Did Digital Foundry just subtly dog whistle MS to sabotage their PS ports in the future?
- Thread starter Airbus
- Start date
if that would be the case, and it would leak, would it be sueable offense?Let them sabotage and see the sales of their games
Last edited:
No, i don't think they are, i think what they are saying is that Microsoft has to do better in releasing their games first as in better quality control in their product.
In Microsoft's defence, that can be rather hard, as logically, PlayStation is getting these games at a much later date, thus having more time to iron out the kinks on the ported-over version.
It is a bit like @Bryank75 , at first glance not much to look at, but give him a few hours to apply his make-up, heels and a mini skirt and boom, its totally different.
Last edited:
Why does DF have such a hard on for Xbox, especially given how insignificant Xbox's influence is in the gaming market? You'd think they'd give up on that rather than continually trying to champion a dying brand.
My theory is that the privileged access Microsoft give them (remember they got to have a hands on breakdown of the series x and saw the series s before it was announced) has given them a bias, unconscious or not, towards xbox. It's why I feel the newer members of staff are more even handed in their criticisms.
You have to remember they aren't journalists so shouldn't be held up to journalistic standards, the flip side of this is of course that their coverage should be assumed to have bias/be bought.
Sounds more to me like they're saying that they need to ensure that the features made available in the PS5 ports are available to Series X owners first, tbh.
Which is honestly not unreasonable. They paid for your console, they're in your ecosystem, they SHOULD be your priority. Phil's management skills, or lack thereof, have been getting exposed quite a bit these days.
This is something that I'd like to know also. Can it really be money at this point? I mean surely, they aren't that tempted by straight cash at this point.
Digital Foundry cares more about the narrative of Xbox Series X being superior to PS5 than MS does. MS pretty much gave up pushing that pretty early in the gen as it became clear the PS5 was better designed.
In all of these cases the games just naturally ended up better on PlayStation.
In all of these cases the games just naturally ended up better on PlayStation.
I don't think they will intentionally degrade when they want the game to sell and make money. No company likes negative PR.
Minecraft has no issues, and a PS5 version is also coming. Xbox studios and Sony regularly collaborate with each other.
People need to look holistically at who Digital Foundry are in the first place.
You have PC and Xbox (formerly Sega) fanboys. Their entire schtick is to promote videos based on console wars. Xbox dying out doesn't engender them more views.
Who is going to watch video purely comparing PS5 or even PS5 Pro with a 4080 run PC? Even the Switch 2 isn't going to be comparable and they know it.
They won't disappear, but their views will take a noticeable hit, but just going back to the personalities, they don't like Sony and their bias has come back to bite them time and time again.
"Microsoft markets xbox series x as the most powerful console on the market"
Past tense. Don't remember MS using that for quite a while now, instead they went with the less-open-to-question "most powerful xbox ever" line.
"It's also crucial that MS maintains a reputation that xbox is the best place to play its own games, especially so as it seems clear that more games will transition to playstation in due course".
Ummmm... that's always going to be PC for obvious reasons, but OK...
...and good luck/enjoy/see how many games arrive in that small window before games will be being built with Pro as a default target if you're restricting this to just consoles. Feature parity for the sake of it won't be enticing anyone who cares enough to buy the extra bells and whistles version of the ps5; holding back a game's potential for the sake of parity is also not something devs go out of their way to waste resources on unless there's a fairness angle such as competitive online.
Just a messy video on the whole. Obviously not enough content in HFR being identical bar shadows, especially as that's likely just a difference between defaults in environments that amounts to a minor bug. Then it turns into the shoulder-shrug-worthy MS should ensure parity and look after its own silliness. Whatever. Some games run better on ps5, some better on series x... thanks for the scoop, DF! Then he remembers why they're there in the first place so the end of the video pivots harshly into pure HFR marketing for a solid minute.
Past tense. Don't remember MS using that for quite a while now, instead they went with the less-open-to-question "most powerful xbox ever" line.
"It's also crucial that MS maintains a reputation that xbox is the best place to play its own games, especially so as it seems clear that more games will transition to playstation in due course".
Ummmm... that's always going to be PC for obvious reasons, but OK...
...and good luck/enjoy/see how many games arrive in that small window before games will be being built with Pro as a default target if you're restricting this to just consoles. Feature parity for the sake of it won't be enticing anyone who cares enough to buy the extra bells and whistles version of the ps5; holding back a game's potential for the sake of parity is also not something devs go out of their way to waste resources on unless there's a fairness angle such as competitive online.
Just a messy video on the whole. Obviously not enough content in HFR being identical bar shadows, especially as that's likely just a difference between defaults in environments that amounts to a minor bug. Then it turns into the shoulder-shrug-worthy MS should ensure parity and look after its own silliness. Whatever. Some games run better on ps5, some better on series x... thanks for the scoop, DF! Then he remembers why they're there in the first place so the end of the video pivots harshly into pure HFR marketing for a solid minute.
I doubt it's as direct as that, it's payment in kind. As @AngryRobotBees said above, that "privileged access". MS gave them the kind of access to hardware, specs and engineers they couldn't dream of getting elsewhere, which gave DF huge potential to create media with exclusive info they could easily monetise. In return MS ends up with essentially free, highly-targeted marketing they'd struggle to rival elsewhere even at huge cost.
iirc a user named HeisenbergFX4, a verified insider on GAF (supposedly games and socializes with xbox people like mike ybarra), claimed that he was told that MS directly paid DF for positive coverage in years past. They also get special perks like getting exclusive access to unveil the Series X hardware etc. - so there's still at least some sort of direct patronage relationship in place."Microsoft markets xbox series x as the most powerful console on the market"
Past tense. Don't remember MS using that for quite a while now, instead they went with the less-open-to-question "most powerful xbox ever" line.
"It's also crucial that MS maintains a reputation that xbox is the best place to play its own games, especially so as it seems clear that more games will transition to playstation in due course".
Ummmm... that's always going to be PC for obvious reasons, but OK...
...and good luck/enjoy/see how many games arrive in that small window before games will be being built with Pro as a default target if you're restricting this to just consoles. Feature parity for the sake of it won't be enticing anyone who cares enough to buy the extra bells and whistles version of the ps5; holding back a game's potential for the sake of parity is also not something devs go out of their way to waste resources on unless there's a fairness angle such as competitive online.
Just a messy video on the whole. Obviously not enough content in HFR being identical bar shadows, especially as that's likely just a difference between defaults in environments that amounts to a minor bug. Then it turns into the shoulder-shrug-worthy MS should ensure parity and look after its own silliness. Whatever. Some games run better on ps5, some better on series x... thanks for the scoop, DF! Then he remembers why they're there in the first place so the end of the video pivots harshly into pure HFR marketing for a solid minute.
I doubt it's as direct as that, it's payment in kind. As @AngryRobotBees said above, that "privileged access". MS gave them the kind of access to hardware, specs and engineers they couldn't dream of getting elsewhere, which gave DF huge potential to create media with exclusive info they could easily monetise. In return MS ends up with essentially free, highly-targeted marketing they'd struggle to rival elsewhere even at huge cost.
Just showing their ass again, this time more obviously for anyone who wants to see a bit deeper.
Oh they are just throwing out the idea that MS can’t allow ports to be too good, because of fan sentiment, while acting confused about any PS5 version being better and showing us examples of superior Xbox versions. Totally normal.
Oh they are just throwing out the idea that MS can’t allow ports to be too good, because of fan sentiment, while acting confused about any PS5 version being better and showing us examples of superior Xbox versions. Totally normal.
that's definitely the paranoid team jersey-clad persecution complex take
an alternate take to this would be that they are encouraging Xbox studios to make the Xbox Series X versions of their games the best they can be before releasing PS5 versions with enhancements that could've easily been implemented into the Xbox version initially as well so that their own product is cast in the best possible light
an alternate take to this would be that they are encouraging Xbox studios to make the Xbox Series X versions of their games the best they can be before releasing PS5 versions with enhancements that could've easily been implemented into the Xbox version initially as well so that their own product is cast in the best possible light
Why should DF care about any of this? Would they care the other way around or would they go straight into “Here Series X shows the hw advantage”?