When 2016 started off, many were pretty confident that Sony and their PlayStation brand would dominate the gaming world for yet another year thanks to upcoming hardware announcements and several big hitters being slated for release in the calendar year. Microsoft, on the other hand, had Gears of War 4 and Quantum Break to show off, but no new hardware. On top of this, Sony was widely expected to release a far more powerful console and gamers were eagerly speculating on what the console would be capable of, to their detriment.
The year started off quite slow, with Microsoft launching several small titles along with Quantum Break. Sony, on the other hand, dominated the news cycle with Uncharted 4 launching and every Youtube personality and their dog talking about the coming Sony hardware revolution alongside their VR headset. With E3 coming up people were expecting Microsoft to announce a slimmer version of the Xbox One, but nothing of the sort leaked. That was until Brad Sams (@bdsams) broke the seal on what Microsoft was actually working on.
Microsoft caught everyone off guard announcing Project Scorpio at E3, featuring 6Tflops of computing power and a guaranteed 4K experience that put the Sony PlayStation Pro to shame. Even though at that point the exact specifications weren’t known, many speculated that Sony would ‘fix’ these inadequacies with a quick hardware upgrade which never materialized. Sony quickly announced their answer but it was too late.
Xbox quickly dominated the sales cycle thanks to the spectacular update to the Xbox One they released, featuring a 4K Blu-ray player and 4K upscaling for games for a mere $299. Sony also announced a slimmer version of their console but it was too little too late. The consecutive announcement of both the Pro and the Slim pro-actively killed interest in any product from Sony. The Xbox One S—contrary to what the media was saying—shrugged off the announcement of the Scorpio and rushed up to become a favorite amongst gamers and media enthusiasts alike. The Xbox One S grabbed 4 consecutive NPD wins and becoming the best selling console in many countries around the world.
For Sony, however, this was pretty bad news. The Sony PlayStation 4 Pro launched with pretty tepid enthusiasm amongst gamers, with Xbox dominating Black Friday thanks to several spectacular sales. The PlayStation VR was met with collective ‘meh’ from consumers as analysts quickly updated their sales forecasts for the headset from 2 Million units to just 750000 for the year, with it being unclear if the console VR experience would actually reach these lofty numbers with many reviewers being very unimpressed overall.
Microsoft started the holiday season off strong with the launch of the Xbox One Slim, and along with that they launched big hitting exclusive games like Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Dead Rising 4, Recore. Not to mention the massively popular launch of Battlefield 1 which carried the Xbox branding on all advertisements which upset a select few in the anti-Xbox camp.
Sony, on the other hand, revealed that their holiday line-up was getting delayed into infinity with GT Sport being delayed until further notice. However, recently the 10 years delayed PlayStation 2 game “The Last Guardian” finally launched and received mixed reviews from big outlets. Sony closed the year with their PlayStation experience, showing off more games that would take several years to launch like The Last of Us 2, and the upcoming exclusive Death Stranding from the new Kojima outfit.
It’s pretty clear, and Microsoft is on point when they say that 2016 was a turning point for Xbox. With blockbuster releases and hardware that won’t stay on shelves for more than 5 minutes along with the gangbuster announcement that Microsoft will take the power crown next year. Xbox clearly won 2016, and 2017 will be a very important year for them to see if they can keep the momentum going. Sony, on the other hand, needs to really pull their socks up since their ‘free pass’ can only last so long before the reality distortion field disappears and gamers realize that they have been led astray with broken promises and cash grabs.
With 2017 a few weeks away and Microsoft getting ready for another year of announcements like Project Scorpio, Scalebound, Forza Motorsport 7, Halo Wars 2, Crackdown 3, and many other unannounced exclusive games that will destroy the competition; it’s pretty much the best time ever to be an Xbox gamer.
Dreyer was a regular ICXM contributor between 2016–2017, publishing 139 articles across opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news. Their work focused on hands-on reviews, platform commentary, and breaking-news reporting during the Xbox One X launch year and Microsoft’s wider Play Anywhere / UWP gaming initiative. They post on X as @dreyer_smit.