The next generation of consoles is quickly approaching, with the launch of both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X planned for holiday 2020. But for the first time ever, the next-generation consoles will be blurred significantly into the current generation due to the prevalence of digital releases and a focus on cross-generational games. That said, both Sony and Microsoft have dramatically different strategies. And confusion about this is leading to Microsoft being increasingly vocal about its philosophies.
The latest example is Aaron Greenberg, general manager of Xbox games marketing, who posted on the subject recently on Twitter. "Xbox believes in generations," is how Greenberg begins the tweet. His reference being to criticism that Xbox is perhaps blurring the division between console generations too much. "Generations of games that play on latest [hardware] taking advantage of next-gen innovation, offering more choice, value & variety than any console launch ever," is how Greenberg characterizes his view of the upcoming generation.
What Aaron Greenberg is responding to, more specifically, is Xbox's dedication to cross-platform game support even through the launch of the Xbox Series X. For first-party games, Xbox is ensuring that all of its titles will work on both the Xbox Series X as well as the Xbox One. That's at least in part due to Microsoft's implementation of Game Pass, so that subscribers will be able to continue playing all of the games they subscribed for regardless of the console hardware they own.
This has become a somewhat contentious issue due to perceived philosophical differences with Sony. Sony's promised that it will deliver first-party games that run exclusively on the PlayStation 5, games that won't work on the PS4. Some PlayStation fans have decided that this means Sony is ensuring its games are built entirely for the better hardware and that cross-gen games are somehow hobbling themselves.
The idea that Microsoft is hobbling its games to ensure they run on Xbox One in addition to Xbox Series X is, of course, absurd. Game developers are more than capable of scaling down graphics for less powerful hardware without harming performance on cutting edge hardware. But rather than focus on that, Greenberg wants Xbox fans to know what its goals are and why its cross-generation focus is important for those goals.
Behind those goals is a very transparent logic, of course. While Microsoft absolutely wants people to buy new console hardware, it's as much or more of a priority to get Xbox users subscribing to Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live, and to play as many Xbox games as possible. PlayStation, meanwhile, prioritizes selling consoles much more heavily, so it puts exclusives on PS5 to ensure as many fans transfer to the next generation as fast as possible.
As for the quality of either PlayStation or Xbox's games, fans will have to judge each game independently as they launch alongside next-gen consoles this holiday.