The PS5 is the successor to Sony’s PlayStation 4. For some time now, Microsoft has been working on its next console: Xbox Series X. This new system will face off against Sony’s new entry in March 2020 and, with all eyes focused on it as of right now, there are plenty of reasons not to be excited about what this could mean for gamers.
Gran Turismo 7 is proof of why the Xbox Series X is better than the PlayStation 5. The game looks stunning and plays smoothly on a console that costs less than PS5.
Gran Turismo 7’s first month hasn’t been easy (pic: Sony)
A reader expresses his dissatisfaction with Sony’s handling of Gran Turismo 7’s issues and explains why he decided to get an Xbox Series X instead.
I was ready to write a Reader’s Feature on the debacle that has been Gran Turismo 7, until I heard that Sony has made a massive U-turn, just as GC predicted. This is the latest in a long series of PlayStation 5 U-turns, which have included free (but generally not free) upgrades, cross-gen releases, and cross-play. They’re continuously making stupid mistakes that anybody might have predicted and then having to publicly apologize for them.
I’ve loved previous Gran Turismo games a lot, and this one seems to be a terrific entry on paper, if it hadn’t been wrecked by selfish decision makers at the top. You can argue that’s not uncommon for any firm, but this is such fundamental stuff, particularly when it comes to the issue of microtransactions, which I thought we’d addressed with Star Wars: Battlefront 2 a long time ago.
The strange thing about Gran Turismo 7 is that Sony apparently felt that increasing the simplicity with which you may acquire ‘free’ in-game cash only a few weeks after launch would go unnoticed. If you’re going to force people into microtransactions, that’s terrible, but at the very least be professional about it. There would have been less objections if they’d done it that way from the start, but no, you release it as an update and then have the director say it’s doing the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to accomplish.
Furthermore, after 30 hours of evidence that it is a horrible idea, they still haven’t addressed why the game is online-only or why they aren’t doing anything to fix it. It’s one thing to be a greedy company; it’s another to be a greedy, inept corporation.
I’m going to say now that you don’t see Xbox doing this, which is correct, but there’s a reason for it, and it’s not because they’re a “better” or “more moral” corporation. It’s because they were penalized for quite similar faults previous generation and have learned their lessons. Not entirely, since Halo Infinite has some issues with microtransactions, but you don’t see them committing blunders on the magnitude of Gran Turismo 7.
Microsoft needed a thrashing last generation, and Sony, I believe, needs one this generation, otherwise they’ll continue to deteriorate. Although the PlayStation 5 is now outselling Microsoft in terms of sales, I believe Sony recognizes that their long-term prospects are significantly less assured, and that they must step up their game if they want to compete with Microsoft. That means no more blunders that everyone else who has ever played a game can see coming a mile away but which you somehow persuade yourself is a good idea.
This is true of all businesses. They’re all after the FIFA and Fortnite cash, which is spent on useless digital products that need no work to generate. As a result, publishers just add comparable features to as many games as possible and hurl them up the wall to see which ones stay. Gran Turismo 7 didn’t work out, and I have no faith in Sony’s decision to try again with the next acceptable game.
We’ve all heard about Sony’s hubris, and I believe it’s true, just as Microsoft’s arrogance is real when things go well for them. But I’m not going to wait for my argument to be proved again.
With the recent inflow of Xbox Series X consoles into UK retailers, I purchased one and will continue to use it this generation. Maybe Microsoft will follow Sony’s lead, but you have to make a choice at some point, and Sony’s poor handling of Gran Turismo 7 and all the other backtracking this generation has turned me off.
Camber, a reader
The reader’s feature does not necessarily reflect GameCentral or Metro’s opinions.
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The “xbox series x msrp” is a proof of why the Xbox Series X is better than the PlayStation 5. The main reason being that it’s cheaper, and has more games available.
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