It’s Jun 18, 2025, and Microsoft has just entered the so-called console wars by releasing its first home gaming system, the Xbox. The tech conglomerate’s chief competition is the PlayStation 2, Sony’s second console (which would go on to be the best-selling console of all time), and the similarly boxy-named GameCube fromNintendo, originally a 19th-century playing card company that became a household name and, to tech-illiterate grandparents, a moniker for video games at large.
This is the console war that has dominated the gaming industry for over two decades, but may have just ended in August 2025. Here’s where I tell you that “the console wars” are nothing more than a capitalistic ploy, perpetuated to evoke tribal favoritism in consumers and build brands people can feel they are a part of. But the name sounds really cool and there’s legitimate industry competition to analyze –a competition that Nintendo appears to be winning, at least by very specific, but nonetheless meaningful, metrics.
PlayStation Is “Moving Away From” A Primary Focus On Console Exclusivity
Sorry Ponies, PlayStation Is A “Platform” Now
In a panel on July 01, 2025, regarding Sony’s earnings in the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year, senior vice president Sadahiko Hayakawa said, “In the gaming business, we are moving away from a hardware-centric business model more to a platform business that expands the community and increases engagement.” The translation comes fromGenki, a reporter on the Japanese gaming industry, and if you really want to dive in, here’s a pdf fromSonytranscribing the panel with lots of bullet points and graphs.
Many will note that this is well in line with Sony Interactive Entertainment’s strategy over the course of the PlayStation 5 generation, but it’s notable because of how plainly it’s been explained. “Moving away from a hardware-centric business model” meansSony is less concerned with shipping consoles and games, and is focused on “a platform business,” i.e. a destination for users to find a wide array of entertainment.
This corresponds with the noticeable lack of first-party exclusives compared to generations past. Said pdf references just two releasing in 2025:Death Stranding 2: On the Beach(a masterpiece,according to my review) and the upcomingGhost of Yōtei. In fact, if you look at a graph on page 11 of the pdf – brought to my attention by the similarly Kyle-namedKyle Bosman’s weekly Delayed Input show – “Network Services,” meaning PlayStation Plus, is a significant chunk of SIE’s revenue this fiscal year.
PlayStation Plus has long been playing second fiddle to Xbox Game Pass in, let’s say, the subscription wars, but that’s of little consequence when PS5 sales are tracking ahead of the very successful PlayStation 4. But what Hayakawa’s words have been taken to mean is that Sony will go multi-platform. The only problem with that analysis is thatPlayStation games are already multi-platform.
Helldivers 2on Xbox only counts for half because developer Arrowhead Game Studios isn’t part of PlayStation Studios, but it’s on PC too.God of War,Horizon,Marvel’s Spider-Man,Ghost of Tsushima,The Last of Us,Uncharted,Ratchet & Clank(don’t forget my beloved, criminally underratedReturnal)…all these names synonymous with PlayStation are not PlayStation exclusives, and they haven’t been for years. Oh yeah, andLEGO Horizon Adventuresis on the Nintendo Switch.
Xbox Is Already A Glorified Third-Party Publisher
Sorry Xbots, Xbox Has Been A “Platform” For A While Already
Sony is more cautiously taking a similar tack to Microsoft, which, if we’re talking console wars, is the big loser. To preface:Game Pass is a massive revenue stream, and Microsoft will continue to be a major force in the gaming industry even with the diminished presence of Xbox consoles and after cruellylaying off thousands of workersand practicallybragging about it.
However, console sales are down tremendously, and Xbox has been mired in a long strategic change arguably incited by its rightfully mocked unveiling of the Xbox One – and the subsequent salt in the wound fromPlayStation’s Used Game Instructional Video.There haven’t been Xbox exclusives in a long time, since all Xbox Game Studios titles release the same day on PC.
Xbox has long been the “platform business that expands the community and increases engagement” that PlayStation is now plainly angling toward. Since it entered the console wars, Xbox has consistently lost. The PlayStation 2 dominated the sixth generation, and even Microsoft’s most successful system, the Xbox 360, was ultimately overtaken (by just a few million unit sales) by the PlayStation 3 in the seventh generation. The Xbox One was trounced by the PS4, and now the Series X/S isn’t faring much better against the PS5.
But I would argue thatthe console wars aren’t simply about hardware sales; there is less tangible data to consider. During the eighth generation, if I had to crown a winner, it would have been PlayStation because of its wealth of first-party exclusives which made the PS4 so popular. In a post-exclusive era for both PlayStation and Xbox, though, it’s hard to assess the competition so straightforwardly.
Nintendo Won The Console Wars In A Very Specific Way
Is There A Pejorative For Nintendo Fans?
If you want to playHalo, you don’t necessarily need an Xbox. If you want to playGod of War, you don’t necessarily need a PlayStation. If you want to playMario, orZelda, orPokémon, orAnimal Crossing, orMetroid, orSplatoon, orXenoblade, orFire Emblem, orPikmin, you need a Nintendo console. It’s quite remarkable that, after the disappointment of the GameCube and the relative failure of the Wii U, Nintendo is the hardware manufacturer that has stubbornly kept its games exclusive to its own systems.
The DS and the Switch were massively popular, and the Switch 2 seems well on its way to being another hit, but I’d argue the console wars more or less fizzled out, andNintendo is simply the last one holding on, winning almost by default. Xbox is trying to sell you Game Pass, and PlayStation is still trying to sell you games, but now in more places, content to let its consoles continue as the most popular destination for cutting-edge AAA games on console.
At one point, it felt like Nintendo had simply bowed out of the console wars, trading the latest in graphical fidelity for a laser focus on satisfying gameplay. It’s odd now to see the Switch and Switch 2 become the last stalwart defenders of the old way. If you own a PC, you can play Xbox games, and will likely get PlayStation games eventually; you cannot playDonkey Kong Bananzaunless you buy a Switch 2.
If the goal of the console wars was to be the last company that refuses to put its first-party games on any other platforms, then yes, Nintendo has won. Nintendo is the last company leaning almost entirely on first-party exclusives. An Xbox is appealing because you can get Game Pass. A PlayStation is appealing because Sony’s first-party games release there first, and you can get most modern third-party titles. ANintendo, as tech-illiterate grandparents might still call it, is appealing because it’s the last combatant in the console wars, since there’s nowhere else to play the company’s bona fide system sellers.
Nintendo
Nintendo is one of the world’s most successful and popular video game companies. It was founded in 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, who started the company by making Japanese playing cards. When Nintendo broke into the video game industry, it exploded in popularity. Nintendo has released several consoles over the years, such as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Nintendo 64, Gameboy, Wii, and the Nintendo Switch. The company has also created several iconic franchises like Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Pokémon.
