The PS5/Xbox console warfare reworked right into a race to inferiority

The ninth era of online game consoles kicked off with the same old celebration of bleeding-edge tech. However the final 5 years have additionally seen hardware-makers quickly broaden their focus to incorporate cheaper {hardware} at cheaper price factors, together with cloud gaming providers, handhelds, and even less-powerful consoles. Whereas there are numerous overlapping causes for this phenomenon, two massive ones are the resurgence of handheld gaming and the transition from conventional console setups to gaming ecosystems. A number of the greatest surprises of this era have emerged from trying backwards and sideways, as a substitute of at all times and solely ahead.

PlayStation

Photograph: Cameron Faulkner/Polygon

As not too long ago as December 2019, former PlayStation head Jim Ryan was telling press that handheld gaming was “a enterprise that we’re now not in.” It’s a press release that aged like nice milk. Within the late 2010s, many business insiders predicted that cellphones would spell doom for handheld gaming, however fortunately, it didn’t prove that manner. Buoyed by an enormous surge, because of the low-cost Change Lite in 2019 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons in 2020, the Change has continued to be a runaway success. By 2022, the Steam Deck had achieved the once-unthinkable, making the PC gaming expertise totally moveable.

When PlayStation first revealed its Portal distant handheld in 2023, its goofy-lookin’ design sparked loads of zingers, and it’s each bit as odd to take a look at in particular person. However for $200, it’s an ideal different to a devoted handheld for individuals who have a large library of PS4 and PS5 video games. (I’ve fond reminiscences of absorbing the Hawaiian vibes of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth from beneath my quilt throughout an particularly dreary January.) Higher nonetheless, the Portal simply received full Cloud Streaming help, which means customers now not should monopolize the PS5 console to play their video games. You’ll want a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription to the tune of $17.99 per 30 days, however given how a lot you could possibly pay for a Change 2, ROG Ally X, or Steam Deck, the Portal looks like a discount as compared. Perhaps it’s nonetheless not the Vita 2 we had been hoping for, nevertheless it’s a step in the best course that appeared flat-out not possible in 2020.

Whereas the value of a PS5 console at present ranges from $500 for the digital-only to $750 for the PS5 Professional (disc drive offered individually!), Sony has additionally introduced a region-locked, Japan-only PS5. It is priced at ¥55,000, or roughly $350, and may solely be used for a Japanese PlayStation account. So the current-gen consoles are getting cheaper — however not right here.

Xbox

Photograph: Maddy Myers/Polygon

Launched alongside the top-spec Xbox Collection X, the digital-only Xbox Collection S makes use of plenty of the identical elements, however renders video games in 1440p as a substitute of 4K decision. The twin {hardware} providing aimed to encourage a “softer” transition between generations, just like the PC house. Backward compatibility has constantly been a serious focus, with each consoles in a position to run gamers’ current libraries of Xbox One and Xbox 360 video games with improved efficiency and visuals. The Collection S was additionally a part of Microsoft’s technique to broaden its market share in Asia and Latin America, the place it had traditionally lagged behind Sony and Nintendo.

Microsoft’s mandate that video games be obtainable for each consoles has rankled some builders since launch — together with Management’s Treatment Leisure, Baldur’s Gate 3’s Larian Studios, and Black Fable: Wukong’s Recreation Science. These devs contend that optimizing for Collection S poses a big hurdle to porting video games to Xbox. Even so, the requirement doesn’t appear to be going wherever — again in January, Phil Spencer advised former IGN staffer Dustin Legarie that focusing on Collection S makes it simpler to port video games to handheld consoles just like the ROG Ally and Steam Deck.

With Xbox now dipping into the handheld house and inspiring players to play on good TVs and cellular gadgets — no console required — it’s not clear how a low-end console matches into the corporate’s technique going ahead. Nonetheless, I’ve at all times had a gentle spot for the Collection S. Not like its 2020 console brethren, it’s neither hideously ugly or not possible to cover inside a traditional piece of furnishings. It appears like a tasteful sizzling plate and simply meets the wants of most informal players. For a number of months in 2021, it was the one new-gen console you could possibly truly discover in a retailer, and you could possibly usually discover it at Costco for a cool $250. (In 2025, it retails for $399.)

Nintendo

Picture: Nintendo

Throughout the exact same week that noticed the launch of PS5 and Xbox Collection X, Nintendo launched a gloriously ’80s pocket handheld with the unique Tremendous Mario Bros. to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Recreation & Watch. It’s a tidy little encapsulation of the corporate’s pointed disinterest in promoting gamers bleeding-edge know-how only for the sake of it. A lot of Nintendo’s biggest {hardware} successes (just like the Recreation Boy and the Change) adhere to the design philosophy of the late Gunpei Yokoi: “lateral pondering with withered know-how.” In different phrases, it doesn’t have to be essentially the most superior factor in the marketplace, nevertheless it does have to be enjoyable.

Launched in March 2017, the Nintendo Change continued to dominate the console house even after the launch of Collection X and PS5. The three-year-old console received an enormous second wind because of the extraordinary recognition of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has offered greater than 48 million copies since launch, as of August 2025. The hand-held-only Change Lite has an entry-level worth of $229, the most affordable among the many massive three, and refurbished models can simply be discovered for $150 or much less. Regardless of longstanding criticism of the “underpowered” console from spec-hounds, the unique Change has offered 154 million models as of September 2025, leaving it simply 6 million models from displacing the PlayStation 2 because the best-selling recreation console of all time.

The Change 2 launched in June with Mario Kart World as its flagship launch title, and Donkey Kong Bananza debuted a number of weeks later. Whereas these two video games are Change 2 exclusives, the overwhelming majority of Change video games — together with massive sellers like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Pokémon Legends: Z-A — are playable on each Change 1 and a pair of. With 4K visuals and expanded processing powers, Nintendo’s latest console feels extra like a “Change Professional” than a real successor. At $449, it’s the corporate’s most costly console ever, nevertheless it’s additionally not a obligatory improve for many gamers. With the Change 2, Nintendo did the alternative of what we’ve seen from PlayStation and Xbox this era, increasing its providing to a extra “hardcore” viewers. Even so, Nintendo has been doing the a number of SKUs factor for many years now, with huge success — keep in mind all these Recreation Boy and 3DS iterations?

Everybody else

Picture: Analogue

The pandemic was a time for many individuals to rediscover previous loves and develop enjoyable new hobbies, whether or not that be previous motion pictures, gardening, sourdough-starting, or video video games. Persevering with a development from the 2010s, remakes and remasters have been a booming enterprise, and there’s additionally been a resurgence of {hardware} that enables gamers to play older video games natively, like Analogue’s vary of consoles that run the gamut from the NES and Genesis to the Recreation Boy, Turbografix-16, and N64. The $219 Analogue Pocket has been a selected favourite of retro fans, given its slick handheld form-factor and flexibility — it may possibly play an enormous number of older, cartridge-based video games, from your complete Recreation Boy / Coloration / Advance lineup to the Sega Recreation Gear, Atari Lynx, and even the Neo Geo Pocket Coloration.

Whereas it’s nonetheless a comparatively area of interest piece of {hardware} with just a little greater than 4 million models offered, Valve’s Steam Deck has had an outsized affect on shaping gamers’ expectations for a handheld gaming expertise since its 2022 launch. Whereas a Steam Deck can’t provide the identical top-end visuals as a devoted desktop PC, it’s far easier to arrange and relatively cheap. Earlier this 12 months, Xbox launched its personal riff on the hand held PC in partnership with ROG, the Xbox Ally X. However with a top-end worth level of $1,000 in comparison with the Steam Deck OLED’s $649, it’s onerous to see the Ally X as an reasonably priced different.

And right here’s one which few of us might have predicted again in 2020 — Atari is again, for actual this time, and doing a little significantly cool stuff with retro video games. For 2022’s acclaimed interactive documentary Atari 50, Digital Eclipse compiled greater than 100 video games alongside archival pictures and video, in some of the spectacular efforts to catalog the historical past of the medium in current reminiscence. Atari went on to buy Digital Eclipse and the rights to ’80s console rival Intellivision, and has since launched a spate of throwback consoles designed to work on trendy TVs, just like the Atari 2600 and 7800, and most not too long ago the Intellivision Dash. And sure, they’ve wooden paneling. Better of all, not one of the consoles are over $200, and all the sport cartridges are beneath $35.