We could argue for hours about which hardware is better, the Xbox Series X or the PS5, but choosing which one to buy comes down to one thing: the games And according to new rumors, Sony is aiming for an overwhelming victory for the PS5 when both consoles are released later this year

According to Imran Khan, former editor of Game Informer, Sony is spending heavily to ensure that many promising titles debut on the PlayStation 5, even if they later end up on other consoles

Khan divulged this in a segment on his podcast "Kinda Funny" where he discusses the news that Spider-Man will appear as an exclusive character in the PS5 version of "Marvel's Avengers" You can see the relevant part of the video below at around the 22 minute mark

If you didn't press play, here's the part you missed: "There are things that would shock you if you knew that Sony is locking you in with money and a timed exclusive They're like, 'Wow, you're going to pick a game like that? Not because it's bad, but because it's huge' [because some of the games that are widely accepted as multiplatform have been locked by Sony for some time

Console exclusivity is nothing new and comes in two forms The first is simple and happens because the studio is owned by a single hardware manufacturer; you won't see Mario on PlayStation or Xbox, and you won't see Master Chief picking up his blue shell in Mario Kart

Timed exclusives, however, are a bit trickier This is because timed exclusives can apply to any third-party game, and companies are not always transparent about whether or not they will appear on other platforms For example, "Cuphead" started out as an Xbox One and PC exclusive, but came to Switch in 2019 and to PS4 last week

Some games take years to lose exclusivity For example, the original Dead Rising was only playable on Xbox 360 for 10 years before it was remastered for Xbox One and PS4 If this sounds consumer-unfriendly, that's because it isn't PlayStation users were only able to play 2007's Mass Effect in 2012, after the second and third games were released on Sony's platform

Of course, Microsoft is no stranger to this; although Xbox head Phil Spencer claims not to be a fan, it seems likely that many of the Xbox Series X "console launch exclusives" could eventually be released on the PS5 We'll have to wait and see what kind of retaliation Sony will unleash