Why I’m hooked on PlayStation and will never get an Xbox

I’m calling it now: The console wars are over, at least as far as PlayStation and Xbox are concerned. Nintendo is its own beast, one that hasn’t been going head-to-head with PlayStation or Xbox for over a decade. Looking at the current landscape, future offerings, and plans, as well as their histories, I can now definitively say I have no reason to ever switch to team Xbox again.

This might sound like the ramblings of a fanboy, but trust me when I say that I have never, and will never, buy a console just because one company or another made it. I began with the NES, SNES, and N64, then shifted to the PS2 and later the 360, and back to PlayStation with the PS4 and PS5. Of course, the PC has been a constant during that time as well. However, in terms of dedicated gaming consoles, I just have no interest or incentive to even consider getting a current or future Xbox. It may not seem like there would be a huge gap in the quality of experiences you can get on either platform, but after a lot of thought, I’ve compiled this list of reasons why I will never buy an Xbox again.

PlayStation 5 Console

The PS5 launched in late 2020. There’s also the newer PS5 Slim, which costs $449.99 for the Digital and $499.99 for the standard Slim console. You can also add a disc drive to the Slim Digital Edition console for $79.99.

1 More exclusive titles with variety

Last of Us, God of War… Give me all the PS games

Where else could I reasonably start than with the actual games? That’s why we buy these consoles, right? I don’t think it’s a controversial statement to say that PlayStation has blown Xbox out of the water in terms of console-exclusive games for at least the past two generations. We’re talking about the Uncharted and Last of Us series, Spider-Man, God of War, Bloodborne, and so many more. If you add in third-party exclusives, it almost becomes comical how much more variety you get on a PlayStation than on an Xbox.

The real nail in the coffin on this topic was the news that Xbox would be releasing four formerly exclusive games, Hi-Fi Rush, Pentiment, Sea of Thieves, and Grounded, on competitor platforms. While there are only four games (for now), this has broken the trust between Xbox and its players that you need an Xbox to play any of its exclusives. Moving forward, I will always assume there’s a chance any Xbox exclusive title will come to PlayStation. If PlayStation is steadfast in keeping its exclusives to itself (and PC) and Xbox isn’t, then I’d only be giving up exclusives by going to Xbox when PlayStation gets it all.

2 The classic PS catalog

I get to relive my old favorites

Honestly, PlayStation was way behind in this regard until very recently. It was probably because Xbox was doing so much in terms of giving players access to older games in a convenient way that PlayStation realized it needed to respond. I’ll be the first to admit that the rollout and pricing of the classic collection isn’t ideal. However, Xbox just can’t compete with the length or quality of the legacy games PlayStation has.

Even if you don’t care about the PS1, PSP, and PS2 era of games, I think anyone can still at least appreciate the huge backlog of PS4 games included in the Extra tier. For someone like me who enjoys dipping back into some nostalgic games from time to time, having a growing list of PS1 games I can download and play for an hour on a whim without having to dig out old hardware is perfect.

3 My PlayStation library

A digital collection that can go from one gen to the next

Without even trying, I have accumulated hundreds, if not over a thousand, games on my PSN account. I don’t buy many games either, but PlayStation offers three, sometimes four, games for free every month to anyone with at least the lowest tier subscription. I’ve added every game offered since I joined in 2013, even if I had no interest in playing it at the time, which has resulted in a situation where I could basically play only games from my library for the rest of my life.

Head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, was right on the money when he said that Xbox lost the most important generation with the Xbox One. That was a turning point for games where people transitioned from building physical game libraries to digital ones. Aside from convenience, the best advantage of our digital collections is that they will follow us from one generation to the next. The simple fact that I would lose access to potentially thousands of games by switching to Xbox is more than enough to deter me.

4 New and interesting hardware

PlayStation is always experimenting

For better or for worse, PlayStation is constantly trying new things with its hardware. The PSP and Vita were amazing handhelds for their time, and the new PSVR2 headset is an amazing piece of tech that just needs some software support. There’s also the PlayStation Portal for remote play, cameras, headphones, and more. None have quite panned out to be a new pillar in the business, but PlayStation is at least trying to branch out into these new areas. That’s more than I can say for Xbox, which is looking more and more like it wants to get away from hardware entirely.

I also have to give a personal shoutout to the DualSense controller. Personally, I find this to be the perfect balance between adding a gimmick to your console (like motion controls on the Wii) without it being so essential that every game needs to work around it. Everything from the touchpad and motion sensor to haptic feedback and adaptive triggers are all available when developers see them as a way to enhance the game, but can be left out with no downsides. Now, if only we could get better battery life.

5 Confidence in the brand

PlayStation is committed to gaming

The average game player doesn’t tend to delve into the intricacies of the gaming industry as much as I do, but one benefit is that I have full confidence PlayStation isn’t going anywhere. Xbox, well, I’m not so sure. Increasingly, it seems like the latter is pivoting to be more of a service than a hardware provider.

What makes me feel more secure with PlayStation than Xbox is their parent companies. PlayStation is owned by Sony, and Xbox by Microsoft, and there are some key differences there. For one, Sony has always manufactured hardware, from TVs to CD players; it is in the business of making physical products just as much as software. Microsoft, on the other hand, essentially just sells the Xbox in terms of hardware. Everything else it does, and how it makes the vast majority of its money, is in software. While Xbox is profitable, it is not something Microsoft as a whole needs and can easily dissolve without worry. PlayStation, on the other hand, is the most profitable division within Sony. Sony will do everything it can to support PlayStation because it wouldn’t survive without it.

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