Forbes doesn’t have a good opinion of Microsoft‘s new console. However, the site praised Sony’s new hardware.

Forbes hosts an article by Matt Gardener, who went as far as saying the Xbox Series X is nothing more than the biggest gaming disappointment of the year. While acknowledging that it has good features, such as quick loading times, dynamic lighting or solid frame rates, Gardener was harsh: „Thanks to Microsoft’s platform-wide OS, a lack of optimized games, as well as the comparatively decent technical performance of the Xbox One X that came before it, there’s nothing particularly stunning about the Xbox Series X in 2020, save for its monolithic design. It doesn’t feel exciting-just an inevitable upgrade for gamers like me who’ve bought into the Microsoft gaming ecosystem,” he wrote.

Gardener added that the launch line-ups have been important as early as in the era of the SEGA Genesis (or SEGA Mega Drive in Europe). He added, „Halo Infinite is infinitely delayed, and even upon release, it’ll be the last standalone game in the series for a decade. Other games like Fable, State of Decay 3 and Forza are planned, but lacking solid release dates. Most of the rest of the hyped “exclusives”, like Psychonauts 2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, are simply being released earlier on the Series X: the stupidest marketing ploy in gaming, whoever’s doing it.” On the other hand, he praised Sony for confirming release windows for games like Horizon Forbidden West, while Microsoft remains silent. However, he seems to have forgotten that Halo 4 launched in 2012, followed by Halo 5 in 2015.

VG Chartz reports somewhat clearer sales figures of the PlayStation 5. According to the site, the PlayStation 5 Standard Edition and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition sold a total of 723341 units during launch week in Europe, beating the PlayStation 4 in the process (706948). But what about the Xbox Series X and the Xbox Series S? Approximately 82073 sales. So 9:1 ratio in Sony‘s favour…?!

The Americas have a different scenario: here, Microsoft’s two consoles sold about 150908 units for the launch week, slightly beating Sony (142081), but if we look at the total sales figures, the PlayStation 5 has an advantage over the Xbox Series.

However, Gardener’s article is quite one-sided, and the PlayStation 5 has issues, too – for example, it can lock up during games several times, which can only be fixed by unplugging the console. Some features, such as image sharing via Twitter, might not even work. The launch titles can also receive this train of thought: there’s a somewhat niche game’s remake that lacks ray tracing and strong haptic features (Demon’s Souls), a DLC that effectively became a standalone title (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales), and a game that might not look that impressive technically at first glance, aimed at children with its visuals játék (Sackboy: A Big Adventure) – it’s not that strong of a launch either, especially how two of these three games are on PlayStation 4, too.

When will Sony publish sales figures?

Source: PSU, PSL

Please support our page theGeek.games on Patreon, so we can continue to write you the latest gaming, movie and tech news and reviews as an independent magazine.
Become a Patron!