Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox Aren’t Fighting A Console War At All

Editor’s Note: This article has been edited and revised in response to reader feedback. Credit and citation in the form of additional links have been incorporated where necessary.

I’ve always found the rhetoric surrounding the notion of a ‘console war’ exhausting. Sure it can be all fun and memes, but the ways in which consumers can self-identify as brand loyalists are things I don’t relate to. The debates reach their fever pitch during the transitional years, but it’s always felt silly to position the likes of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo as interchangeable rivals.

But now, more than ever, the ‘console war’ is an irrelevant concept. The different platform holders we oft view as competitors are no longer competing for ranked medals but rather, seek to obtain different trophies for themselves.

By the most traditional metric, Sony holds the most powerful position. They want to dangle the promise of huge AAA games – most critically first-party exclusives – in front of them to get them to adopt the PS5 as quickly as possible. As PlayStation boss Jim Ryan puts it, “One of our tasks is to take that PS4 community and transition it to PS5 at a scale and pace that we've never delivered before."

It’s the same strategy they’ve always had, and not meant to be undone by multi-platform subscription services. Yet such services form the cornerstone of Microsoft’s strategy. Rather than trying to get the Xbox Series X to outsell Sony’s device, Microsoft wants to make as much content as possible available on PC, streamed to phones, tablets and smart TVs via xCloud and, for a short while, playable on the older Xbox One.

Microsoft’s focus isn’t to outsell Sony in consoles, but on growing the value of the Game Pass and making games like Destiny 2 playable anywhere.

As Xbox boss Phil Spencer put it last week, forcing someone to “buy my specific device on the day I want them to go buy it,” is “counter to what gaming is all about.” By refusing to fly the flag of Series X exclusivity, Phil and friends are taking away one of the big motivators behind a new console purchase. The focus instead is on growing the value of the Game Pass to guarantee the increase in subscribers.

For Sony, putting exclusive games into a multi-platform subscription service on the day they're released is not compatible with selling PS5s and for Microsoft, making new hardware purchases mandatory will hurt its relationship with Game Pass subscribers. Microsoft and Sony might be ‘competing’ but their models differ. One is selling a service, while the other is selling a device.

The ways in which their business vectors differ puts videogaming in a place similar to film, where VOD services like Netflix and cinema houses offer different value propositions. It’s also why Phil Spencer named Google as Xbox’s biggest competitor – because the tech giant offers the most similar service to Game Pass in the form of Stadia.

Nintendo’s greatest success isn’t the widespread adoption of the Switch, but the growth of brands like Zelda and Mario.

As for Nintendo, well people occasionally ask me is what Nintendo’s answer is to Microsoft and Sony’s strategies. Well, nothing! Nintendo has historically refrained from competing directly with its fellow platform holders. Selling their consoles still matters but growing their core intellectual properties and ensuring they remain untarnished is the company’s core strength.

Their greatest ongoing success isn’t the widespread adoption of the Switch, but the growth of brands like Animal Crossing, Splatoon and continued success for Zelda and Mario. As Mario turns 35, we can expect some kind of celebration of a character soon to feature in animated films and theme parks. Also, by targeting family gamers, lapsed players and sociable gamers, Nintendo has been able to corner an audience for themselves.

Their greatest current success isn’t just the widespread adoption of the Switch, but the growth of brands like Animal Crossing, Splatoon and continued success for Zelda and Mario. And by targeting family gamers, lapsed players and sociable gamers, Nintendo has been able to corner an audience for themselves.

Effectively speaking, what success means to Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo differs vastly. Sony is very likely to have the best-selling new console, while Nintendo will inevitably sell dozens of millions of units of new Mario, Zelda or any other of their evergreen IPs whenever it sees fit to release them. And the Game Pass will most likely become the most powerful subscription pass in gaming.

The end result is a ‘console war’ where the major players are staking their claim over different things, and ceding specific territory to the other. It’s the kind of ‘war’ where everyone wins.

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