By Tommy Steimer and Noah Coss

For the last twenty-five years three companies have been waging war with each other over the title of “best video game console”. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Sony has had five generations of the PlayStation, a home video game console that has vastly improved throughout the different consoles. Similarly, Microsoft has ownership of the Xbox home video game systems that have directly rivaled Sony’s systems throughout the years. Finally, we have the odd one out; Nintendo. Nintendo has been releasing consoles with a “gimmick” since 1983. From the Wii with innovative motion controls, the Nintendo Switch with detachable controllers on a portable console, or wacky ahh Nintendo 64 controllers.

Xbox has always been the close contender to Playstation for a few reasons. One of the stand outs being its cloud gaming and online network capability, which used to be in the form of an affordable cheat and convenient subscription. Xbox Game Pass is one of the best things about Xbox because with Game Pass Ultimate you would have access to some of the best features. These include Xbox Live Gold (online multiplayer access), the ability to play major titles the day they come out, EA Play, Ubisoft +, a massive rotating library of games that you could download for free, and cloud gaming letting you play from any device with no latency. This sounds incredibly enticing until you realize that Microsoft changed the cost to $29.99 a month. 

This is just one checkpoint in a frustrating journey where Microsoft just price hikes everything. Game Pass Ultimate has always been pretty affordable, even at its former $19.99 a month which, compared to other subscription plans, isn’t that bad. But as of early last month, Game Pass peaked at a Netflix level subscription price. For context, Netflix’s Premium Plan is $24.99 a month. Not to mention you’re already paying a fortune for the actual console. The most recent Xbox, the Xbox Series X, sold for what was originally $499.99 and as of early October, the price was somehow raised to $649.99. But for that massive bill, Xbox is still worth buying over a PS5 because of great Xbox exclusives…Right? 

“Who’s the best out of three, I would probably say Sony because just they’re exclusive, they’re doing good their choices are really fun I would say Sony’s on top then Microsoft and then Nintendo.” – Senior Dylan Puntos.

What sets Playstation apart from Xbox is mainly the price and exclusives. A PlayStation 5 costs $549.99 and the PlayStation Plus subscription comes in at $17.99 a month, which offers online multiplayer, a large catalog of classic PlayStation exclusive games, the ability to stream games, and gives you Share Play. Game Pass is often viewed as better since it offers more value than PS Plus despite being more expensive. Aside from price, it is almost pointless to argue which console is more powerful because they are essentially on the same level. But when it comes to exclusives, Xbox has nothing on PlayStation because they literally don’t have anything anymore. Last month, it was announced that the next Halo game, the OG Xbox exclusive, is set to release on Xbox Series X, PC, and PlayStation 5. This ends almost 25 years of exclusivity for Xbox.

As stated before, Nintendo has been the odd one out from Microsoft and Sony for quite some time. Nintendo has always focused on uniqueness and exclusives that you can only play on their system. Unfortunately, with the launch of the Nintendo Switch 1 and 2 they have realized that no one else can buy their games. Since the games are all exclusive, Nintendo can jack up the prices to $70-$80 per game. One contingency about Nintendo is that much of their fan base will blindly buy their games over nostalgia factor. Senior student at Innovation Academy, Andre Estoquia, “I have Nintendo ranked over Playstation and Xbox because I have so many memories destroying Noah Coss in smash brothers”. 

People may say that Sony has won the console war. However, each end is only just a new beginning. On that note, it doesn’t matter anymore because in the end PC (personal computers) will always end up on top. They are the most customizable, most powerful, and most versatile way to play games. Valve, the company that owns the Steam deck and Steam (powerful PC software for playing games from almost all consoles) has recently announced their all new “Steam Machine”. A PC Console hybrid that can do almost anything.