The PlayStation One ended the Sega/Nintendo console war of the 80s and 90s and Sony has been the market leader ever since. Microsoft entered the market in 2001 with the original Xbox console, competing with the PlayStation 2, the Xbox didn’t do particularly well, selling only 24 million units worldwide as opposed to the PS2 which sold 155 million.
However, the performance was enough to encourage Microsoft to develop the Xbox 360, released in 2005 ahead of the PS3, which was only released in 2006. With an earlier release and an improved design, the Microsoft vs Sony console war had begun.
While the Xbox vs PlayStation war has been pushed mostly by fans, former Xbox executive Peter Moore revealed that in order to drive competition, Microsoft would often stoke the fire of the console war between them and Sony, and it would appear they have done so again.
Earlier this year, Microsoft began the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. Sony has been trying to fight the acquisition, worried that games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and Crash Bandicoot could become exclusive to Xbox. The European Commission has also opened an ‘in-depth investigation’ into the acquisition.
Microsoft is still confident the acquisition will go through and has recently been fighting back, mentioning that their intentions are not to make these games exclusive to Xbox and that PlayStation actually already benefits from exclusive offers from the likes of Call of Duty.
They have also reminded the European Commission that PlayStation is still the industry leader, seemingly conceding to the war. While the PS5 has slightly outsold the Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft isn’t going anywhere and with their hopes of acquiring Activision Blizzard they remain to be heavily invested in the gaming industry, so we don’t think the war is quite over. Do you?