As supply chain issues subside, the cold console war heats up | Opinion

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The first couple of years of the current console generation have been very unusual, to say the least.

Ordinarily, the near-simultaneous launch of two systems like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X would be the starting gun for an intense period of competition between the platforms – a contest which was expected to be all the more hard-fought this time around due to the very different visions for the industry's future which Sony and Microsoft were proposing.

Instead, we've had a kind of uneasy faux-competition, with neither side actually able to really engage to the extent they might have liked. Supply shortages have always been part and parcel of the launch of major new consoles, but with PS5 and XSX, those shortages went on, and on, and on, through one Christmas and then the next, without there ever being a point where most consumers could simply buy a new console as easily as any other consumer product.

These shortages had the effect of freezing the console industry in place – the place in question being an awkward mid-step between generations. Sony and Microsoft, unable to meet consumer demand for their systems, both rowed back on their plans to support and promote the new platforms, since creating a surplus of new demand when you can't meet existing demand is wasteful and serves only to annoy and frustrate potential consumers.

In a sense, this is the real starting point for the competition between Sony and Microsoft

Publishers and developers revised their plans to allow for the continued market centrality of the PS4, extending their forecasts for the duration of its long tail again, and again. Lower powered systems filled in the gap