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[IGN Video] How the PS4 Won a Console Generation

D.Lo

D.Lo

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Oct 25, 2017
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ThereAreFourNaan said:
Xbox was a PR disaster zone in 2013, then delivered a box that cost $100 more while being 2/3 as powerful graphically. The Kinect, originally intended as a hugely important feature, turned out to be something people didn't want anymore. Microsoft failed to launch up front in a variety of territories day one, in part because of the complexity of getting Kinect features working in global languages all at once.

The impact of exclusive games became more apparent in 2016 and beyond, but it was 2013-2014 when the generation was "won".
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Yeah this, but you'll be lectured on how 'no it's not just because the competitors fucked up 'nooo it was the exclusive games!!!' etc.

It's always momentum. They kept it up, but were gifted a massive head start by moronic moves from Nintendo/Microsoft.

Garlic said:
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Very good.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

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Oct 27, 2017
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Microsoft shot off their entire foot at the beginning of the generation. From there they just needed to not fuck it up, and they did more than that.
 
The Lord of Cereal

The Lord of Cereal

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Jan 9, 2020
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I feel like the success of the PS4 comes down to a few things:
- The existing success of the Playstation brand internationally. Xbox may have been dominant in America and a few other countries during the 360 days, but most countries the PS3 was still dominant.
- The botched launch of the Xbox One. The talk of always online and the crazy DRM scared away many people, not to mention the Kinect being super powerful tied with that and being not long after it was revealed the NSA was spying on people
- Being a high performance and cheaper gaming system. No focus on TV or media, just gaming. More power for less money
- The Call of Duty marketing and timed DLC starting with Black Ops 3. The BO3 bundle was on Amazon's best selling list for several months straight, and since DLC was timed exclusive, all the Youtube people played on PS4, meaning that lots of teenagers and younger folk wanted a PS4 as well.
- Being able to consistently release high quality exclusive games. Everyone ignored the poor launch lineup of the PS4 because it was cheaper and more powerful than the Xbox One, but then in 2016 onwards it managed to release exclusive games that went mainstream
 
brownmagic

brownmagic

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Oct 25, 2017
505
It was pretty straightforward: $100 less and more powerful. It was a no brainer getting a PS4 over Xbox One. The exclusives just sealed the deal and made it an easy decision for casuals after a couple years.
 
Diarrhea Day-Lewis

Diarrhea Day-Lewis

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Oct 27, 2017
20,801
Shpeshal Ed said:
The PS4 basically had no games for the first 2 years of it's life. Xbox One handed insurmountable momentum throughout the entirety of 2013. That kind of momentum is borderline impossible to arrest once it starts.
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That's not accurate at all. There may have not been satisfactory games for you but there was a ton that was only PS4 or console exclusive in the first 2 years before eventually hitting Xbox one, or switch after 2017

indies like Octodad, Towerfall, Rocket League (summer of 2015 was wild) and big titles like Bloodborne, The Order, Infamous, Until Dawn, Tearaway, Resogun, Driveclub, were good (along with Uncharted NDC and others) not to mention third party stuff like Witcher, MGSV, Dragon Age, Evil Within, Destiny, etc

it wasn't as good as 2016-2020 for sure, but it wasn't as bad as you say. It really had something for everyone IMO
 
ClydeBonFrog

ClydeBonFrog

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Apr 17, 2018
295
shadowsdarknes said:
People knew the exclusives were coming.

Sony's first party offerings for PS3 were very strong and frequent. They just published way too much on PS3 in 2013 instead of making them PS4 games.
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I feel like this point is always lost especially back in 2013-2014. Sony released like 8 games for PS3 in 2013, they released gt6 a month after the PS4 came out. When people were asking where are the exclusives, it's going to take more than a year when your studios and partners released a bunch of stuff the previous year.
 
Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
LiquidSolid said:
This plus:
Anyone trying to simplify it down to just "Microsoft and Nintendo screwed up" are being extremely disingenuous. You don't sell well over 100 million units, an achievement Nintendo's only reached once with their home consoles and Microsoft's never gotten close to, just because your competitors fucked up.
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Not to mentioned they've sold 100 million 3 out of 4 generations. I guess competitors have been "screwing up" ever since they entered the market. Lucky Sony.
 
Xterrian

Xterrian

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Apr 20, 2018
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It was already won in 2013 after the horrible xbox pr and wii u dead in the water.

It's not luck, considering it was an appealing product. But it's a fact that it was an easy situation for Sony.

And even with that they had to pretty much give up the Vita so... 🤷
 
MerluzaSamus

MerluzaSamus

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Dec 3, 2018
1,135
Prince Akeem said:
PS1 and PS2 were luck as well?
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Depends of how you see it, but you can say there was a bit of Luck:
With Ps1 Sony made the bet of releasing a console on their own, and at that very same gen, both Sega (especially Sega) and Nintendo made blunders that opened up the competition for them. A similar thing happened with XOne and Ps4, but on a lesser scale.
So if you ask me, those opportunities count as Luck... Nobody could anticipate how hard could Sega burn themselves on that E3, or MS's horrible change of focus on their XOne reveal.

Now, taking proper advantage of the situation to sit yourself at the top, that's good planning. With Ps4, Sony had a really good momentum handling that secure their edge for the rest of the generation, they made sure to always have something big to sell on the years following the release.

Edit: And proper use of the stuff they already have to release new products, on 7th gen, they reused PsEye camera for PsMove, and on the last one, they did the same with PsMove for VR.
 
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Jade1962

Jade1962

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Oct 28, 2017
4,274
Every gen it is the same thing. Sony got lucky. I'm sure the spin machines are already at work trying to explain how they are about to get lucky again.

Will be kind of hard because the narrative before launch was how MS had all the momentum, the most powerful console, a cheaper priced sku and the best value in gaming (Gamepass).
 
ThereAreFourNaan

ThereAreFourNaan

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Nov 8, 2017
13,326
Prince Akeem said:
PS1 and PS2 were luck as well?
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Any time there is a sudden major upset, you won't have to look hard to find the mistakes other people made to facilitate that. Sony didn't cause Nintendo to fuck up the N64, Sony didn't cause Microsoft to fuck up the XBO. Since those factors were outside of Sony's control, we often call them "luck", although that might be a misleading word, it wasn't a coin toss, but simply refers to these factors that you cannot assume or plan for, you just have to hope for.

4/5 home consoles without major mistakes from Sony is a good track record. But that doesn't preclude the other factors from being extremely important in understanding those generations.
 
RestEerie

RestEerie

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Aug 20, 2018
13,618
how to win a 'war':

1) Execute your strategy relatively well
2) Your competitor fucked themselves
3) Luck

That's all, really....you need three of these factors and all three.
 
Apathy

Apathy

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Oct 25, 2017
11,992
Jade1962 said:
Every gen it is the same thing. Sony got lucky. I'm sure the spin machines are already at work trying to explain how they are about to get lucky again.

Will be kind of hard because the narrative before launch was how MS had all the momentum, the most powerful console, a cheaper priced sku and the best value in gaming (Gamepass).
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It's definitely one of the constants around here, that no matter how many times Sony proves they know the world of consoles and what they are doing, they'll be someone on here going "no it was luck".
 
E.T.

E.T.

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Oct 25, 2017
4,035
GoatStation 4

The software sendoff on PS3 cemented my purchase even before announcement. The PS4 continued in that vain and we were rewarded with magnificent games, a great system which in turn led to massive success on the hardware and software front with many first party titles hitting the 10m sales mark.

King
 
Speevy

Speevy

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Oct 26, 2017
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People were CONSTANTLY complaining about the PS2's limitations, memory cards, "jaggies", and 155 million people bought them.

The Xbox 360 was held together by bubble gum and a good percentage of them failed, yet it was really successful.

What I've discovered is that the things we point out as just dooming a product is not necessarily what does.
 
turbobrick

turbobrick

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Oct 25, 2017
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Others already said it, but Xbox One started out more expensive while being less powerful. By the time the kinect went away and the price went down, PS4 actually started getting good exclusives.

I bought my Xbox One at the end of 2014 after the price dropped without a kinect, which was still a full year before I got my PS4, and I still ended up with more PS4 games in the end.
 
Hogendaz85

Hogendaz85

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Dec 6, 2017
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See a lot of this kind of shit as if it was an underdog story...PlayStation has always won the generation save for the PS3 even then things were so close by the end it didn't matter.
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

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Oct 25, 2017
16,120
Shiba said:
They kinda noted that even in the beginning the exclusives weren't really all too great until middle of generation when we got stuff like Uncharted 4 and Horizon.

Like Infamous SS, Killzone, Order 1886, and whatever else launched in the first year or so wasn't really notable.
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How do you forget about Bloodborne which came out almost a month after 1886? 🤔

Also listing Infamous SS alongside those other two is making it seem like it's in the same pool of quality when it was critically far better rated then them.

opencritic.com

inFamous: Second Son Reviews

inFamous: Second Son is an excellent showcase of the PS4's graphical fidelity. But that's not all as critics are raving about its tight and satisfying gameplay that help compliment the gorgeous...
opencritic.com opencritic.com
 
Firmus_Anguis

Firmus_Anguis

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Oct 30, 2017
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There are several factors, obviously. MS greatly aided in their own loss. I think it comes down to these 3:

1) The competition had better hardware at a lower price. It didn't help that MS's insistance that stuff like DirectX etc. would mitigate any actual hardware advantage (which, unfortunately for them, wasn't the case).

2) Some weird as hell, actual anti-consumer policies (the term gets thrown out a lot).

3) Sony keeping their PS3 momentum going with the PS4. Sony also made it easier for devs to make games on the PS4, compared to the previous two generations (both the PS2 and especially the PS3, were notoriously horrible to code for).

Luckily, Phil took over. We'll see a much more competitive MS this time around! Although I still expect Sony to dominate, if they can keep that momentum going.
 
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Iron Eddie

Iron Eddie

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Nov 25, 2019
9,812
1. Better brand recognition, look at the PS3, it fucked up and still sold 80 million units
2. Exclusive content and third party deals. Sony has been pretty ruthless and quite smart with who they partner with.
3. $100 cheaper and more powerful than your main competitor.

Basically Nintendo was still struggling to rebound from the Wii success and Microsoft shit the bed pushing hard with Kinect and poor management.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

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Oct 25, 2017
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Cactuar said:
Not to mentioned they've sold 100 million 3 out of 4 generations. I guess competitors have been "screwing up" ever since they entered the market. Lucky Sony.
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PS3 lost maybe up to ten billion dollars. They essentially bought their credibility back with massive losses to have a base from which to launch the PS4. Not that it's as simple as that, but almost nobody else has ten billion dollars to buy their way out of a hole that big. Sega was wiped out as a company losing 1/5 of that.

Console generations are always about momentum, which is hard to lose once gained, and even harder to gain once lose. Sony was building momentum with cold hard cash after the giant disaster that was PS3 early years, and then the Nintendo and Microsoft 100% factually ceded all the momentum to Sony for 2-3 years with unforced errors. It's not all it takes to win (you also have to have at least a solid product and follow up, which is what the PS4 was, crappy laptop chip and all) but it's almost impossible to overstate how much of a screw up Wii U and Xbone were, literally nobody would have thought it could have gone that badly for Nintendo/MS.
 
Foffy

Foffy

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Oct 25, 2017
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I mean, PS4 was the only system not hobbling and limping through the whole generation. Wii U destroyed itself and Xbox One really hurt itself with the omega-level bad press that was given to itself. I'm not sure if you put Switch in that generational category as Wikipedia does.
 
Friskykillface

Friskykillface

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Nov 27, 2017
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$100 less than Xbox one was the dagger at the start

Personally I thought Xbox one had better launch games with more variety but that price difference and not shoving kinnect down our throats was enough for parents and buyers to pick PS4
 

Jiggy

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
9,364
wherever
AgeEighty said:
Did it though? It won, like, the first half of the generation.
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The Switch didn't take over in yearly sales until 2019, right near the end of the generation. The PS4 was on top for the majority of the generation, and technically it's still the worldwide sales leader.

Genio88 said:
They won for lack of competition from XB1 and WiiU, Switch arrived 4 years later
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The PS4 continued to sell incredibly well even after the Switch launched. And the PS5 is doing gangbusters even with the Switch at the height of it's success and MS not fumbling the ball anymore. A lack of competition doesn't guarantee success unless you have a strong product.

D.Lo said:
PS3 lost maybe up to ten billion dollars.
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Not even close. Sony lost around $4B that gen. You can argue the PS2 covered up some of the losses but $6B? No, the PS2 wasn't making anywhere near that cash even at the height of its dominance.
 
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Yoshimitsu126

Yoshimitsu126

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Nov 11, 2017
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The sad thing about kinect is Echo and Nest is what MS wanted their $500 console to be with games. Luckily they invested in cloud before Stadia and Amazon whatever service launched.
 
MrKlaw

MrKlaw

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Oct 25, 2017
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Lobster Roll said:
They started off the generation by absolutely embarrassing Microsoft at E3 (including the famous white PowerPoint price sheet update) and then delivered to that enormous market share a library of games that were truly outstanding. Almost every one of their internal studios and third-party partnerships hit their stride at the same time and made the PS4 a real winner between them and Xbox One. The Xbox brand basically spent the last seven years leading up to the Series X rebuilding their brand reputation, reconfiguring their market strategy, and shoring up studios through acquisitions. The PS4 was a monster.
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and some of XSX generation too it seems. Their relative lack of first party and getting xcloud out widely on more devices in time for XSX launch risks Sony smoothly transitioning that PS4 momentum to PS5 without much competition.

MS may be fine (ish) with that - gamepass is a frog boiler of an offering so doesn't necessarily need to be aligned with a console generation.
 
D.Lo

D.Lo

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Oct 25, 2017
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Jiggy said:
Not even close. Sony lost around $4B that gen. You can argue the PS2 covered up some of the losses but $6B? No, the PS2 wasn't making anywhere near that cash even at the height of its dominance.
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4.6 billion lost on the books, including the surely extremely profitable PS2 tail (~50 million consoles and 1/4 of a billion games sold after the PS3 was released!) and and the surely profitable PSP. I'd guess around 8 billion lost total, and said maybe up to ten billion.

And think for two seconds on the reason 'the PS2 wasn't making anywhere near that cash [profit] even at the height of its dominance'... despite massive revenues... must have been billions in R&D expenses on something, wonder what that could have been...

Even if it was conservatively only six billion lost, it's still easily the biggest failure in the history of gaming.
 
Heshinsi

Heshinsi

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Oct 25, 2017
16,120
D.Lo said:
4.6 billion lost on the books, including the surely extremely profitable PS2 tail (~50 million consoles and 1/4 of a billion games sold after the PS3 was released!) and and the surely profitable PSP. I'd guess around 8 billion lost total, and said maybe up to ten billion.

And think for two seconds on the reason 'the PS2 wasn't making anywhere near that cash [profit] even at the height of its dominance'... despite massive revenues... must have been billions in R&D expenses on something, wonder what that could have been...

Even if it was conservatively only six billion lost, it's still easily the biggest failure in the history of gaming.
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How is it a failure when the reason the PS3 was sold at such a loss was due in large parts to it's blu-ray drive, and that inclusion single handily won the format war? It's not like Sony wasn't aware that what they were doing was going to cost them money. Also didn't Microsoft lose $4B on the OG Xbox, and a further few billions on the RROD issue? Biggest failure in gaming history would probably be something like Atari causing the whole industry to crash.
 
gimmmick

gimmmick

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Nov 26, 2017
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The more powerful console with more ram and was 100 dollars cheaper. The generation was over after the first e3.
 
Indy_Rex

Indy_Rex

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Sep 20, 2020
759
D.Lo said:
4.6 billion lost on the books, including the surely extremely profitable PS2 tail (~50 million consoles and 1/4 of a billion games sold after the PS3 was released!) and and the surely profitable PSP. I'd guess around 8 billion lost total, and said maybe up to ten billion.

And think for two seconds on the reason 'the PS2 wasn't making anywhere near that cash [profit] even at the height of its dominance'... despite massive revenues... must have been billions in R&D expenses on something, wonder what that could have been...

Even if it was conservatively only six billion lost, it's still easily the biggest failure in the history of gaming.
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Nah, that honor goes to the OG XB and the XB division's entire business for its first 8 years of existence. Hell, arguably it could be longer than that. MS hasn't exactly been forthcoming with how well the XB Division has done in its lifetime. Sony was turning a "profit" from the PS3 by 2010, OG XB was such an unmitigated financial disaster for MS that they opted to prematurely kill it so they could push forward on a successor they could profit from.
 
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