Why I’m addicted to PlayStation and will never buy an Xbox

Main points

• PlayStation has great exclusive games like Last of Us. Xbox has lost trust by offering previously exclusive games on other platforms.
• PlayStation offers a massive catalog of classic games from PS1 to PS. Xbox can’t compete with the length and quality of existing games.
• Have confidence in PlayStation as a brand dedicated to gaming. Sony’s hardware manufacturing background provides security for the future.

I declare now: the console wars are over, at least as far as PlayStation and Xbox are concerned. Nintendo is its own beast and hasn’t gone head-to-head with PlayStation or Xbox in over a decade. Looking at the current situation, future products and plans, and their history, I can now clearly say that I have no reason to switch to the Xbox team again.

This may sound like the ramblings of a fan, but trust me, I have never, and will never, buy a console just because one company or another makes it. I started with NES, SNES, and N64, then moved on to PS2, then to 360, and finally back to PlayStation, to PS4 and PS5. Of course, during that time, personal computers have also been the norm. However, as far as dedicated consoles go, I have no interest or motivation to consider buying a current or future Xbox. There doesn’t seem to be a huge gap in the quality of experience you get on the two platforms, but after much thought, I’ve compiled this list of reasons why I will never buy an Xbox again.

1 A wider variety of exclusive games

“The Last of Us”, “God of War”…give me all PS games

Where else do I start other than the actual game? That’s why we buy these consoles, right? I don’t think it’s a controversial statement to say that PlayStation has beaten Xbox in console-exclusive games at least over the past two generations. We’re talking about the Uncharted and The Last of Us series, Spider-Man, God of War, Bloodborne, and more. If you add in third-party exclusive content, you get so much more variety on PlayStation than on Xbox that it almost becomes laughable.

The real clincher on this topic is the news that Xbox will release four previously exclusive games on rival platforms: Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of ​​Thieves, and Grounded. While there are currently only four games, this has broken the trust between Xbox and its players that you need an Xbox to play any of its exclusive games. Going forward, I always think that any Xbox exclusive game has the potential to come to PlayStation. If PlayStation is adamant about keeping its (and PC’s) exclusivity, and Xbox is not, then I’ll just give up the exclusivity in favor of Xbox when PlayStation gets everything.

2 Classic PS catalog

I can revisit my old favorites

To be honest, until recently, PlayStation was far behind in this regard. Perhaps because Xbox has done so much to give players access to older games in a convenient way, PlayStation realizes it needs to respond. I’ll be the first to admit that the launch and pricing of the Classic range isn’t ideal. However, the Xbox can’t compete with the length or quality of PlayStation’s traditional games.

Even if you don’t care about games from the PS1, PSP, and PS2 era, I think anyone can still at least appreciate the large backlog of PS4 games included in the Extra tier. For someone like me who likes to play some nostalgic games every now and then, having a growing list of PS1 games that I can download and play for an hour at a time without having to dig out my old hardware is perfect.

3 My PlayStation Library

Digital collections that can be passed down from generation to generation

Without even trying, I’ve accumulated hundreds (if not over a thousand) of games on my PSN account. I don’t buy a lot of games either, but PlayStation gives away three (sometimes four) games for free every month to anyone with at least the lowest level subscription. Since joining in 2013, I’ve added every game on offer even though I had no interest in playing it at the time, resulting in me essentially being limited to playing the games in my library for the rest of my life.

Xbox head Phil Spencer was right when he said Xbox lost an important generation with the Xbox One. This was a turning point in gaming, with people moving away from building physical game libraries to digital ones. Besides convenience, the greatest advantage of our digital collections is that they will follow us generation after generation. The simple fact that I might lose access to thousands of games by switching to Xbox is enough to put me off.

4 New and interesting hardware

PlayStation has been trying

For better or worse, PlayStation is constantly trying new things with hardware. The PSP and Vita were amazing handheld devices for their time, and the new PSVR2 headset is an amazing piece of technology that just needs some software support. There is also a PlayStation Portal for remote gaming, cameras, headsets, and more. No one company can truly become a new pillar of the industry, but PlayStation is at least trying to expand into these new areas. That’s all I can say about the Xbox, which increasingly looks like it wants to get rid of the hardware entirely.

I also have to personally praise the DualSense controller. Personally, I find it’s the perfect balance between adding a gimmick to the console (like motion controls on the Wii) but not making it so much that every game needs to work around it. When developers see it as a way to enhance gaming, everything from touchpads and motion sensors to tactile feedback and adaptive triggers are available with negligible downsides. Now, it would be nice if we could get better battery life.

5 confidence in brand

PlayStation is dedicated to gaming

The average gamer won’t delve into the intricacies of the gaming industry like I do, but one of the benefits is that I have every confidence that PlayStation isn’t going away. Xbox, well, I’m not so sure. The latter appear to be increasingly turning to services rather than hardware providers.

What makes me feel more secure about PlayStation than Xbox is their parent company. PlayStation is owned by Sony and Xbox is owned by Microsoft, and there are some key differences between the two. For one, Sony has always made hardware, from televisions to CD players; its business is as much about making physical products as it is about software. Microsoft, on the other hand, basically just sells the Xbox on the hardware side. Everything else it does and most of its revenue is through software. While Xbox is profitable, it’s not what Microsoft as a whole needs and can be easily disbanded without concern. PlayStation, on the other hand, is the most profitable division within Sony. Sony will do whatever it takes to support PlayStation because it can’t survive without it.