Xbox vs PlayStation? No, it's now Xbox vs TikTok, Microsoft exec argues - but I'm not buying it

The console wars have been declared as over - if you listen to Gamestop commenting on Halo becoming a cross-platform title - and according to an Xbox exec, this is very much the case, and Sony is no longer Microsoft's biggest competition.

Neither is Nintendo for that matter, and in an interview with The New York Times, the theory floated by Matt Booty, who is Head of Xbox Game Studios, is that it isn't another console that Microsoft is really competing against.

We touched on this in our earlier report, which pointed out that Booty said: "Our biggest competition isn't another console. We are competing more and more with everything from TikTok to movies."

I think it's worth exploring this soundbite in more depth, and I understand where Booty is coming from - at least to an extent. Of course, this comes off the back of the Halo remake being announced as debuting on the PS5 (as well as Xbox and PC) next year, and other Microsoft games selling very well on Sony's platform.

So yes, the traditional lines of exclusives in the console world are now dissolving in some ways, and Booty argues that consumers don't have a strong attachment to the devices used to play games, but more to the games themselves.

I don't think that's true, though - just looking at the broad reaction to Booty's comments makes it clear enough that there are those who do still have strong feelings about their choice of hardware. Are these people only the more rabid fans of each gaming ecosystem, though? Somehow I doubt that, despite some blurring of the lines of division between consoles which is undeniable.

However, saying that the Xbox isn't really competing with the PlayStation anymore, and TikTok or Netflix are the big enemies now, seems a fairly meaningless assertion. Haven't games consoles always competed against the rest of the entertainment industry in terms of capturing our precious spare time?

This is absolutely the case, and I don't think TikTok has caused some sort of underlying shift in the mechanics of how the world of entertainment works to cause an upheaval in the console sphere, as seems to be suggested here.

Deflection not reflection?

It also seems like a case of deflection from the Microsoft executive, given how the current-gen console war has played out - not very well for Xbox, putting it mildly. In fact, Sony has totally run away with the victory with its PS5 - all despite TikTok doing pretty well for itself. And that's arguably why Microsoft is focusing on bringing its games to a larger audience on the rival platform. It simply makes financial sense, but Microsoft can hardly say that, now, can it?

To be fair, PlayStation games have also been coming to the PC, and as noted, lines are definitely blurring - rumors of more Sony titles coming to the Xbox still abound (in addition to the small number of releases so far, including Helldivers 2).