NextGen One Month In: Has it Launched If You Can’t Find It?
By: Kostas Farkonas
Tags: Home Entertainment, Gaming, PlayStation, Xbox, Videogames

So I’ve been using the PlayStation5 for more than a month now and, in the meantime, Microsoft launched the Xbox Series S|X globally with Sony following suit a few days later. These powerful new systems made a lot of promises and managed to keep many of them — you were not really expecting them to keep each and every one of those, right? — hence the positive impressions posted by developers, journalists, influencers and consumers alike. The PS5 and the Xbox Series X offer great value for money, with the discless version of the former and Xbox Series S trailing behind in that regard but offering that all-important lower price point of entry.

Now that the dust has started to settle, though, a number of things are becoming apparent. One: the power of the PlayStation brand remains much stronger than that of the Xbox regardless of hardware. The PS5 is already in the hands of almost 2.5 million people (both versions accounted for) whereas the two new Xbox models put together have barely surpassed the 1.5 million mark so far, despite launching a week earlier. Sony’s well-rounded launch line-up of games might have had something to do with that, but the very first consumers getting consoles are usually people who have made up their minds about which one they’d rather have a long, long time ago so… yeah.

Word on the street is that the cheaper Xbox Series S did not perform as well as its more capable, more expensive brother did — or indeed as Redmond would have liked. (Image credit: Microsoft)

Two: despite both Sony’s and Microsoft’s push for digital distribution of games with devices tied to their respective digital stores, most of these early adopters clearly prefer to have more options available to them and/or still think in a more traditional way. Not only has the Xbox Series X outsold the $200/€200 cheaper, smaller Xbox Series S, but it did so by a wide margin. The difference in processing power between the two models surely played a part here, but what most probably tipped the scales was the limited storage of the latter model (and the quite costly upgrade to that storage).

Same story with the PS5: despite its “full” edition being $100/€100 pricier than the Digital Edition, and despite the two models being identical save for the optical drive, the former moved more units than the latter did. There’s even the impression that, had there been more “full” PS5 units available, many people would have gone for those instead of the Digital Edition.

The Xbox Series X and the PS5 cost $499/€499 but they are nowhere to be found in retail or e-tail across the globe, suggesting that they’d both moved a lot more units if that was not the case. (Image credit: Microsoft)

Which leads us to number three: both the PS5 and Xbox Series launch was a huge success and a grand failure at the same time. A huge success because, well, both Sony and Microsoft sold all the consoles they made available. Every last one. Commercially speaking, that’s what all manufacturers strive for. A grand failure too, though, because they would have sold many more — probably a lot more than 4 million between them — had there been enough of them available in stores or online.

It is now clear that the pre-order schemes of both companies did not work well enough and that scalpers were better prepared than ever to take advantage of a bad situation in order to make a profit. What is less clear is whether just blaming the pandemic for all this — manufacturing problems, unusually high demand — is inevitable… or just convenient. Sure, many consoles in recent history sold out at first, and millions more people in recent months sit in front of their TVs due to lockdowns worldwide. But was better handling of the PS5 and Xbox Series launches always out of the question?

nVidia and AMD gave a lot of PC gamers grief in the exact same way Sony and Microsoft did with the new PlayStation and Xbox: the new GeForce and Radeon cards are just as difficult to find. (Image credit: nVidia)

Judging from what happened during the same time with nVidia and AMD — both launched new series of PC graphics cards in such pitiful numbers that demand for them is not expected to be met earlier than Q2 2021 — it seems that yes, it was. It was almost certainly out of the question. A “normal” launch of a new PlayStation or Xbox was never possible in 2020 (whatever “normal” means these days) regardless of their specs, price or game line-ups.

What is more, with their availability not improving any time soon — Sony and Microsoft have suggested that the consoles they’ll be manufacturing in the coming months won’t be enough to satisfy the demand that’s already there — one can’t shake the feeling that launching a new PlayStation and Xbox during a pandemic may not have been the smartest thing to do after all.

Sony and Microsoft will beg to differ, surely, but November felt more like a preview of 2021 than a full-blown console launch. What this means in the long term remains to be seen. (Image credit: Sony)

So this was as much an impressive launch as it was a botched one. One could even wonder whether we actually had a next-generation home entertainment system launch or just a small-scale preview of it, as it is still practically impossible to get the new PlayStation or Xbox in physical stores or online. Has a product actually launched if hardly anyone can buy it? For months?

It’s debatable, to say the least — and it will be interesting to see whether the frustration consumers feel these past few weeks because of this situation has already affected or will affect how the PS5 and the Xbox Series fare in the long run. Quite interesting indeed.