Let’s Rank the Big Three By How Great They Are to Gamers in 2018

3. Sony

In terms of software Sony probably has the strongest year of anyone, continuously providing unique and highly-rated experiences like Shadow of the Colossus, MLB The Show 18, God of War, and Moss, not to mention all of the third party support like Ni No Kuni II and Yakuza 6. In this way Sony is the strongest of the big three, as they’re still providing an engaging lineup of exclusives for fans to dig into, and have even stepped up their game with free PS Plus titles, providing games like Beyond Two Souls, Mad Max, Bloodborne, and Ratchet & Clank. Good games go a long way, and Sony has even reintroduced the idea of PlayStation Hits, letting players pick up some of the best PS4 games for the low price of $19.99.

Despite their strong software showing, however, there’s one major news story that has sadly dominated the headlines this year so far for Sony, crossplay . Fortnite recently made its way to the Nintendo Switch, and like every other version of the game except the PS4’s, it supports crossplay. Unfortunately, this also means that if your Epic account is linked to your PS4 version of Fortnite, you won’t be able to use that account on Nintendo Switch, or Xbox One. This means that any players that started playing Fortnite on PS4, and have all their in-game purchases there, are just out of luck if they want to use them on other systems. As you might expect, the issue blew up in Sony’s face, and their Twitter among other things was filled with backlash on the issue during E3 week, when the focus really should have been on their new games. The company’s shares even dropped in the days following the news.

This story with Fortnire highlights an ever-widening issue that Sony has on crossplay, and their stance on not allowing it makes them the odd one out. Of course, Sony has a significant lead this console generation and allowing crossplay could undermine the massive PlayStation ecosystem they’ve built a bit, in their eyes. Still, after blocking crossplay for Rocket League, Minecraft, and now Fortnite, it’s understandable why some players would be upset. Crossplay makes the gaming community stronger as a whole, and it can never hurt to have a wider player base to draw from. Sony clearly has a competitive advantage this generation, and their unwillingness to support interactions across consoles isn’t helping gamers any.

In addition, another E3 came and went without any kind of name change feature being announced, something highly requested by PS4 owners. This is despite rumors popping up earlier this year about the feature, although hopefully, we’ll still see it by the end of 2018. While Sony certainly hasn’t had a horrible year, the Fortnite debacle adds even more frustration onto what players already felt about the topic.

2. Nintendo

Nintendo is riding high right now from their incredible first year with the Nintendo Switch, and that momentum has only continued to grow. In terms of ranking the big three, Nintendo takes the middle ground, as they haven’t done anything exceptionally great for their players, but they also haven’t done anything horribly wrong either.

Much like Sony, Nintendo has had a pretty great year in providing a diverse lineup of software, with titles that include Kirby: Star Allies, Bayonetta 2, Mario Tennis Aces, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion. On top of this, they’ve continued to support games from last year, in particular, Splatoon 2. The family-friendly shooter has received a wealth of new weapons and maps, interestingly themed Splatfests, and the aforementioned expansion which adds some great variation onto the single-player.

Nintendo has also continued to diligently patch Arms, added new content onto Super Mario Odyssey, and is bringing free new characters to Kirby: Star Allies and Mario Tennis Aces. All of this highlights a focus from Nintendo to keep bringing players back to their Switch games, and it certainly creates a good lasting appeal to Nintendo titles.

Adding onto this is the announcement of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, which is clearly an effort to keep everyone on the same page. Every single character in Smash Bros. is coming back for Ultimate, and Nintendo obviously knows that this appeals to almost every fan of the series, as everyone will have their favorite character included.

Fans will also get another chance to get their hands on an NES and SNES Classic, with Nintendo coming through on their promise to bring more systems. They’ve also joined in on the crossplay fun with both Fortnite and Minecraft, even releasing a cute trailer showing a Switch and Xbox One owner playing together. It hasn’t been all great, however, as Nintendo has had a few minor disappointments.

The company confirmed Virtual Console isn’t coming to Switch, basically dashing hopes that we might see GameCube games hit the system, at least for now. Nintendo revealed their online service for Switch, which feels disappointingly bland despite its low price point. A cheaper, dockless version of the Switch was also announced in Japan, but sadly there are no plans to bring the system to the west right now.

1. Microsoft

Microsoft may not have had as impressive of a year for software as Sony or Nintendo, but they’ve continued making a name for themselves as the most approahcable of the big three. The year started out strong for Microsoft, as they announced all of the big AAA games from them will make their way to Game Pass on launch day. This is a huge deal, as Sea of Thieves arrived first on the program, and the next Halo, Gears 5, and Forza games will all be available on it from day one. This change is incredibly practical and offers the chance for a massive amount of Xbox One owners to try out and get into all of the system’s big games. To add onto this, Microsoft has been expanding Game Pass to include even more titles from the Xbox One and Xbox 360, and they’ve continued to greatly expand their catalog of backward compatible titles.

Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2 were both met with mixed critical reception, but have done fairly well with fans, with the latter even being the best-selling game of May 2018. Microsoft, like Sony, has also stepped up their game with Games With Gold, offering big titles like Superhot, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and Metal Gear Solid V on the service.

Even with all of this though, the best thing Microsoft has done this year is the Adaptive Controller. This incredibly cool piece of tech is built specifically for gamers with disabilities and contains a host of features to make the Xbox more accessible. The pad itself can be hooked up to various external switches and mounts, and the different pieces of the controller aim to let anyone play without running into the normal physical limitations of a gamepad. The inclusiveness of the device is a huge step forward for gaming in general, and Microsoft wants to make the Xbox even more accessible by introducing the Idea Drive, a program based around user suggestions to make the console easier to access.

Microsoft certainly has a problem with not having enough exclusive titles on their system, and a lack of variation in those titles, and this was only highlighted by their recent E3 conference. However, no matter how you feel about that problem, you can’t overlook the strides the company has taken this year in terms of accessibility and ease of use. They’re making a name for themselves as the most user-friendly console, and they’re doing a bang up job of it.