To the casuals/general public it has more to do with hype.

What is/isn’t trending (friends, schoolmates) and naturally the price point… and what the Gamestop employee (or wherever else people are buying the consoles) is “recommending” (according to his/her tastes and knowledge).

Sony was once considered the biggest name when it came to tech, nowadays with the exception of the ps4, everything else is barely talked about.

They have sold most of their HW divisions, with the exceptions of the PlayStation, phone (negating the profit the ps4 makes), tv and camera sensor one (there’s also that nonsense with the $1k Walkman). And it has mostly to do with their past decisions (case in point being the new Walkman), so MS making smart investments means they brand will continue to exist in all areas and not just a few, let alone having to sell buildings to stay “afloat”.

It is true that MS did not really invest much into first party titles in the 360 era (compared to Sony), but they do have more first party studios than Sony. Sony did take risks before, but are now releasing “remastered” games (gow3, tlou) with minimal effort and in the case of tlou a year later just to make some more money of a
fairly new game, which probably wasn’t a cheap thing to make. There’s the joke that was their latest e3 with the Shenmue Kickstarter. And Yoshida’s comment on triple A games speaks volumes on their unwillingness on taking the (financial) risks
they did with the ps3.

In regards to the HW if you’re talking about the x1 vs ps4, yes there are differences in HW as everyone has been pointing out for the past 2 years. The interesting part tough, is how a console with: 50% more powerful gpu, 100% more ROPs, 50% CUs etc. and an API (and SDKs) that from the get go was so great that made dx11
look like a joke … well is currently not reaching any higher resolutions, better textures, lightning etc. and has actually issues when it comes to framerate. As if that wasn’t enough, the larger the NPC (AI) count the more issues (KZ shadowfall).

Sony is arrogant, they always were, MS is too of course. However, MS did not lose $100 billion in 10 years and had their credit rating downgraded to junk status.

What I’m implying Is that with Sony dominating (as some like to call it) they will do next to nothing if they really don’t have to, and well they really don’t have too, actually it’s going amazingly well for them (at least the console part of Sony is).

Most people buy 3rd party games? Well that depends on the game. If you mean COD and BF the multiplat games everyone is buying for their MP mainly, than yes. But Destiny (according to an older article) was selling more on the x1, even though the x1 is selling less, according to some the x1 selling half of what the ps4 is – and that’s not a positive thing considering that Sony heavily marketed the game and stated that they felt it was one of their 1st party titles.

Another reason for some 3rd party games selling better on the ps4 (besides the bigger install base) has to do with the perception that a game will look, play better on the ps4, which at a point was true, but as I wrote above hardly the case anymore and in some cases it’s the reverse.

The only thing MS needs to do is do what they’ve been doing, I like it that they’re pushed into a “corner” so we can get better stuff, but Sony … Sony isn’t being pushed by anyone and considering they financial issues I wonder how much could anyone actually push them.

TL;DR

Maybe the x1 will be the 2nd console people will own, maybe some won’t ever get an x1, but I’m happy with the situation. I can expect more new IPs, new service, new features etc. and the multiplats, well they are multiplats and if their heavily MP based the x1 will take precedence (IMO). In the end, the x1 is selling better than the 360, not as good as the ps4, but selling better than the 360 is not a bad thing, imho.

Another day, another hate filled comment from you. Dont you have some psn issues to damage control.

The consoles are effectively the same to any normal person. PS4 is the safer option, so it makes sense for more people to go that way. Sony has huge presence in consumer electronics worldwide — still garnering tons of brand loyalty. Microsoft has been unwilling to fund many 1st party games because of the financial risks. They keep a few and make third party deals for the rest. Sony funded or bought studios outright going into last gen and expects to turn a profit from them. Microsoft let way too many studios and IPs go.

Microsoft has to establish an stronger indentity in game software market. There really isn’t much to differentiate themselves from Sony librarywise, and they lose head to head in the hardware department. That’s what truly hurts them right now — most people buy the 3rd party games, not the 1st party exclusives. The hardware itself isn’t going to make leaps and bounds, so MS needs compelling reasons for people to choose XB1 over PS4, or in addition to PS4.

So now, 3rd party exclusives are bad, right Terminator and the rest of the Microsoft defense force?