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How Xbox Lost the Console War

 The console wars has been going on ever since different companies tried to introduce their new video game system to play the latest and greatest games on the best hardware on the market. Most of you who might read this will know a lot about, some of you even participated in it by taking allegiances to either Sega, Sony or Nintendo or Sega Genesis over Super Nintendo and the Playstation. 

Sure, you could make the argument that there have been clear winners from console generation to console generation but despite whoever the winner of the generation is the "war" never ends.

Now for the purpose of this particular article I will be using my own rules as to what determines who wins the console generation. First, your gaming experience must be something that no one else can top, the games are legendary and even today if you were to mention these titles, everyone in the room begins to think fond memories of said games and reminisces about them. Second, hardware that makes the gaming experience better. If your hardware allows you to create experiences you could not find in another console then you have a massive advantage over the competition. Your console Hardware simply cannot be the technical best i.e. but no games actually benefit from the hardware in the console. 

For instance, while the Nintendo Gamecube has a ton of classics and well beloved titles, the hardware was limiting to the kind of games you could find on the system and therefore I would say the Gamecube didn't really win that console war of that generation. Now if were to look at the original Xbox I would say that system won simply due to the existence of Halo. The hardware allowed for the creation of Halo and Halo was not some one hit wonder it became a gaming cultural phenomenon and even today is still talked about and played with great reverence. 

Now let's look at the generation which cost Xbox the war, the Xbox One and Playstation 4 generation. When the Playstation 4 and Xbox One were being announced, gamers were eagerly looking forward to how the systems were going to mark the beginning of a next generation of gaming experiences. Enhanced visuals, bigger worlds, immersive experiences and games you could not find anywhere else. Microsoft announces the Xbox One and instead of highlighting how the Xbox offered a better gaming experience than Nintendo or Playstation, Xbox instead highlighted all the "Entertainment" features that was going to make the Xbox One the main place to go for all your entertainment needs. You could play a game while also watching a movie with a sort of split-screen feature that the Xbox One was capable of. It had a port in the back of the console to feed in a cable that would allow you to watch TV through your Xbox. It also had a blu-ray player which was something that the Playstation 3 had last generation. Needless to say, the exclusives were lacking for the Xbox One. Halo, the flagship title that put Xbox on the map, was nowhere at the announcement for the new Xbox system. In fact, Halo 5: Guardians was announced the year AFTER the Xbox One was announced AND was released a year afterwords. There were some games shown, but they were not the star of the show.

Contrast that with the Playstation 4 announcement. The announcement detailed the hardware of the Playstation 4 which informed the audience how it would allow them to make more visually striking games and sell the idea that the Playstation 4 had better hardware than the Xbox One. They also had games to show off. These were not just any games, two of the games shown were familiar Playstation exclusive titles like Killzone and InFamous, specifically InFamous Second Son and Killzone Shadowfall. The other games were also Playstation exclusives like Knack and Driveclub and near the end they showed off some of the much anticipated title of Destiny from Bungie. It was all about the games with the Playstation showcase. 

To summarize: The Xbox One was marketed not to gamers as the primary audience but it was marketed as a mainstream entertainment device that everyone could enjoy. The Playstation 4 was marketed as the go to system for gamers who want to play the best games on the best platform. There is an infamous quote in the marketing world from entrepreneur Justin Goff in which he says "If you try to appeal to everyone, you appeal to no one". Which is exactly what happened in the case of the Xbox One. 

 

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