PlayStation Beats Xbox on Quantity AND Quality, Although it’s Gamers That Win

When Neogaf user DeadPixel made a list of all the games released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 since release, there was a lot of discussion about quality vs quantity. Is it better to have a lot of smaller releases, including re-releases of indie games from the previous generation, or bigger AAA titles like Titanfall? Your answer probably aligns somewhat with your console of choice.

GamesReview’s very own Steven Van Eekeren wasn’t convinced that it was an issue of quality against quantity though. Instead he found that the average score across both new-gen systems was roughly the same, skewed slightly towards Sony despite them releasing so many more games.

Using Metacritic, Steven listed every game used in the Quality Vs Quantity debate and found out the average score each game received. Finally he worked out the average overall, as well as the total amount of points so far awarded across both systems. He found that the PlayStation 4 had almost double the amount of titles than the Xbox One (a huge difference over this point last gen) but that the overall average didn’t really dip.

So, let’s take a look at some of the stats. Most impressive – although likely to be ignored by fanboys – is that multi-plat titles are finally neck and neck. Sure, there might be a point here or there, but in real terms if you buy a game on one system, you’re getting the same game as ‘the opposition.’ For those of us that remember the early days of the PlayStation 3, this is something we dreamt of early last generation, and why on earth should anybody expect otherwise?

It’s also worth noting that the apparent shortcomings of the Xbox One – lower resolution for instance – don’t seem to have bothered Metacritic critics, which should probably give you a sense of how overblown the whole thing is.

PlayStation has done rather well keeping up the score across so many titles however, and has proven that quality and quantity are nowhere near mutually exclusive.

The real winner though? Gamers. Aside from very few titles (Putty Squad and Fighter Within), there’s little on either list that actually flat out not worth playing. If there’s one thing this list demonstrates, it’s that we’ve had an absolutely awesome start to a new generation, and although both sides could benefit from a few more AAA titles and new IPs, there’s little to complain about at this point in the release cycle.

Special thanks to Deadpixel for his list of games.