I'm posting info I found interesting while making my link list last month. This article corresponds to Sony and Microsoft talking about going third party, and the GDC article I will be writing later this.
Phil Spencer says he wants Epic marketplace on the XBox.
XBox Exclusives and ports
Phil Spencer speculates about exclusives actually being needed anymore. He even wants Epic on Xbox
Some publishers and designers don't feel like making games for XBOX anymore. It's an attempt to create controversy.
Phil Spencer isn't looking that good in general though
Phil Spencer may be the one that destroys Xbox.
But it's not like the guy he replaced has any better opinions.
Peter Moore doesn't think consoles should be a thing anymore. He should know, he killed the Dreamcast and led XBox. At the moment he leads Unity. The guy who looks like Satan should totally be believed.
It's not like Sony is doing any better.
Sony does not rise to the victory expected
You can own a bobblehead of Jim Ryan, the boss at PlayStation
PS5 was the top seller in February, but that's after console sale shrinkage. Helldiver's 2 is the best selling game.
Meanwhile Nintendo is getting more games for the Switch. Even old Rare games are showing up on the console. In a Nintendo Direct they announced even more
_ND: Rare
Rare Software games are being released for the SNES, Nintendo, and N64 apps on Switch. I hope Donkey Kong 64, Goldeneye, and Perfect Dark get released soon. There were already a few games, but Microsoft is just giving up now.
There are 6 games made by Rare that aren't released for the Switch N64 app.
Another list of rare games released
In fact, the biggest complaint is that the Switch needs even more games.
33 games not on Switch
It does look like the console wars are going cold.
I always thought console "wars" were for stupid 12 year olds arguing about teraflops and triangles.
It could be forseen with consoles basically becoming PCs. Terms people still use like "PC port." It's not really much of a port, they are the same architecture. I imagine most devs do a ton of the work on PC first, not like the old days where you would serial port to a dev kit. Even Sony sees there's money in opening up their games to more of a market with the work involved being minimal to do so.
I don't see consoles going entirely away, tons of people don't care about anything hardware and just want something to play their two or three really mainstream games on. Sony will keep making them. Nintendo will keep making them, if you call the Switch a console. It's more of a dockable successor to the 3DS.
A lot of my complaints about PC were addressed so I went back, with the added benefit of being able to run old games and emulators the easiest of any platform too. Now lets get rid of Windows.
The console wars weren't entirely bad. Competition is good for any marketplace, and it was up to 1st and 2nd party developers to sell a generation. With direct assistance, their platform knowledge was usually excellent, and a lot of the technical innovation seen was as a result of them showcasing hardware.
Now that the quality of a game is measured in tranny flags and ESG ratings, this just isn't the case anymore. It'll be interesting to see how Stellar Blade goes. If it is successful, and Sony commits to using their 1st party studios to make games that people actually want to play, they might again be of some use. Microsoft will have to follow or fold.