Xbox: End Of An Era
Many of us are aware of the sales gap between the Xbox One and the Playstation 4. Sources put the sales gap worldwide at nearly 2:1 in favor of the PS4. This means that for every Xbox One sold, there have been 2 PS4s sold. We haven’t really seen much of an impact or an effect of that sales gap….until now.
Enter 2015. There has been lots of hints revealed about both Microsoft and Sony’s plans for the rest of the year, and particularly the holiday season. Microsoft’s bringing out their big guns with Halo 5 launching on October 27th. There’s also Forza 6 and timed-exclusive Rise Of The Tomb Raider scheduled for this year. Looking at the competition, the PS4 doesn’t seem to have many notable exclusives releasing this holiday. There’s Persona 5 which will please JRPG fans and Dragon Quest Heroes. There’s also No Man’s Sky which Sony is supposedly treating like a 1st party release.(even though it isn’t)
On paper, Microsoft seems to have the advantage. Their 2015 exclusives are clearly of a higher caliber and budget then Sony’s. But there’s one big area that most people seem to be unaware of……marketing partnerships. Here’s where Microsoft has completely lost favor with the biggest publishers in the industry.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3
Last night it was revealed via a Mountain Dew/Doritos promotion that Playstation has snatched up the Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 marketing rights. VisitDewAndDoritos.com and you can see that there is a promotion running with Playstation all year long. Currently, the featured game is Warframe, with Reddit users leaking a promotional Black Ops 3 packaging that is set to go on sale later this year.
What this means is that Microsoft has lost the Call Of Duty partnership which has made them the game community’s favorite for live-streaming and tournaments all these years. Microsoft has had a 1-month exclusive deal on Call Of Duty DLC for as long as we can remember and it only makes sense that gamers and the general public usually associate the Xbox brand with Call Of Duty. If Playstation has now stolen this deal from Microsoft, it can only mean one thing…..no more 1-month exclusive COD DLC on Xbox. Playstation will now be getting the month-early DLC and Xbox players will have to play the waiting game.
Even though all of this is yet to be officially confirmed, it is extremely hard to deny when all the proof is right in front of us. Other than this Mountain Dew promotion we’ve had other hints about the shift in partnership. For example, the press got to play Black Ops 3 on PS4s, something they always did on Xbox. It’s increasingly hard to ignore all of this evidence that’s right in front of our faces. All we can do now is wait for official confirmation from Activision or Sony.
ASSASSIN’S CREED: SYNDICATE
Usually Sony is the one doing bundles for Assassin’s Creed games, the series is definitely more popular on Playstation than Xbox.( A quick look at Ubisofts financial reports is all you need to prove it.) So why was there an Assassin’s Creed Unity bundle for Xbox One last year? No one really knows what happened between Ubisoft and Sony last year but all we do know is that Microsoft snatched up the rights to the game’s marketing and bundles in 2014. They even timed the bundle with a $50 price cut which had them outsell the PS4 for the most important sales months of the year in November and December.
Looking at this year’s Assassin’s Creed tells a different story though. Take a look at this promotional pic from one of the trailers As you can see the PS4 version of the game is front and center for Syndicate, hinting at a Playstation centric marketing campaign this year while the Xbox One version is front and center on last years Unity pic.
So Microsoft somehow lost the marketing partnership for Assassin’s Creed despite them having it last year. It may be that the partnership didn’t do as well as they wanted last year, Sony outbid Microsoft or far more likely, Microsoft wanted to put the spotlight solely on Halo 5 which is coming out the same week as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT
Not even 5 seconds into the reveal trailer for Star Wars Battlefront and you already see a Playstation logo. As it was rumored, Sony got the marketing rights to this game too which will easily be one of the biggest games of the year with the new movie coming out. This is another big win for Sony and the PS4 is guaranteed to get a lot of exposure in Disney’s massive marketing campaign for the return of Star Wars.
THE END OF AN ERA
Two other big releases this year are Metal Gear Solid V and Batman: Arkham Knight, both confirmed to be partnering with Playstation. So in total that’s at least 5 big AAA games that Sony has in their corner, the biggest probably being Call Of Duty which is symbolic of how bad things have turned out for Microsoft and the Xbox One this generation. With the sales gap being almost 2:1 in favor of the PS4 and with that gap likely to significantly expand over the years, 3rd party publishers are ditching Microsoft and are betting on the winning horse.
Microsoft knows there’s been significant damage to their brand. So much so that Phil Spencer himself has gotten ahead of it and publicly gone on to say that they are focusing on 1st party this year. It’s likely that this is not a conscious choice but one of necessity. With so many 3rd party partnerships lost Microsoft has no choice but to double down on their 1st party offerings, particularly Halo 5.
Those of you reading this may wonder why anyone would care? I mean all gamers know that these games are on both Xbox One and PS4, right? The thing is that these kinds of deals marketing deals usually target potential new owners. This means that if there’s a ton of PS4 ads for Black Ops 3 on top of a special bundle in stores, guess which console a casual game will end up buying? There’s a reason that every single company does commercials, they just work.
Many of us are aware of the sales gap between the Xbox One and the Playstation 4. Sources put the sales gap worldwide at nearly 2:1 in favor of the PS4. This means that for every Xbox One sold, there have been 2 PS4s sold. We haven’t really seen much of an impact or an effect of that sales gap….until now.Enter 2015. There has been lots of hints revealed about both Microsoft and Sony’s plans for the rest of the year, and particularly the holiday season. Microsoft’s bringing out their big guns with Halo 5 launching on October 27th. There’s also Forza 6 and timed-exclusive Rise Of The Tomb Raider scheduled for this year. Looking at the competition, the PS4 doesn’t seem to have many notable exclusives releasing this holiday. There’s Persona 5 which will please JRPG fans and Dragon Quest Heroes. There’s also No Man’s Sky which Sony is supposedly treating like a 1st party release.(even though it isn’t)
On paper, Microsoft seems to have the advantage. Their 2015 exclusives are clearly of a higher caliber and budget then Sony’s. But there’s one big area that most people seem to be unaware of……marketing partnerships. Here’s where Microsoft has completely lost favor with the biggest publishers in the industry.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS 3Last night it was revealed via a Mountain Dew/Doritos promotion that Playstation has snatched up the Call Of Duty: Black Ops 3 marketing rights. VisitDewAndDoritos.com and you can see that there is a promotion running with Playstation all year long. Currently, the featured game is Warframe, with Reddit users leaking a promotional Black Ops 3 packaging that is set to go on sale later this year.
What this means is that Microsoft has lost the Call Of Duty partnership which has made them the game community’s favorite for live-streaming and tournaments all these years. Microsoft has had a 1-month exclusive deal on Call Of Duty DLC for as long as we can remember and it only makes sense that gamers and the general public usually associate the Xbox brand with Call Of Duty. If Playstation has now stolen this deal from Microsoft, it can only mean one thing…..no more 1-month exclusive COD DLC on Xbox. Playstation will now be getting the month-early DLC and Xbox players will have to play the waiting game.
Even though all of this is yet to be officially confirmed, it is extremely hard to deny when all the proof is right in front of us. Other than this Mountain Dew promotion we’ve had other hints about the shift in partnership. For example, the press got to play Black Ops 3 on PS4s, something they always did on Xbox. It’s increasingly hard to ignore all of this evidence that’s right in front of our faces. All we can do now is wait for official confirmation from Activision or Sony.
ASSASSIN’S CREED: SYNDICATE
Usually Sony is the one doing bundles for Assassin’s Creed games, the series is definitely more popular on Playstation than Xbox.( A quick look at Ubisofts financial reports is all you need to prove it.) So why was there an Assassin’s Creed Unity bundle for Xbox One last year? No one really knows what happened between Ubisoft and Sony last year but all we do know is that Microsoft snatched up the rights to the game’s marketing and bundles in 2014. They even timed the bundle with a $50 price cut which had them outsell the PS4 for the most important sales months of the year in November and December.
Looking at this year’s Assassin’s Creed tells a different story though. Take a look at this promotional pic from one of the trailers As you can see the PS4 version of the game is front and center for Syndicate, hinting at a Playstation centric marketing campaign this year while the Xbox One version is front and center on last years Unity pic.
So Microsoft somehow lost the marketing partnership for Assassin’s Creed despite them having it last year. It may be that the partnership didn’t do as well as they wanted last year, Sony outbid Microsoft or far more likely, Microsoft wanted to put the spotlight solely on Halo 5 which is coming out the same week as Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT
Not even 5 seconds into the reveal trailer for Star Wars Battlefront and you already see a Playstation logo. As it was rumored, Sony got the marketing rights to this game too which will easily be one of the biggest games of the year with the new movie coming out. This is another big win for Sony and the PS4 is guaranteed to get a lot of exposure in Disney’s massive marketing campaign for the return of Star Wars.
THE END OF AN ERA
Two other big releases this year are Metal Gear Solid V and Batman: Arkham Knight, both confirmed to be partnering with Playstation. So in total that’s at least 5 big AAA games that Sony has in their corner, the biggest probably being Call Of Duty which is symbolic of how bad things have turned out for Microsoft and the Xbox One this generation. With the sales gap being almost 2:1 in favor of the PS4 and with that gap likely to significantly expand over the years, 3rd party publishers are ditching Microsoft and are betting on the winning horse.
Microsoft knows there’s been significant damage to their brand. So much so that Phil Spencer himself has gotten ahead of it and publicly gone on to say that they are focusing on 1st party this year. It’s likely that this is not a conscious choice but one of necessity. With so many 3rd party partnerships lost Microsoft has no choice but to double down on their 1st party offerings, particularly Halo 5.
Those of you reading this may wonder why anyone would care? I mean all gamers know that these games are on both Xbox One and PS4, right? The thing is that these kinds of deals marketing deals usually target potential new owners. This means that if there’s a ton of PS4 ads for Black Ops 3 on top of a special bundle in stores, guess which console a casual game will end up buying? There’s a reason that every single company does commercials, they just work.
if PS4 puts the Xbox in a casket , get a Wii U.... 
