Since the beginning of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S console generation, Xbox and PlayStation have been heading in seemingly different directions. While the price of PlayStation's first-party games is going up to $70, Xbox first-party games are available on Game Pass on day one. Both PlayStation and Xbox have also been aggressively investing in their first-party studios, resulting in Insomniac Games and Obsidian Entertainment respectively having a lot on their plates at the same time.

While both PlayStation and Xbox have a diverse lineup of upcoming first-party games and third-party timed exclusives, Insomniac Games and Obsidian Entertainment are making games in a genre that appeals more to their respective core audiences, thus making them all the more important.

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How Insomniac Reflects PlayStation's Present and Future

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The start of the PS4 and Xbox One generation of consoles saw a drastic increase in live service games from third-party studios, suggesting that the AAA single-player games model had become unsustainable. As more third-party studios ventured into making massive open-world and live-service games brimming with monetization schemes, PlayStation's internal studios focused on making high-quality AAA cinematic action-adventure games that became industry standards. Critically acclaimed titles like Uncharted 4 and 2018's God of War created more demand for AAA budget offline action-adventure games that the PlayStation community primarily consumed.

While PlayStation's other first-party studios like Naughty Dog and Sucker Punch Productions mainly catered to the established PlayStation community, Insomniac Games with 2018's Marvel's Spider-Man served the dedicated PlayStation audience and hardcore Marvel fans. Insomniac Games may have played a significant role in enticing people who seldom played video games into buying a PS4. Marvel's Spider-Man became PS4's best-selling exclusive, which further suggests that bringing in Insomniac Games and having them work on an action-adventure licensed Marvel Game was PlayStation's lucrative plan of targeting a more mainstream audience.

A series of consistently high-quality exclusive action-adventure releases during the PS4 era put PlayStation in a formidable position, the ripple effects of which helped PS5 become Sony's fastest-selling console. With a well-established and dedicated fanbase, PlayStation is looking for ways to attract a more diverse audience new to gaming. PlayStation's collaboration with Travis Scott, PC releases of some of PS4's best exclusives, and the upcoming TV adaptation of The Last of Us are just a few ways PlayStation seems to be targeting an audience that is not as acquainted with the PlayStation brand.

The most important of all of Sony and PlayStation's plans for this generation so far seems to be the heavy lingering presence of Insomniac Games and its lineup of PS5 exclusive titles that would make PlayStation the preferred platform of gaming for many. Insomniac's role among PlayStation's first-party studios is pretty clear. The studio celebrated PS5's launch with the release of Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered and a standalone Spider-Man: Miles Morales game, the latter of which moved a whopping 6.5 million copies by July 2021. Six months after Miles Morales, Insomniac shipped Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

The recent PlayStation Showcase proved that Insomniac Games is a powerhouse for Sony with two massive reveals just three months after it shipped Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. The reveal of Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Marvel's Wolverine was both a strange and a surprising occurrence, especially since these games are still far away from releasing. PlayStation could have used this stage to reveal upcoming games from its other first-party studios like Naughty Dog and Bend Studios, whose next games should be farther away in development than those revealed by Insomniac Games.

PlayStation understands the need for action-adventure games, that too licensed ones, for the PS5 audience, and it seems adamant in delivering on that department with the help of Insomniac Games. If all of this is an indication of what's to come, fans should expect more big-budget exclusive licensed games, primarily in the action-adventure genre. The announcement of the KOTOR remake as a PS5 timed exclusive, despite the original never releasing on PlayStation consoles, speaks for itself.

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How Obsidian Entertainment Reflects Xbox's Present and Future

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Whereas PlayStation seems primarily focused on making action-adventure games, Xbox seems focused on making action RPGs.The original Xbox was home to some classic western RPGs whose depth in quality remains unmatched even today. For the Xbox Series X/S generation, Microsoft is looking to rejuvenate the AAA RPG genre with its incredible lineup of first-party games, a bunch of which is in development at Obsidian Entertainment.

First-party and third-party AAA western RPGs are becoming infrequent, with a vast majority of the games in the genre merely adapting RPG elements. Games like Horizon Zero Dawn, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Fallout 4 are a few examples of AAA action-adventure games with role-playing elements. CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 also feels a little light on the role-playing side of things compared to the studio's previous endeavor—The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

With Xbox's resources, some of the well-renowned RPG studios have now the opportunity to make modern AAA budget western RPGs that carries the DNA of the aforementioned classic titles. Microsoft hasn't been subtle with its intentions either, having brought Bethesda Game Studios, inXile Entertainment, and Obsidian Entertainment under the same umbrella. With Avowed, The Outer Worlds 2, and a rumored new secret project that could be anything from a sequel to Fallout New Vegas to a brand new IP: the possibilities are endless.

It's been 11 years since Obsidian Entertainment shipped Fallout New Vegas, and fans have since then craved for a AAA budget action RPG from this incredibly talented RPG studio. With Xbox's resources, Obsidian seems to be firing all its cylinders, with Avowed being the first of many that could define the RPG space this generation. The Outer Worlds 2 could be Obsidian's vision realized to its fullest without the financial restrictions of the first game, and if the third unannounced project is indeed a sequel to Fallout New Vegas, RPG fans may be in for a treat.

Both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have a lot in store for their distinctive audiences this generation, with Insomniac Games and Obsidian Entertainment working on projects reflective of the pathways PlayStation and Xbox are taking for their respective futures.

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