Sony's IP creation is approaching a status where they're nearly immune from being "dragged into" anything. They'll offer different services in different spaces and they'll co-exist. The market is growing. Sony doesn't have to compete the same way MS does. Their strategy is pretty different, as seen by their consistent investment in China and Korea.
Oh, that's just silly. I say this as someone who was a Sony diehard and a "never Xbox again EVER" sort of guy after the disastrous 2013 launch.
No single player in a market has ever been immune to general market trends. Sony isn't a unicorn here, and all it takes is a subtle shift away from the single player experiences Sony excels at producing for them to be in a serious predicament.
Keep in mind, this is happening
as Microsoft is also trying to build those third person action narrative games (Hellblade is most prominent), but Microsoft already
owns console-exclusive FPSs, driving games, and they're set to dominate western-style RPGs. Xbox is developing a diverse portfolio of game styles and pushing into new models, and two things are driving this:
1. They failed to capture dominance in the traditional game console model.
2. They committed to staying in gaming.
Game Pass is how they're changing the field of competition.
This is all happening while Xbox is also building game streaming tech, and it's offering Game Pass at a price that works better for much more of the world. I heard a Polish gamer say that AAA PlayStation games didn't go from $60 to $70 (equivalent) in Poland, but from a Polish $60 equivalent to a Polish $90 or $95 equivalent. We've all seen how services work better for gamers in Brazil, too.
