A Gamers Thoughts: Is PlayStation Going Third Party? It Acually Doesn't Matter (Editorial)

Written By: SamDelong-One of the most significant lies we were sold is that console wars matter. It’s fine to throw on an Xbox hat for a PlayStation T-shirt, but your obsession with who has what is holding you back from enjoying your games. All it does is create tribalism for a brand, and it’s just a tool developed by Publishers to take your money. And to convince you that one is better than the other.

Competition is Great, but it’s not an excuse for you to be an asshole.

There was a time when we all clamored for all games to be available everywhere, at least I did. But if you want to know where the console wars started, you need to go back to the early days of the Sega vs. Nintendo rivalry. Competition feeds marketing — and it’s fun to pick a team. However, our fun marketing bits have now given way to something else. It’s sprouted up rage channels, blind loyalty, and an us vs. them mentality that is just as stupid in gaming as it is in politics.

Victory for one now means a failure for another. And it's created a world where journalists who cover XBOX aren’t allowed to play (or even enjoy) PlayStation games without being branded a traitor. It’s a back-and-forth that is so pointless because it will never end. YouTube is full of pro platform channels, and it’s going beyond preference to straight-up tribalism. They are not just championing their brand of choice; they are celebrating failure. You can see people banging the drum, pointing out that spreadsheet of exclusives—— and then fall apart when a former exclusive goes to another platform. I don’t know about you, but obsessing over sales numbers, Steam Charts, and Metacritic scores isn’t why I play video games.

Now I am not saying exclusives are bad. They sell consoles. They do. And there is something special about it. It makes you feel like you are part of something — you are vindicated with your choice. However, if you are playing an exclusive and feel superior to the platform or game, seek professional help, especially because those days are over, whether you like it or not.

The Console Wars Are Over, You Didn’t Just Want to Admit It.

Long before XBOX started porting their games over to PlayStation, there had been a slow drip of exclusives that slowly started making their way over to other platforms. Cuphead, a former XBOX exclusive, found its way onto Nintendo Switch and PlayStation. Fast forward many years, and PlayStation started porting its games over to PC. More and more, the shine of only playing games on a console has been slowly disappearing. And whether or not you want to admit it, that’s a good thing. And the first platform to figure it out was XBOX. They leaned into its subscription model of Game Pass. And for a time, it seemed like they were focused on subscriptions. But the truth is — they figured out the only sustainable way for games to thrive is for them to be everywhere. Playable on every ecosystem. 

A recent PlayStation job listing seemed to indicate PlayStation plans to bring more of its tentpole “PlayStation Studios” titles to other platforms. And on the one hand, you could argue that this means that Spider-Man and God of War could come to XBOX, right? While nothing is outside of the realm of possibility, I don’t think that the future is coming any time soon. The listing seems to indicate that the box doesn’t matter anymore. And it all started when PlayStation started porting many of its mainline titles to PC. 

Nearly every former PS5 title is now on PC. XBOX has followed suit. Gears of War and Hellblade 2 are coming to PS5 in a matter of weeks. The Report around this listing seemed to indicate that most people don't own multiple consoles. And those that have a PC only really have one console alongside it. I think this also disproves the "jumping ship" narrative that console warriors here on the internet would have you believe. No one is going to suddenly stop playing games on XBOX  to get a PlayStation. But the reverse is also true. Most are going to keep playing where their library is, regardless of what logo is on the box,

The Nintendo Switch 2 proved two things. One, Nintendo can still release a best-selling console with only one exclusive, and gamers will still buy it. And two, exclusives still drive sales. The difference is that XBOX and PlayStation will eventually release many of their games, even first-party ones, everywhere. Chances are, you are looking forward to Ghost of Yotei — but if you wait a year or even less, chances are you can play it on PC. It’s not a question of whether or not PlayStation or XBOX has had third-party — it’s the reality that even if they have, it doesn’t matter.