UK Sales Charts: 80% of Elden Ring's Boxed Sales on PS5, PS4

Elden Ring, O Elden Ring

In my country I think physical sales are like 95% playstation and 5% xbox lol. I wish xbox make cheaper series x with no physical drive like ps5 digital since most xbox users have gamepass and buy digital games.

Can't wait to play it tomorrow

@j2c fingers but hole

I gotta say I'm about 15 hours in Elden Ring and yeah I see why it's getting so many 10's it's been absolutely fantastic so far. Well done From well done.

Who on earth still buys physical boxed PC games???

Hell, I feel similar about Xbox… Anyone buying boxed Xbox games is fooling themselves… well you can still sell/trade those I guess, even if almost always Xbox forced downloads.

But don’t all PC boxed copies just come with Steam codes inside these days?

If I’m buying a game for PS or Switch, I’ll never take digital, though.

63% of Elden Rings sales were on PS5...17% for Xbox One/Xbox Series...46% gap

When digital gets added to physical the Xbox sales will close most of the gap...

But even with physical & digital, the PS5 version alone will still likely outsell all Xbox versions combined...

Considering the PS5 install base is noticeably smaller than the Xbox One + Xbox Series combined install base...

And considering PlayStation gamers also had a major AAA drop just 1 week prior & Xbox didnt...

This is platform disparity is pretty huge.

@wiiware would not be shocked if they release a cheaper XSX down the line with no disk drive. Launching with 3 SKUs might had been confusing for some users, though. They really went out of their way to make sure the weaker XSS looked drastically different.

Sweet! hopefully they can use all that cash, along with the review hype induced day one purchase money to hire some technical talent to fix the problems with this game using a decades old engine and reused assets.

Because apparently 5 years in development, with that much recycled content, delays, and a network test did not prove enough to help iron out persistent and new technical issues. By far the worst performing game From Soft has put out yet.

@Tharsman I buy all my games Digital, I have all 3 , I bought the PS5 Digital, and really wish Xbox would have made a $399 digital sku instead of Series S. I understand why they didn’t, but I like Sonys 2 sku system. Buying a plastic disk that still needs the internet and tons of patches just seems off to me. Plus having to drive to get it, only to come home and still have to download data to play, seems archaic to me. HFW had a digital code inside a box for the collectors, seems wasteful. My games download while I’m sleeping and as soon as I hit the power button all my games are in one place, alphabetically. I’m happy for those that still like to buy a plastic box, and for the big 3 to offer disk drives on the consoles, but I was happy to see Sony have a digital version for people like me this Gen. Switch games load faster from digital than physical, normally only 4-6 seconds faster, but 32 and 64GB really needs to be upgraded in switch 2.

GTA Trilogy took the place of GTA 5 lol.

Anyways, nice to see Elden Ring do well. Also nice to see Forbidden West still in the Top 3.

This is part of my concern about streaming services taking over the industry. If Sony adopts a GP type of service, I wonder how long until publishers have to scale back big AAA releases because they won’t sell when the community has a bunch of “free” games on the service. The data here seems to clearly indicate players buy new big releases on PlayStation at a clip of about 4:1 over Xbox. The two console systems are basically the same so the difference is one of them has a big dominant streaming service and the other doesn’t.

@Gloamin My favorite was a knight falling to his knees next to a message:
fort,
knight

@KundaliniRising333 its their first ps5 game and as for worst performing..dark souls ps3,dark souls pc,demon souls ps3 were far,far worse in performance terms..elden ring looks fantastic,sounds awesome and yes it has a few frame rate issues but they really are not that bad..easily the best from software release so far .

@Th3solution
No. It’s saying gamers buy physical releases on PlayStation and it’s not surprising. It doesn’t really make sense to buy discs on Xbox because of the DRM it’s just digital download anyway. So discs consistently sell more on PS especially this gen.
Xbox is mostly a digital platform now. Also half Series base are digital only.

@Northern_munkey
Yes and here I am loving the quality mode and couldn’t even think of why people are making a fuss about a ‘locked’ 60fps. Haha

Loading time is great too. I don’t know why some reviews were complaining.

@uptownsoul
That’s true but also considering souls fans are probably mostly on PS and PS5 was the most stable version even than PC which I read was a mess.

I’m no special analyst but at this rate it won’t be worth third parties bothering with Xbox.
The UK is a strong Xbox territory as well.
I guess that is the effect of game pass I’m not sure
And Xbox owners not bothering to buy as many new third party games.

@Rural-Bandit
I’m all digital as well on all the consoles.

@Medic_Alert

If you look online at cex already quite a few in-store even by Friday was amazed how many they had instock.

@Tharsman I was one of the 3% who bought a physical PC copy. And yes, there's nothing physical about the game itself- the boxed PC copy is just a box with the launch edition fluff (stickers, woven patch etc) and then a steam key on a card.

And even then, the only reason I bothered getting a physical copy is I had some Argos vouchers to use up, otherwise I would have just gotten a steam key from humble bundle

PS5 shortage I really hurting Sony. They could get away with it if they deliver soon but the way the world is going I don’t expect things to get better soon.

Even though I own a mid tier gaming PC (and even if the PC ver wasn't chuggy), i bought the PS5 ver in the hopes of adding the platinum to my collection.

Done about 14 hours so far. Love it (and hate it.)

@KundaliniRising333 Yawn. You've been hammering this point in other articles. You've played Blooborne right? Barely 30fps with ridiculous frame skips; this is nowhere near that level. I haven't found the stuttering and frame drops to be an issue; they're infrequent and for the most part it's 60 (maybe the latest patch helped).

Is there going to be a GTA V PS5 retail version? I cant seem to find any online.

20 hours in and its been incredible, very dense world and its easy to lose hours at a time to it

@KundaliniRising333 Clearly you never done Blighttown on 360/PS3 with Dark Souls.

Seems From really has a hit on their hands this time. Even my more casual friend who never once played a Souls games before, got this at launch.

I did warn him there would be no enemies waiting their turn to fight AssCreed style, so I hope he isn't too deterred by the difficulty.

As for the PC boxed version, it's really just a Steam code with a bunch of collectable items. The large majority of PC gamers will likely just be interested in the game itself.

Asked the chap at work if he was picking up Elden ring, he asked if it was on game pass and I said it wasn't. He said he won't get it as he doesn't buy games anymore.

I will be adding to that number in about three weeks as well .

@Tharsman I like my series s but man, the storage just isn't going to cut it for gamepass. Since the 1TB storage expansion price is basically a robbery (series s + 1TB expansion cost nearly the same as series x), I want to buy series x, but I don't think I will use the physical drive since my local games shop usually doesn't sells xbox physical games.

@KundaliniRising333 "By far the worst performing game From Soft has put out yet."
No it really isn't. It's the first Soulsborne game they've released that runs over 30fps on consoles, not including the re-release that was SotFS. Dark Souls was capped at 30fps and dropped to like 15 in Blight Town. Bloodborne struggled to maintain 30 and also has load times over at least a minute, compared to about 5-8 seconds here. And Bloodborne was an exclusive, specifically targeting PS4 so it's even worse. Same with Demon's Souls poor performance on PS3.

@Matroska not true..dark souls 3 on the ps5 via backwards compat runs at a very stable 60fps..

@Matroska oh dark souls remaster ps4..60fps .

PlayStation owners still buy games. I love it!

Without wanting to sound too hyperbolic, I'm currently having the greatest gaming experience of my life with this game. The only things that have ever come remotely close are other From games, or my first experiences of 3D games in the 90's.

@Northern_munkey that's cheating - we're talking about games' performance at launch, not running on the next generation console via backwards compatibility, or a remastered version of an older game

@danlk1ng ok go on i'll give you that

X-Box is very popular in the UK as well, so this proves one of two things: X-Box is really a shooter console, or that people own and X-Box for Gamepass only.

@Tharsman if its not on gamepass then I often buy a physical copy to trade in after. Then that's the only reason I buy physical on any platform.

On PS5, running in performance mode - for me personally the performance issues are negligible. Noticeable, yes, but have zero impact on the experience after around 10 hours. It would make no meaningful difference to me if the performance is improved through patches.

The game itself is just phenomenally good so far.

@JJ2 Oh, I didn’t realize that Xbox discs don’t contain the game data in the same way that the PS discs do. So it is tough to judge from this data how sales are then, I guess. I hope you’re right because the one fear a lot of people have with GamePass is the disintegration of big budget AAA games that it may cause. (Often stated as the “unsustainability” of the model)

Because as someone else stated, taking HFW’s direct competition with ER into account, it would be even more surprising that it’s a 4:1 ratio of PS to XB. A lot of PS gamers here on the site have said they chose to buy HFW instead of ER, or GT7 instead. Not sure what released on XB within the last few weeks that may have competed.

Do you think XB gamers might have the response of “The game looks good, but I’ll wait for it to drop on GamePass.”? If so, the GP model has effectively become a self-imposed timed-exclusivity for PS on these large multiplatform games.

So artistic, typical From style, I love it. It's so hard to put down just like HFW, whose idea was it to release these 2 masterpieces in one week...

@uptownsoul Something to consider: how many people own both a Series X and a PlayStation 5, and how many swing toward PS5 for multiplats? I've got both, and I picked up Elden Ring on the PS5.

This is why numbers like attach rate matter. It's one thing to sell the console, but another if it's playing second fiddle to another device in the house.

@Th3solution
Yeah ER and HFW were very close and it’s was always a question mark which would top even with HFW as a second week.
It’s still a Soul game after all and not as popular as HFW.
I don’t know about this case in particular but often Xbox boxes come with an Xbox 1 disc inside because of ‘smart delivery’ with the new gen game only a download. thats why there’s only one box instead of last gen or new gen for PS.

I can’t say about GP attitude since I’m not fond of subscription services at all either Xbox or PS. Better ask someone using the services their state of mind.

@Medic_Alert having played both after patch 1.02, I'd still recommend the PS5 version. Better image quality, higher density detail and much, much quicker loading (important in a game like this!) makes it a decent sell. Tbh I think the loading times alone are worth the average 55-60fps moment-to-moment gameplay 😂 Still needs dem patches though.

@Rural-Bandit That's exactly as I see it. Consuming anything physically now is a waste of time and very wasteful, you always have to download it anyway.
I used to have some sympathy for the 'I might want to play it in 10 years' crowd, but disc versions come with dud code that needs fixing with downloads now in order to fix the bugs and make the game playable, so keeping a disc version is pointless when the game will be unplayable without a digital update anyway.
I bought a disk version of the PS5 initially in case a friend wanted to come round with a disc or I wanted to watch a 4K disc - the only time I've ever used the disc is to put in a a PS4 version of Uncharted 4 so I could buy the upgrade for £10.
When I bought a 2nd PS5, it was obviously a digital version.

I wish I could have bought a digital series X, it literally just for Games pass and I don't even know if the disc drive works, as I've never put a disc in it and it looks unlikely I ever will.

For me, the only reason to buy physical is to share with friends, resell and/or save money, any other reason seems to fail scrutiny. As I only share with my wife, and we can afford to pay a little more to save the plastic and travel waste with physical, I cant see that I would ever buy a physical game again - and haven't for the last 2 years.

As for the split in sales. Xbox is not a system many will buy games on - like myself, many will have it just for Games Pass. When you are on a machine for the 'Free' games you get from subscription, you are far less likely to buy full price games and this comes across in sales figure time and time again. Doesn't hurt MS, but 3rd parties will be evaluating how they approach this platform to make money in the future...

@Northern_munkey based pfp.

@Medic_Alert yeah it's all personal choice when it comes down to it. Elden Ring is a fantastic game under its creaking tech. My playtime is clocking in at 35 hours already! Can't say I've been that busy lately...

@Northern_munkey Yeah so remasters like SotFS, but at launch on the target console this is the best running Soulsborne. Of course the games from one gen work well on a console from a generation later. I'm sure if PS6 has backwards compatibility, ER will have a constant 60fps. Bear in mind, on PS5 ER's lower fps of around 45 is 150% of the framerate of the highest fps of Demon's Souls, Bloodborne, and DS1-3 in their initial, non-remaster releases.

Not saying it shouldn't be better, but it's crazy to say it's the worst performing even if we were only going off DS1 which dropped to near 10fps in Blight Town.

@Matroska a lot of the frame rate issues (on PC anyway) seem to be game related issues rather than hardware holding the game back. I'm playing it on PC on a pretty low end graphics card (I mean, it does the job and it'll play the vast majority of modern titles, but I have to turn a lot of games down to low-medium settings, particularly if they're from the last couple of years). I'm playing on medium settings and I'm pretty much having exactly the same experience as the people with the state of the art, top tier graphics cards - and sure, they'll probably be running it on max settings, but they should really easily be able to do so (I can actually run it on max settings myself, and get 60fps as long as I stay in an enclosed area like a cave, but the framerate plummets if I go out in the open).

The 3080 Ti owners of the world really shouldn't be having these issues at all (despite the fact that I get a little bit of schadenfreude out of it, given the crazy GPU prices right now). Obviously I'm talking about the PC version, not Playstation, but I'd assume that the cause on PS5 is fairly similar given that the PS5 should easily be able to run the game at 60fps, if I'm running it on what I'm using

@lolwhatno eh? I dont follow

@Th3solution I don't really think it's the xbox crowd waiting for it to come to gamepass. Until now none of the fromsoft games have come to gamepass so how high is the chance it will come now. if i look at myself (i play most multiplats on my xbox) i never wait until a game is on gamepass. If i like the game ill buy it.
Xbox users generally seem to care less about "game ownership"/reselling of games, especially since most embrace the gamepass system. I think people on xbox (at least the people i know) prefer digital over physical. And since xbox doesnt report digital sales, these numbers dont say much

@Northern_munkey based
A word used when you agree with something; or when you want to recognize someone for being themselves, i.e. courageous and unique or not caring what others think. Especially common in online political slang.

The opposite of cringe, some times the opposite of biased.

Pfp means profile picture. Just wanted to say that it's a nice gesture

@uptownsoul I think the main reason is most people get an xbox just for its exclusives or gamepass as there's no reason to get one otherwise, then for everyone elses multi platform games and games that aren't on gamepass they get on playstation

Same goes for the switch that most people who own a playstation get a switch just for its exclusives whilst third party games they get on playstation

@Lavalera That’s an interesting perspective, thanks for sharing. I guess maybe the Xbox crowd embracing digital has to do with the streaming service and maybe the old DRM debates from last generation.
I wonder what the break down actually is though — as far as digital sales on PS vs. on XBox. I’d be surprised if it was this skewed. Why both platforms keep the digital sales numbers so close to the vest is beyond me.

I also wonder how the resale of the physical copies affects a third party publisher’s bottom line. Is it worth it to sell a bunch of day one copies if they are just going to flood eBay in a few weeks? Perhaps they are happy with soft sales up front if they are all digital, knowing that this subverts future second hand selling of the game, which they get no revenue for. I don’t know.

Surely they have analysts to crunch all these numbers and time will tell whether large single-player third-party games will support both platforms. I’ve felt all along that as this generation moves forward that we’ll see more timed exclusives on PS like we’ve already seen in FF16, KOTOR Remake, and even smaller games like Kena and Solar Ash.
(Not saying this is a good thing, rather it’s just what I think might be happening as a result of a potential imbalance in game sales between the two platforms)

On the flip side, XBox will likely see more indies and small games where they can get more eyes on them via GP.

@KundaliniRising333 the PS4 version played on the ps5 has no technical issues. Flawless 60 fps.

@BartoxTharglod There may also be the case of people buying the game before they get the console, I remember that sometime in 2017 the attach rate for BotW Switch was over 100%.

@lolwhatno cheers buddy..i'm old(ish) and not really down with the youth of todays butchering of the english language..👍

@Titntin I agree with you on the digital, I sold all my cd’s to buy an iPod as a kid and thought the future was here, all 200 of my cd’s fit on something the size of a pack of cigarettes. Haven’t bought disks for any media much since. That’s funny you said your not even sure your disk drive works on your series X, for that matter neither do I HAHA. I don’t even think I used my PS4 Pro disk drive either. As far Xbox, I buy all my 3rd party titles on Xbox, I have since the 360, it’s a matter of liking the controller better and the ecosystem, along with my friends I want to play a online game with. My switch and PS consoles are for their exclusives. I do wonder if Gamepass will make some gamers wait on certain titles but that could be an issue if PlayStation launches a successful service with Spartacus. Time will tell, but the business model for gaming is slightly changing with another way to play and collect games. People have to also keep in mind Microsoft lost a lot of market share with the one and one X, it will take time to regain players and they have done great work with the series X and have launched some great services that in the long run will pay off. But worldwide Sony is far and away the market leader. You had some great points tho and I fully back you with the digital comments. Thanks for a well written reply, enjoy your posts 😀

@Northern_munkey Yeah, my bad. I always (for some reason) expect people to understand these weird shorts, will use them less from now on.

@lolwhatno You've done all us 'oldies' a service there - thanks.

I also had no idea at all what you were saying

At this rate, Sony could convince any third party publisher to make their games timed exclusives for 1-2 years because it barely looks sustainable for them to sell them on Xbox. Then they'll get MS $ for putting their games on GP after it sold enough copies on PS.

Gamepass is a disruptor we didn't need and Xbox doesn't even need it anymore vs when it launched because they have 32 plus studios, but whatever. They already jumped on it.

@Titntin forgot to add that Microsoft offered 6000 reward points for digital purchase of elden ring , so I’m sure most Xbox sales were digital. Speaking of I read that digital sales on Xbox are a bigger percentage on Xbox only after PC. So boxed sales on Xbox are down but digital and services are still really good for the platform. Just worth noting, sorry forgot to add it in my first reply to you.

@RevGaming timed exclusives are anti consumer in the eyes of many players and if Sony continues to do it they run the risk of Microsoft or someone bigger to buy the publisher. Keep in mind publishers know that Xbox cloud and PC are more players than 100 million PlayStation consoles. Sure PlayStation is a dominant force in the industry, and it would be silly to think anyone wants to ignore 100 million consoles, but I don’t see Sony being able to just get every big 3rd party titles exclusive for years. GTA6 will sell a ton on Xbox and PC as just one example. If it’s a keep titles away from Xbox and PC gamers Sony chooses to play, say goodbye to games like COD and Microsoft will buy even more titles. I think it’s best the way it is now with these two playing nice with sharing their titles they received via Acquisitions.

@Rural-Bandit There's also this.

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/03/last_year_the_uks_gaming_purchases_were_85_per_cent_digital

I think the guys here forget this. PS is still most likely the dominating platform for Elden Ring, but you can't conclude that from the boxed sales.

@lolwhatno 😂 great. Also "Behold, Two-handing!" With the gesture on the two suits of armour (At the Roundtable)

Every new release gives me a chuckle with the messages.

@Richnj great point buddy, digital is only going to continue to eat into boxed sales. I’ve been exclusively digital since the PS4 and Xbox one launch. Music even longer.

@Gloamin Lmao! Yep, most are the same stuff but some are truly funny.
Saw one in the subreddit of that one guy leaning at the roundtable with a message in front of him:
Edge,
lord

@Rural-Bandit I hear you and I that's definitely relevant, but I strongly suspect when the figures are done and publishers are looking at where they sell the most units over all, they are likely to see more buys per PS owner.
I have no facts to back that up, except an awful lot of people who, like me, only bought an Xbox for games pass and have advised me that they have never bought a game for it, again -like me! I DO buy steam games on my PC of course, but fewer since games pass.
I don't believe the opposite will be true, but hey, I'm often surprised and definitely not always right!

@Rural-Bandit Welp, xbox users should have bought the games. Waiting for a game to be free/at no extra cost is anti-dev if you want to use the anti words, especially when it's a game you love.

No. MS has 32 studios and has a wider reach, so sony getting timed exclusives isn't enough for MS to buy more publishers. They might get one more without getting scrutinized but that's it. They're playing nice with AB atm. Hell now they're getting sued by one of the shareholder. They may not be able to get another one and I'm glad. Sony shouldn't get one either (Kadokawa could be one that benefits sony from anime and FS and FS needs to step up graphically/online). Capcom makes sense but I rather not.

Yet, AAA games sell better on Playstation than on PC besides Bethesda and CDPR games. It's why you get late ports like FF7 remake, Red dead, Monster Hunter, GTA etc. Plus I never said anything about not releasing on PC. I meant timed exclusives as xbox get nothing.

Ain't sony playing nice lol. I bet they're trying to get all bandai, capcom, square, sega games be exclusives (and PC).

@Titntin I mean you make good points and there’s strong cases for what your saying. So I can’t say your wrong. Time will tell this industry has a way of surprising moments and big flips here and there. But PlayStation will continue to be strong in all areas. Xbox has their work cut out for them but they are still doing great and will only get better. Phil has done some great work with the brand since taking over. Meanwhile Nintendo will continue to crush.

@RevGaming Xbox games sell way higher numbers digitally than physical. Sure Elden ring sold more on Sony, say Hello to over 120 million PS4’s, plus 18 or so million PS5’s compared upper 50’s Xbox ones and 12 maybe 13 series consoles. That’s not saying anything that isn’t just pure numbers. The reason they are suing is cause they want all their money A/B promised them. That’s a 70 Billion dollar deal. It will have many ongoing stories as that’s a lot of investors wanting their share before the deal closes. Gamers make me laugh will sales numbers, I wonder if they all drive Ford 150’s , that’s the highest selling vehicle in America, do they only eat at McDonald’s. My point is only 1 product and company sells the most, don’t mean the others aren’t profitable and selling a good product. Xbox don’t have to sell more than PlayStation to be a major player in the industry. They need to offer reasons to buy their product. Series consoles have done that. Xbox users aren’t waiting for games to be “free” I don’t like the term free paying $10-15 a month isn’t free , but I know what you meant, I buy all my games on Xbox and Elden ring at $25 dollars just isn’t my thing. I wouldn’t hold your breathe on Sony and Microsoft not acquiring more studios. Xbox said the $70 billion for A/B wasn’t even all they set aside. Sony will surely buy a few more smaller dev teams. Even if it’s just support studios and I’m all for it. But keep the large online community’s on both platforms. Single player games, be my guest and keep those as reasons to bring players into your brand.

@Rural-Bandit Anyways.

It's funny how xbox fans (talking in general) want Sony to do an exact copy of Gamepass when Sony has an advantage because they don't have a service exactly like Gamepass. Weird how xbox fans don't ask Nintendo to do a gamepass... double standards/bias I guess.

Xbox from this year and forward has to figure out how to make games that bring more subs and it's going to be pretty hard.

How long can a Single Player game be? Should we artificially bump the time recycling content? Should we go all in on graphics or is it too expensive? How many DLC we will sell? Sony, Nintendo and Third party publishers don't need to worry about this things as much.

How many mtx will Gears 6 and Forza Motorsport will need? Will they all be skins/cosmetics? How much will they cost? How often do we release new content? How crazy can we go with skins without ruining the theme of the game?

"How the hell do we make sure everyone is playing each GaaS we release, without each other killing each other" - MS and Sony's 10 games. This will also be another concern.

Sony (and Nintendo) without having Gamepass, doesn't have to worry about those and has the upper hand on getting exclusive content from third party partners. Xbox has to go all in with first party games and I wanted AB to be xbox exclusive.

@Rural-Bandit I doubt digitally changes the landscape that much. It's still going to be 8:2 case, even more and more when more people sub.

I meant publishers. I want Publishers to be alone, although I wouldn't mind EA getting bought by Disney for example (saying this as they're making 3 star wars games). They suck so they need to get bought.

There aren't many studios that can make AAA games though (probably around the 10s), so idk. I'm guessing Sony is trying to get most of them while MS is busy with AB.

@RevGaming how long can a single player can be? Great question, i for I would rather play single player games in a subscription than pay $70 for it and be done. However I have a feeling StarField will be long, Xbox has almost all the good western RPG companies. As for buyouts Sony don’t have much money to get a big publisher, so I stuck with my smaller indie level to mid range teams that add support. I for one don’t think Sony will do a Gamepass copy, nor do I need them to, but PSNow isn’t great and gets no money from me, so if they built something that I could play around with say a title like Returnal or Godfall without paying $70 , I would throw them some monthly money. As for what sales for a certain game is, I could careless. Not like Elden ring won’t be profitable on Xbox and PC. Plus souls games have always been a Sony stable. Makes sense they sell better there with more units of hardware in players hands. Last point in single player, Hell Blade 2 is looking like a killer title that regardless of length will have a following that gets to choose between physical and digital sales, along with gamepass. So player engagement for that title will be strong at launch.

@Rural-Bandit I hope I'm very very wrong and Xbox wins game of the year 2-3 times this gen. Not that they have to, but that's the very very for haha.

I'm quite the contrary. Single Player games make more sense to be bought and multiplayer games to be on the service because you need to pay online to play them anyways.

Is RPG that different from ARPGs like Witcher or Horizon? I think the fanbases are similar. I think FPS is more of a concern for Sony.

Sony def has money to buy any publisher. T2 bought Zynga. We need stop thinking they can't. It's mostly they don't want to/need to. Sony has better management and making small indie studios to one of the biggest studios ever so I think they're better off doing that. For all we know Deviation could make a better quality FPS game and that is telling a lot. Returnal has been on sale multiple times btw.

Hellblade 2 looks phenomenal. I didn't get the first one because of the length and lack of combat, which is bad combination with the length, so I'm still skeptical about that one. Man I hope Xbox showcases like 5 new AAA games this year because it's long due. It might convince me to get an xbox even before Starfield.

Yeah, I knew to cancel my PC GamePass sub after I finished Halo

• Preorders of Horizon, Elden Ring, GT7 (PS5)
• Renting Kirby (Switch) and Forspoken (Ps5) from GameFly

I have no time for the stuff on GamePass with so many top new games out.

I'll do another month or 2 of Ubisoft+ subscription to play Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarök before paying for GamePass again also.

@wiiware I simply bought a cheap external HD (for my series X)

I download all games to it and install it later. My entire game library is on that external drive (hundred of games, I got a huge external drive) and simply move the games from the external to the internal when I am going to play them.

I sometimes even do that with GamePass games.

@Th3solution it depends on the game. If it’s a smart delivery game, only one version is on the disk (most of the time) and as of the last time I saw someone test, it was almost always the Prev Gen version, with the install on a Series X|S downloading the whole game.

Even if the X|S can run a Prev Gen game seamlessly due to its BC, Smart Delivery disks tell the console there is an optimized version out there to download and will just not work offline.

And of course, we got all those third party games that, even without smart delivery, demand absurd day one parches to even be playable these days.

@RevGaming well I wouldn’t say your wrong, you have good industry wisdom, you have Preferences for how you buy or play your games like we all do, and that’s great there is so many choices in the industry today to do that. I’d like to see Microsoft get a few big titles that are must haves. I believe Starfield will be the first title that will showcase that for them. Where I do disagree with you is Sony has the money to buy anyone, they just simply can’t buy an EA or Activision , or Rockstar, square has already said it has lots of 2D RPG remakes planned for switch, Japanese companies aren’t going to take Sony money for a buy out when they can have Sony and Nintendo platforms and make tons of cash. I could be wrong, but the switch has shown in Japan that they sell the most and Sony themselves are becoming more of a western based decision making company. Last point I want to touch on and it’s not a right or wrong answer, it’s more my opinion, is Sony is a better managed company. I’m not here to say they are mismanaged by any means or to say Nintendo and Microsoft has made better decisions, I mean Xbox one launch & Wii U , really? But I’m not sold completely on Sony being great at management decisions either, handheld venture was a mess and felt like something they felt inclined to do vs having a passion for, the PS3 launch price, Six axis cause they fudged the deal for keeping rumble, no cross game chat, seen achievements and knew Microsoft hit a home run, proprietary CPU and GPU’s that not even a NASA genius knew how to use properly, granted they fixed that with PS4, then to raise game prices to $70 and charge for what smart delivery does for free for updates between cross Gen. I could go on, but my point is Sony is kinda lucky to not have had a better running Microsoft after 360 and Nintendo that isn’t on their blue ocean strategy, cause I’m not sold Sony can match and beat competition when it’s hitting their strides, it’s not Sonys fault they Microsoft pee’d the bed, that’s not my point, my point is Sonys name in the industry gives their management more flexibility for mistakes than a Microsoft’s and Nintendo. Sorry I kind of rambled on that one, but it’s a topic I think that’s open to debate, their success however is Undeniable. I enjoy talking with you tho and sometimes I get on a rant, tell me to shut up next time hahaha. 😀

@Rural-Bandit I meant management as in games management.

We'll see but Capcom doesn't really need Nintendo more than they need Sony. AB had money with Sony but still took MS money.

Not it's fine. We'll see how it goes. Starfield and this year e3 should be enough to change minds.

@RevGaming oh gotcha, yeah I could agree with games management for the most part, having no shooters and branding heavily more towards the west don’t seem smart. Making all their games be tied to show and movie releases lately scare me. Like do we need a Twisted Metal show? Happy about the game coming back. Do we need the last of us remade again just to go alongside the show? Questionable, but I still see more hope for games I want this Gen vs their last so I’m excited.

Microsoft will have some bangers to show, Contraband and RedFall I want to see more of, its a given we will see gameplay of Starfield soon, they will have some surprises I’m sure as well and please show us some more of Perfect Dark and Fable. The Gears fanatic in me wants some gears news but it might be a while. Unless that Marcus Fenix collection has any truth behind it.

@Rural-Bandit Well Xbox will never compete in Japan, even if they buy a publisher, it won't be enough. The only country Xbox competes is in USA and USA love shooters and Sony lost most of them (Only Ubi and EA left). Even before AB, Sony knew this. Bungie deal was before AB, and they have a few shooters in the making before AB was a thing, so Sony knew its weakness.

I don't think the games are being tied to movies, but movies tied to games. I think they just want to make their IP bigger. They want Uncharted to be as famous as Spider-Man is globally, not just in gaming, so more people buy PS5 because of the IP and this includes non gamers that love the IP.

I don't like the Tlou remastered either. I'm buying it because it's my favorite game of all time but I don't even want it to be made.

I want to see Gears 6, Fable, Avowed, Perfect Dark, Hellblade 2's combat, Everwild, Compulsion Game, Starfield, Redfall and Indiana Jones's gameplay. No more CGI allowed. They need to be cutthroat. Sony kind of shot everything and now are reloading. I honestly think they don't have a lot to show besides GoW, Spidey 2 and Tlou2 factions. Everytime Xbox does something, Sony's marketing announces something. Doesn't matter what it is. Xbox needs an Xbox direct and not put all of their things in the E3 basket.

@RevGaming Xbox don’t need Japan, it’s to much focus for what they would get back in return. Japan is Nintendo land, tho the series S due to its small size has sold better than the whole Xbox one Gen. Not saying much I know, Xbox is great in the States sure. But they are decent in Europe and if they can get back to 360 European numbers they will be in great shape.

I 100% agree Xbox needs their own Direct, 32 studios, thats a lot, they need directs to give them the space and attention those games need. This is a sure fire need for them. They can still do E3 or what’s left of it if they want to.

@Rural-Bandit Let e3 die. I think The Game Awards should be the new e3. Yeah it's long, but a lot of eyes are there. 80million views is no joke. Like a Gaming Xmas close to Xmas.

Yeah, they should try to get LATAM and Europe audiences.

@RevGaming i agree buddy, let E3 die, it was fun Back in the day, but it’s best years are long over. I love the Nintendo directs. Sony’s are pretty good also now that Deathloop has came out and not 30% of every direct. Microsoft could do a great direct with all those studios. But the moment Gears of War gets shown, I’m going to be in heaven. That’s my favorite Xbox exclusive series and truthfully my favorite exclusive series of the Big. With the power of unreal 5 and next Gen hardware, gears will be a amazing blood bath.

@Tharsman why would anyone buy Xbox Series S if they release a $400 X? Unless they reduce pricing of S to $200 that's a bad deal (half the storage, even less the horsepower). One CoD game and you are near out of storage

@dimi its likely a cheaper XSX without disk drive would not be released until they can cut down overall production costs, by that point, they also likely end up cutting the XSS to at least $250, btw, this also assumes that a diskless XSX would be $100 cheaper. They don't save $100 from removing a disk drive. They could easily release a diskless XSX for $449. I think that was the original price difference between the XBOne S and XBOne SAD, and they sold the things rather quickly.

Another path, though, is that eventually the XBS might not have its price cut down but instead its storage bumped up. We saw that all throughout both, the X360 and PS3 life cycle, increases in storage as the generations went through and storage became cheaper.