Microsoft Is Leaving PlayStation And Nintendo Behind Even Without ‘Starfield’

Games Microsoft Is Leaving PlayStation And Nintendo Behind Even Without ‘Starfield’ Erik Kain Senior Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about video games, entertainment and culture. New! Follow this author to improve your content experience.

Got it! Jun 20, 2022, 07:00am EDT | Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Xbox is transforming into something totally new. Getty Images I’ve written in the past that Xbox Game Pass is Microsoft’s ace-in-the-hole. Combined with Xbox Cloud Gaming, Microsoft has a superweapon that neither Sony nor Nintendo can match.

When Bethesda announced that its massive AAA space-RPG Starfield was being delayed until 2023, many people critical of my argument took it as a sign that I was wrong. Many random people on Twitter sent me screenshots of my previous opinion pieces with something along the likes of ‘This you bro?’ suggesting that because of the delay of a single title, the entire argument (which they surely didn’t read) was negated. This is silly.

Xbox Game Pass is a good value because of the sum of its parts, not because of any single game lineup in a given year. Of course it’s a shame when a game is delayed—or when a game is released mired in controversy, such as Halo: Infinite, which appears to have launched as a deeply unfinished product. But the true strength of Game Pass lies beyond these big AAA games.

I was considering buying a copy of the new TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge on my PS5 but hopped over to my Xbox Series X instead and lo and behold, there it was on Game Pass. I could even play it without downloading it via the cloud if I wanted to (or didn’t have enough disc space on my console). Granted, Sony has released a very impressive new PlayStation Plus service, but its three tiers are a little confusing and it still doesn’t come with day-one first party games (for the most part) or PC cross-buy.

Xbox has also revealed that Samsung smart TVs will now support Xbox Game Pass and Cloud Gaming without even owning an Xbox. You can simply play with your Xbox controller on your TV for a monthly fee rather than spending several hundred dollars on a new system. Of course, this limits what you can play to Game Pass titles which does you no good if you want to play Call Of Duty or any number of non-Game Pass games, but it’s still a terrific entry level offering that makes gaming more accessible to more people than ever before.

MORE FOR YOU ‘Demon Slayer’ Season 2 Finally Has An Actual 2021 Release Date Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ Season 2 Not A Sure Thing, Says Director ‘Genshin Impact’ Still Refuses To Increase Anniversary Rewards, Despite Fan Outcry So yes, it’s a shame that Starfield has been delayed. I guess Bethesda should have focused on quality over quantity (nobody needs 1,000 planets to explore, just give us one system with six or seven and a few moons) but the strengths of the Xbox platform extend far beyond the latest AAA release. Sony and Nintendo have their strengths as well.

Sony’s exclusive content is unparalleled, though Microsoft is theoretically closing that gap with all these big studio acquisitions (we shall see). Nintendo, of course, has its gimmicks and gadgets and is on another playing field altogether. The company dominates the Japanese market and that isn’t ever going to change unless Sony can come up with a really compelling handheld device.

For now, Microsoft is leaving the console business behind, entering into competition on multiple fronts. The company still makes physical console units, but they’ve also managed to leap out ahead of streaming competitors like Amazon and its Luna system and Google’s Stadia, anticipating a shift in the future toward a market in which the physical box—like the physical disc before it—becomes far less central to the gaming experience. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing remains to be seen.

Frankly, I’m deeply skeptical of a streaming, subscription-based future. I’m not sure it will be good for developers in the same way I’m not sure the move away from CDs to services like Spotify was good for musicians. Time will tell.

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