{"id":17267,"date":"2020-06-12T18:24:57","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T18:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/?p=17267"},"modified":"2020-06-12T18:24:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T18:24:57","slug":"sony-playstation-5-has-solid-games-and-design-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/sony-playstation-5-has-solid-games-and-design-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony PlayStation 5 Has Solid Games and Design Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surprise, Sony not only revealed games, but they gave the world a glimpse of the PlayStation 5 design.\u00a0 With the PlayStation 5 having a large existing advantage over the Microsoft Xbox Series X, does this reveal change the analysis?<\/p>\n

This time of year, the video game industry was supposed to be gathering at the E3 show in Los Angeles.\u00a0 This was the place to reveal new consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.\u00a0 Of course, COVID-19 killed this year\u2019s show.\u00a0 However, even before the cancelation, Sony had pulled out of the event.\u00a0 It was already looking like the big reveals of 2020 would trickle down over several months.<\/p>\n

Sony had originally planned to showcase PlayStation 5 games on June 4th<\/sup>.\u00a0 However, this reveal was delayed by a week because of the protests around George Floyd.\u00a0 The hour-long prerecorded online video event was all about games until the last 5 minutes when the hardware design was revealed.<\/p>\n

The PlayStation 5 design is certainly striking.\u00a0 Most of the rumor and leaked designs were way off.\u00a0 The big question our audience had was can the system also be rested horizontally or will it have to be vertical?\u00a0 From a design standpoint both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X look they were focused on adequate cooling.\u00a0 This is a major challenge for powerful game hardware and limits design.<\/p>\n

There was also reveal of a digital-only PS5 version.\u00a0 Obviously, this is an appeal to the low-budget consumer.\u00a0 The consumers we speak with are generally not fans of digital-only consoles.\u00a0 The big concern is \u201cI hope my parents don\u2019t force me to get that one.\u201d\u00a0 It will be interesting to see if manufacturing challenges limit the number of disc-based PS5 systems Sony can deliver this holiday.<\/p>\n

The latest DFC Intelligence forecasts have the PlayStation 5 outselling the Xbox Series X by a significant margin<\/a>.\u00a0 Sony has big advantages that include better marketing and distribution, a larger built-in audience, and of course exclusive games.<\/p>\n

However, the one area where Microsoft is catching up is on the exclusive game front.\u00a0 So, the PlayStation 5 game reveal was important because it gives consumers something to get excited about.<\/p>\n

One measure of how excited an audience is about a new system is how many non-industry consumers contact us about product reveal events.\u00a0 Starting on May 7th<\/sup>, Microsoft will be hosting monthly reveal events.\u00a0 However, the interest we have seen in the Xbox events paled compared with the June 11th<\/sup> Sony event (which may be a reason Microsoft is skipping a June event).<\/p>\n

For the Sony PS5 games, we were mainly looking at Sony checking the boxes on its key franchises.\u00a0 Sony did a pretty good job in this area.\u00a0 A new Spider-Man (Marvel\u2019s Spider-Man Miles Morales) is looking like the key launch title.\u00a0 There is also a new Gran Turismo (7), a new Ratchet & Clank (Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart) and a new Little Big Planet (Sackboy A Big Adventure).<\/p>\n

Most exciting was a new Horizon game (Horizon Forbidden West).\u00a0 However, like many of the products shown, no release date was announced.<\/p>\n

Sony did show off one new franchise, Returnal, from Finland based developer Housemarque.\u00a0 This is sci-fi game that will have time rewind component, like the movie Groundhog Day or the Netflix show Russian Doll (where the character keeps dying).<\/p>\n

There was also a third-party exclusive from Square Enix, code named Project Athia.\u00a0 This game is from the developers of Final Fantasy XV.<\/p>\n

Overall, the PlayStation 5 lineup looks solid but nothing earth shattering.\u00a0 There was no God of War and surprisingly nothing on The Last of Us Part II which releases next week for PlayStation 4.\u00a0 However, Sony may be holding off on announcing a PS5 Last of Us upgrade until after sales for the PS4 version slow down.<\/p>\n

The big question is can Microsoft do anything to stop Sony\u2019s advantage?\u00a0 The answer is there are actually some ways the Xbox Series X could grab more consumer interest.<\/p>\n

Assuming demand for initial shipments of PlayStation 5 outstrip supply, Microsoft will have several months for consumers to make a hands-on direct comparison.\u00a0 One big advantage the Xbox has is Microsoft\u2019s subscription services.<\/p>\n

PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold both allow for online game play and a couple free games each month.\u00a0\u00a0 The difference is in the premium subscriptions.\u00a0 While Sony has PlayStation Now, Microsoft has Xbox Game Pass.<\/p>\n

Xbox Game Pass is one of the best subscription services around.\u00a0 Instead of being a shoddy streaming service, ala PlayStation Now or Google Stadia, Game Pass lets you download full games for both console and PC.<\/p>\n

The biggest difference with Game Pass is that Microsoft has spent big money on getting AAA games on the service.\u00a0 This includes not only first-party Microsoft titles but key third-party games such as Red Dead Redemption 2.\u00a0 Recently the service added No Man\u2019s Sky, a game that was originally exclusive to PlayStation 4.<\/p>\n

The challenge Microsoft faces is that most consumers are not even aware of Game Pass.\u00a0 Nevertheless, Game Pass has over 10 million subscribers versus only 2.2 million for PlayStation Now.\u00a0 Our testers love Game Pass, but we have a hard time finding people to try PlayStation Now.<\/p>\n

In short, the Microsoft strategy of buying market share could come into play with the Xbox Series X.\u00a0 Given that the console is looking like a solid system this strategy has promise.\u00a0 Microsoft\u2019s market cap is almost 20 times Sony and they are definitely investing in the Xbox Series X.\u00a0 Microsoft is building a library of exclusives that could eventually be a game changer.<\/p>\n

Right now, DFC Intelligence forecasts are predicting a continued sales advantage for Sony<\/a>.\u00a0 However, these forecasts are being updated every few months.\u00a0 Sony has done its job and the ball is now in Microsoft\u2019s court.\u00a0 The next \u201cmonthly\u201d Xbox reveal will actually be in July (June was skipped) and our forecast will only change if Microsoft truly has something exciting to show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surprise, Sony not only revealed games, but they gave the world a glimpse of the PlayStation 5 design.\u00a0 With the PlayStation 5 having a large existing advantage over the Microsoft Xbox Series X, does this reveal change the analysis? This time of year, the video game industry was supposed to be gathering at the E3 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":17268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[49,147,74],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17269,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17267\/revisions\/17269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dfcint.com\/dossier\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}