As much as I hate the tremendously toxic waste of time that is the Console War, I don’t mind a bit of friendly rivalry between the Big Two. After this week’s PlayStation Showcase, Microsoft took a playful shot at Sony on Twitter. Xbox shared an image of all 12 games shown during the PlayStation Showcase that are also coming to Xbox, with the caption “What a good looking group” and a cool guy sunglasses emoji that I can’t recreate, but you know the one I’m talking about. In a cheeky way, Xbox is pointing out how few exclusives Sony was able to show during its own showcase, while also flipping the current narrative that Xbox doesn’t have any games.
There’s nothing underhanded or dishonest about Sony including multiplatform games in its showcase. Creating the association between a game and the PlayStation, even if that game is on Xbox too, is effective. I can tell you with certainty that Spider-Man 2 is a PlayStation exclusive, but what about the rest? I have no idea which games were multiplatform, but I do know they’re on PlayStation, and I’ll remember where I first heard about them when they eventually do come out. Sony gets a lot of value out of debuting games in its own showcase, even if they’re not exclusives.
At the same time, Xbox's meme made me realize how little of what Sony showed is actually exclusive to PlayStation. Among the 12 games in the post are Alan Wake 2, Snake Eater Remake, Ghostrunner 2, Immortal of Aveum, Marathon, Assassin's Creed: Mirage, and The Talos Principle 2, which is essentially every major reveal Sony had in its showcase. Xbox could have also mentioned Street Fighter 6 or Destiny 2: The Final Shape, since they're both coming to Series X/S as well. It was a fine video game showcase, but it wasn't a very good PlayStation showcase.
Spider-Man 2, Final Fantasy 16, Granblue Fantasy: Relink, Foamstars, Helldivers 2, and a handful of VR titles are the only games I can pinpoint as true PlayStation console exclusives from the showcase, and the only games differentiating PlayStation from Xbox in the near future. I don't want to sell any of those titles short (except Foamstars) and both Spidey and FF16 are about as big as games get, but with all things being equal, and with Starfield and Hellblade 2 on the horizon, it sure doesn't feel like Sony's offerings are that far ahead of Microsoft's right now.
Redfall undoubtedly did damage to Xbox's reputation, and I share the common opinion that Xbox needs to step up and start delivering some games. But after this showcase, I'm starting to wonder if PlayStation isn't exactly setting the world on fire with first-party hits. The PS VR2 felt more like a main course than something a little extra from the showcase, and without the extended Spider-Man trailer, I think we'd be just as worried about PlayStation today as we've been about Xbox since Redfall came out.
It's not like we don't have plenty of new games right now, but I expected a PlayStation showcase would focus on PlayStation games. Instead, Sony showed us a whole bunch of games that I'm going to enjoy playing for free on Game Pass a year from now. If that had been an Xbox showcase that ended with Starfield instead of Spider-Man 2, I think people would be a lot more critical about what we saw, or more specifically, what we didn't.