Sony Sees Nintendo Switch and PS4 as "Sitting Side by Side," Xbox Still Catching Up

Sony thinks that PlayStation and Nintendo Switch are poised to take over the gaming world in the coming years. Speaking with Time in a recent interview, Sony global game development boss Shawn Layden spoke in rather flattering tones in regard to Nintendo's success with the Switch. He doesn't really see it as a competitor as much as a companion.

Layden noted that the Switch is "a great success for Nintendo," saying that it's "definitely what that fanbase has been waiting for." It hasn't been negatively impacting sell-through for PlayStation 4 at all, though. "When you look at our numbers, I thin kit shows that a lot of gamers are a two-console family, and quite often those two consoles are PlayStation and Nintendo sitting side-by-side."

Flattering words indeed, especially considering the untimely demise of Sony's own handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Vita (I still play my Vita; it's sitting by my bedside right now). In fact, I try to keep anecdotes out of my writing unless it's an opinion piece, but Laden hit the nail on the head; the data paints a pretty realistic picture.

I'm a two-console gamer, and my PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch dock are literally sitting next to each other in my studio room. It's a beautiful thing, since I get the best of both worlds. Whenever a new Call of Duty or open-world adventure game like Horizon: Zero Dawn hits the shelves, I'm a part of that hype. When the can't-miss Nintendo games like Splatoon 2 and Pokémon Stars come around, I know I have my portable power-house. It makes for a brilliantly flexible ecosystem.

Xbox, on the other hand, is biding its time until Project Scorpio shows up to blow us all away at E3. PlayStation has been outselling Microsoft's console by enormous margins ever since the early weeks following its launch, and that trend has continued according to Sony global sales chief Jim Ryan. "It's been pleasing that in North America, we've been 2-to-1 against Xbox," he says. "But in Europe, it's really been fortress PlayStation by at least 3-to-1 in unit sales."

All three companies are set to show up to E3 in a huge way, so next week is going to be nothing but fireworks. We'll be covering it all as it breaks, so stay tuned to WWG for the latest.