The recent multiformat releases of Gears Of War and Helldivers 2 have fans of both PlayStation and Xbox celebrating the perceived end of the console wars.
While console wars have been a defining aspect of the video game industry almost since its inception, the sentiment has become increasingly less relevant in recent years, thanks to the decreasing importance of format exclusives and Xbox no longer rivalling PlayStation in terms of hardware sales.
As cross-platform support becomes more commonplace, and especially once Microsoft opted to make its exclusives available on other formats, it’s seemed as if the whole concept of console wars might be coming to an end.
Even Sony has become willing to launch certain games on rival consoles and with the recent additions of Helldivers 2 on Xbox and Gears Of War on PlayStation 5, some fans think this truly marks the end of console rivaliry as we know it.
Talk of a console war armistice was sparked by a recent X post by DANNYonPC, who noted how surreal it is to see the official PlayStation and Xbox social media accounts promoting each other’s games, asking, ‘Is this the end of the console wars?’
The Xbox account currently has Helldivers 2 as its header image while the PlayStation account had Gears Of War… although at the time of writing, it’s since been replaced by Lost Soul Aside, following its launch this past Friday.
Regardless, judging by some of the responses to the post on X, people not only think this marks an end to the console wars but are very happy at that prospect.
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The post was shared on the Xbox subreddit by franz2595, who asked his fellow Redditors, ‘Who owns both consoles? I love them both.’
Surprisingly, rather than descend into tribalism, the comments contain plenty of people who agree, saying they also enjoy using both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
‘I own all current gen consoles, and I love seeing the walls start to break down between their libraries,’ says one, while another adds, ‘It’s so convenient! Console wars were never a thing to me.’
Even those who only stick with one console offered measured responses. For example, one Redditor says they’re an Xbox owner because ‘Game Pass in particular offers such incredible value that I’ve never felt inclined to buy a PlayStation. Plus, I don’t have the time to add Sony games to my backlog. It’s already too big.’
The top comments accurately point out that it’s very difficult to own every modern console, due to how expensive they all are, as opposed to, as one Redditor puts it, ‘the good old days when console prices reduced over time.’
We’re honestly a tad surprised to see this come out of the Xbox subreddit when there has been a lot of anger and hostility from Xbox owners about Microsoft’s multiplatform push, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer accused of ‘destroying’ the Xbox brand.
Clearly, that sentiment doesn’t represent as much of the Xbox community as you might think, and it’s irrelevant anyway as Microsoft’s decision has been vindicated by how well its games have been selling on PlayStation 5.
We checked to see if there was a similar thread on the PlayStation 5 subreddit and while we couldn’t find one, we did come across this thread of people discussing which Xbox games they want to see on Sony’s console, with the most popular suggestions being Halo and Fable.
That said, while the console wars may unofficially be over, we still expect the more extreme parts of the fandom to keep arguing with one another out of a sense of tradition, if nothing else.
It’s also worth remembering that Microsoft’s multiplatform strategy came about because it has decisively lost its battle with Sony; something Microsoft has publicly admitted.
The PlayStation 5 has comfortably beaten the Xbox Series X/S in terms of sales, so of course Microsoft would consider releasing its games on a platform most people actually own.
This is why Sony isn’t exactly jumping to port its exclusives to Xbox, although we could see more multiplatform releases from Sony, beyond just PC ports, in the future.
Aside from the Xbox port of Helldivers 2 (which is published by Sony but not made by an internal developer), Sony also launched Lego Horizon Adventures for the Nintendo Switch, but not Xbox.
Plus, this past July, it posted a job listing for someone who can help execute ‘the global commercial strategy for PlayStation Studios software titles across all digital platforms beyond PlayStation hardware, including Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox, Nintendo, and mobile.’
This then led to Patapon and Everybody’s Golf on Nintendo Switch, although, again, neither were released on Xbox.
The only console manufacturer with zero interest in multiplatform releases is Nintendo, but even it’s dabbled with the mobile market and is keen to expand on its theme park and movie projects as a means of making more money.
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