Game Releases
On the third-party front, both the PS4 and The Xbox One have been receiving all of the major titles, for the most part. They’ve been using publishers like EA, Ubisoft, 2K, Activision, and others to bolster their own lineups. Third party releases can only get you so far though. They’ll attract those who only want to go where their friends are, but it doesn’t help pull in a more indecisive audience. For that, you need exclusives.
So far on the Xbox One, the only major exclusive has been Quantum Break, with a few indies to help carry the platform alongside it. In place of exclusives, strong third-party marketing deals have kept the console in advertisements, such as those with Mirror’s Edge Catalyst. Sony on the other hand has been cranking out exclusives, both first and third party. In fact, as of the end of June the PS4’s exclusives will outnumber those on the Xbox One more than 7:1 for the first half of 2016. That’s a huge gap, and while some will say quantity doesn’t mean anything, a lot of those games are sitting above a 75 on Metacritic and sporting a healthy variety.
It’s a much different situation than it was back in 2015, when the PS4 barely had any major names of its own, and one of its largest games, The Order: 1886, didn’t fare very well in the public eye. It’s almost as if both companies switched places for Jan. – Jun. 2016. It’s a bit surprising considering Microsoft showed of its best lineups ever at E3 2015. While it was impressive indeed, we’d love to see those games release. As for now, the PS4 has more on the table.
