Digital Content Coordinator Dan Isenberg

The winds of change may be coming in the long-running video game console wars.

My college roommate reached out to me last week asking my thoughts when he said he and his wife were considering getting a Playstation 5.

After rolling back over and going to sleep for a few hours because I’ve lately found it increasingly difficult to get to bed at a decent hour, I asked what they planned on using it for.

“For video games, duh.”

Well, yes, my friend. But it’s never that simple.

Yes, there are plenty of games that are available on multiple platforms; they’re typically ones that see wide popularity and garner plenty of attention both from its user base and from the media as games gain traction and move on the sphere of the mainstream, such as “World of Warcraft” in its heyday, the “Madden NFL” games or more recently with “Fortnite.”

But console exclusives, for better or worse, are the titles that will make or break a system and set them up for major success or complete failure.

Nintendo saw this happen during the 2010s with the era of its Wii U system, the predecessor to the Switch family.

By the end of its life cycle, the Wii U did end up having quite a large, and quality at that, library of games to play on it. Unfortunately, because none of those games came until long after the launch of the system and due to the popularity at the time of Xbox and Playstation, sales for many of those titles — or of the system itself — were not what Nintendo would have liked, and many of those games saw new life as ports on the Nintendo Switch, except for “The Legend of Zelda” titles “The Windwaker” and “Twilight Princess,” but who’s keeping track?

Nintendo was able to learn from that mistake in 2017 when it launched the Switch alongside its biggest Zelda title to date, “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” which went on to massive acclaim and sales numbers.

When Microsoft first launched the Xbox on Nov. 15, 2001, it came with a title that would change the future of gaming — “Halo: Combat Evolved.”

That title, and the popularity it garnered, pushed Microsoft to the forefront of console video games and spawned a franchise that while not as popular as it once was, still garners plenty of respect within the gaming community.

For Microsoft, whether fortunately or unfortunately, depending on who you ask, they’re moving away from this notion of games being locked behind console exclusivity.

The company’s philosophy has slowly shifted over the years to a stance of “We don’t care where you play our games. We just want you to play them.”

Then came the collaboration in August between “Halo” and another very popular shooter, “Helldivers II,” where players could receive Halo-themed items coinciding with the release of “Helldivers II” on Xbox on Aug. 26, and that was when the rumor mill started churning.

Leaks began spreading online the past few weeks that a “Halo” game will come to Playstation in 2025, with many speculating on either a port of “The Master Chief collection,” which includes Halo 1-4 and their respective multiplayer suites, or possibly a brand new title in the franchise.

So if that comes to pass, that’s another point for Playstation.

Then you look over at Nintendo, which announced Aug. 1 that it was increasing the price of all original Switch systems: Nintendo Switch – OLED Model, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch Lite and select Nintendo Switch accessories. While the Switch 2 and its accessories won’t be seeing an increase at this time, “market conditions” may always dictate a price increase on those products, as well.

And that’s not even factoring in buying any games from Nintendo, which are almost always going to be full price. It is true, Nintendo probably rivals or even surpasses Playstation when it comes to providing players with worthwhile, single-player experiences, but the Nintendo systems’ lack of technical prowess compared to the near gaming PC-equivalent machines you get from Playstation 5 and Xbox Series.

As a kid who grew up on the Nintendo side of the console wars and an Xbox owner for most of my youth, it truly pains me to come down so hard in favor of Playstation here.

But to me, when asked to look at this objectively, I can’t help but think Sony and Playstation are going to enter the next phase of the war with Playstation 6 potentially less than two years away walking with the confidence of “flawless victory.”

Digital content coordinator and copy editor Dan Isenberg can be reached at disenberg@altoonamirror.com or on X @TheseDanTweets