Throughout the 21st century, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have duked it out for power in the console market. With its remarkable titles such as Mario, Zelda, Pokemon, and Super Smash Bros., Nintendo has always had an advantage against the competition. However, in 2012, with the launch of the Wii U, everything seemed to change. Compared to the Ps4 and Xbox One, which Sony and Microsoft had respectively launched as the consoles of their generation, the Wii U was much weaker and couldn’t run games with the same quality. The console was a disaster, selling only 13.56 million units, a number that pales in comparison with Xbox One’s and Ps4’s respective 58 million and 117 million units sold.
Nevertheless, Nintendo has always had their fan-favourite titles exclusive to its consoles, leading the company’s climb back to glory together with the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017. The console’s innovation by being able to be a portable and home console led it to become a success to say the least. Selling over 146 million Switch units, Nintendo overcame its failures and remained a powerful force in the market.
With Nintendo having its portable consoles, Microsoft and Sony have always had their separate competition, with both of them selling the same type of product: home consoles. Until the PlayStation 3, Sony was consistently dominant, with the PlayStation 2 becoming the best-selling console of all time, with over 160 million units sold. However, the Ps3 struggled, largely due to its higher price compared to the Xbox 360, which Sony initially underestimated as a competitor. Both consoles ultimately sold similar numbers, but this balance did not carry over to the next generation.
The Ps4 greatly outsold the Xbox One due to a number of factors, including its cheaper price at launch, but most importantly in the long run, the exclusive games. With titles like Spider Man, God of War, Horizon, and Last of Us, Xbox’s exclusives—including the Halo, Forza, and Fable series—failed to generate the same level of excitement.
In the next generation, Xbox tried to innovate, launching two consoles: the Series S, as a cheaper and weaker alternative, and the Series X, designed to compete directly with Sony’s new PlayStation 5. However, this decision is proving to be a failure due to Microsoft's policy requiring that games released on the Series X must also be compatible with the weaker Series S. This limitation has led to certain titles, such as Black Myth: Wukong, becoming PlayStation exclusives (without Sony having to pay any money) simply because they cannot run on the Series S. Unlike Sony, which has invested heavily in exclusive deals, Microsoft has unintentionally handicapped its own platform.
Struggling to compete against Sony, Microsoft instead turned to acquisitions in an attempt to strengthen its position. In 2022, after a prolonged legal battle that concluded in 2023, Microsoft finalized its purchase of Activision Blizzard, the company known for the Call of Duty franchise, for over $70 billion. This acquisition made many gamers fear that the CoD games would become Xbox exclusive, but Microsoft ultimately deemed it unprofitable to restrict the franchise to a single platform, choosing instead to maintain its presence on PlayStation.
At the moment, Xbox’s new generation is losing the war. Microsoft has not only been unable to make popular exclusives, but it has also made a weaker console that makes it difficult for developers to put their games on their platform. In addition, in 2025 it has been announced that the popular Halo and Forza Xbox exclusive titles are going to be available on PlayStation, leading gamers to ask the imposing questions: has Microsoft given up? Is the console war over?
While Microsoft still has strengths—such as Game Pass, a subscription service offering a vast game library—the lack of strong exclusives and hardware limitations have put Xbox in a difficult position. If Microsoft continues this trajectory, the future of its console division may lie more in services and cloud gaming rather than direct competition with Sony’s PlayStation.
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