the Xbox Series X will support gamers with the old games. This can understand that gamers can now play games on any Xbox without having to buy two copies individually. Take Halo Infinite as an example. If you buy it on Xbox One and later want to switch to Xbox Series X to play it again, a free copy will apply to Xbox Series X. No longer need to buy two sessions another game version.
Smart Delivery will include all exclusive games on Xbox Series X or developed by Mircosoft’s Studio. Third parties are also being enticed to participate in this program, and initially, CD Projekt Red is already first accepted with blockbuster Cyberpunk 2077. This is a strategic card in Microsoft’s console war, which they are very confident will help them surpass Sony.
Smart Delivery can be considered as a “backward compatible” version because it not only includes future exclusive games, but hot games still have many players like Destiny 2 or Red Dead Redemption 2 will also be supported. This is a very aggressive move by Microsoft when they break the tradition of buying games to play on the new console and accept losses to gain market share.
It seems that Mircosoft also has to accept that if they stick to exclusive games, they might lose to Sony in this console war, not to mention that publishers are increasingly interested in making a multi-game system. But with Smart Delivery, things are going in a different direction: the Xbox Series X is trying to dominate the market right after its launch by playing cross-play with Xbox One, allowing users to stick with old games but with better graphic quality.
This solves a huge problem: gamers often hesitate to change the console in the first year because they fear that it will not have good blockbusters and more new games are still out there consoles some time ago. With Smart Delivery, this is considered to be eliminated. You will have to see how much more Mircosoft can convince more studios like CD Projekt Red to join.
On the other hand, the reactions of Sony are currently relatively weak. They have not had any responses or announcements that are important since Playstation 5. There have not been many unique game titles. What kind of “team burden” rights and the essential feature is backward compatibility with old games still open. Another rumor is that Sony seems to have difficulty producing Playstation 5 when its factory price is higher than the selling price because the demand for semiconductor chips is too great.
We all know that in a console war, Sony’s weapons are always exclusive games, but everything is still very vague until now. Only a few rumors are God of War 2, Horizon 2, or Spider-Man 2. With everything being cross-platform now, it’s understandable that gamers will quickly jump over to Xbox Series X if they know that the blockbuster games I bought before, all will bring it. Via this new device (not to mention the Xbox Game Pass).
Another problem is that Sony is also not attending the E3 2020 fair. Hence, the amount of information they can introduce to the community is even less unless the Playstation 5 will give something genuinely superior. Now, it’s clear that the Xbox Series X is dominating the next-generation console war.
So it’s no wonder that Microsoft finally saw its victory in a console war after years of being surpassed by rivals.
