The back-and-forth battle between Xbox One pre-orders and PS4 pre-orders has waged since Microsoft and Sony announced their respective consoles’ pricing and release this holiday season. But while the posturing among fanboys has focused on hardware pre-orders, nobody’s discussed how game pre-orders are performing. That tale is equally interesting, because the trend in Xbox One games pre-orders may not bode well for Microsoft’s console. In fact, Amazon data
Sony seems to have a pre-order advantage when it comes to hardware, with two options for stand-alone PS4 pre-orders and four separate PS4 launch-day bundles
The software side of things tells a far different story — and that’s not necessarily a good thing for Microsoft. Xbox One games pre-orders show a decided advantage for first-party titles
Nintendo is synonymous with first-party console dominance, a trend that goes all the way back to the original NES and Super Mario Bros. In many cases, being associated with Nintendo isn’t a bad thing, but when it comes to first-party dominance on a given platform, it’s a place to tread lightly. The Wii U is one recent example, as EA announced it has no third-party games in development at all for the system while Nintendo trotted out a deluge of first-party games as a sign of the console’s vitality. But those first-party games are generally all the system has, even a mere seven months after release. The last time we saw this trend was with the ill-fated GameCube, which stayed afloat only due to of first-party games before finally petering out.
The third-party situation with Xbox One games seems to be following a similar path. Microsoft has some great-looking first-party Xbox One games on the horizon, but its strongest third-party titles are multiplatform and will also appear on PS4. One could make the argument that Sony has announced fewer first-party games in general, thus leading to a lower uptake of first-party PS4 games pre-orders. The flip side would be noting that Microsoft has nabbed first-party publishing rights for some titles that in previous generations would’ve been third-party Xbox One games. For instance, Microsoft is publishing Dead Rising 3, which comes from a Capcom series, and the first-party game Sunset Overdrive is being developed by Insomniac Games, traditionally a Sony partner.
Still, seeing the sheer dominance of first-party Xbox One games could be great news for gamers wanting reassurance that there won’t be garbageware on the Xbox One — or it could be a warning sign that the Xbox One could become the next Nintendo GameCube. Is the prevalence of first-party titles a sign of Microsoft’s internal dedication to an outstanding launch, or a sign of its overreliance on its own studios for Xbox One games because outside publishers have been more keen on the PS4 behind closed doors? Most third-party booths at E3, for instance, showed the PS4 versions when there was a behind-closed-doors demo. What do you think? Is the Xbox One games pre-order trend a good or bad development for Microsoft? Sound off in the comments below.