Not too long ago, purchasing a gaming console was seen as a sign of political loyalty. You were either a PlayStation or an Xbox. If you wanted to be the quiet outcast at the lunch table, consider Nintendo. The decision determined the games you could play, the people you could play with, and the online arguments you would unavoidably run into at two in the morning. It’s not quite dead, but it’s barely hanging on, and it wasn’t some audacious corporate choice that put it there. It was crossplay, which entered the industry slowly, messily, and almost unintentionally.
In 2018, Xbox and Nintendo players were merrily shooting at each other across hardware lines, but Sony was still preventing cross-platform multiplayer in Fortnite. Later, it was discovered through confidential documents that Sony had vigorously opposed it because they were concerned about the impact on their ecosystem. Watching Forza Horizon 5 launch on the PS5 and Stellar Blade abandon its PlayStation exclusivity for a PC release makes that resistance seem almost endearing. The walls collapsed and did not rise again.
Circana’s executive director, Mat Piscatella, has been direct about the situation. He recently pointed out that, thanks to platform launches, games continue to reappear on sales charts months after their original run. The pattern is too regular to ignore, indicating that the previous strategy—locking a game to a single box and hoping it sells hardware—just doesn’t yield the same results. He contends that people are no longer switching consoles for exclusives. They are restricted to trophy systems, digital libraries, and friend lists. The only remaining tactic is to deliver the content to them.
You can sense the change in the atmosphere when you stroll through a gaming convention today. The screens are still huge and the booths are still noisy, but the tribalism has given way to something more practical. Instead of discussing the logo on the box, players discuss where their friends are. Discord is now compatible with the PS5 and Xbox, removing the final social barrier that once divided communities based on hardware. More than any advertising campaign, crossplay’s practicality—matching into the same lobby regardless of platform—has undermined console loyalty.
The shift hasn’t been easy, though. Version control is still a real pain, especially for smaller studios attempting to simultaneously synchronize updates across four or five platforms. The crossplay feature of the popular off-road simulator SnowRunner was repeatedly taken offline while developers rushed to align builds. The mouse-versus-controller divide continues to cause friction in competitive shooters like Call of Duty, with PC players complaining about aim assist and console players complaining about PC precision. The debate over which box was better has been replaced by a new type of argument.
Microsoft, on the other hand, appears to have calmly accepted its position in the hardware race. According to a recent earnings report, Xbox hardware sales fell 29% year over year, and the original Switch, which debuted in 2017, has outsold the Series consoles in addition to the PS5 and Switch 2. Microsoft isn’t attempting to out-console Sony or Nintendo, according to Phil Spencer. According to reports, the company’s next-generation hardware blurs the distinction that previously defined the entire competition by leaning more toward a PC than a conventional console.
As usual, Nintendo distinguishes itself from all of this. It’s difficult to dispute Piscatella’s description of them as unicorns. Crossplay discussions hardly touch the frequency at which their brand loyalty operates. Unlike others, they don’t have to worry about Fortnite. Mario is one of them.
Tribalism and nostalgia are stubborn, so it’s possible that the console war will resurface in some diminished form. However, the structural factors that supported it for many years are deteriorating more quickly than anyone anticipated. Crossplay was more than just a practicality. It turned out that the conflict was never truly between the businesses. Players wanted to play together, but the industry kept telling them they couldn’t. Closing the gates again would seem more spiteful than strategic now that they are open.
