Road to NextGen 2020

NextGen One Month In: Has it Launched If You Can’t Find It?

The PS5 and Xbox Series were never going to have a problem-free start in 2020… but this is kind of pushing it

The PlayStation5 and the Xbox Series S|X remain almost impossible to find anywhere, begging the question: “Have they really launched or did we get just a 2021 preview a few weeks back?” (Image credit: Sony)

So I’ve been using the PlayStation5 for more than a month now and, in the meantime, Microsoft launched the Xbox Series S|X globally with Sony following suit a few days later. These powerful new systems made a lot of promises and managed to keep many of them — you were not really expecting them to keep each and every one of those, right? — hence the positive impressions posted by developers, journalists, influencers and consumers alike. The PS5 and the Xbox Series X offer great value for money, with the discless version of the former and Xbox Series S trailing behind in that regard but offering that all-important lower price point of entry.

Now that the dust has started to settle, though, a number of things are becoming apparent. One: the power of the PlayStation brand remains much stronger than that of the Xbox regardless of hardware. The PS5 is already in the hands of almost 2.5 million people (both versions accounted for) whereas the two new Xbox models put together have barely surpassed the 1.5 million mark so far, despite launching a week earlier. Sony’s well-rounded launch…