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Creative Bloq
Creative Bloq
Technology
Daniel John

How the PS5 logo upset legions of Xbox fans

Xbox logo and PS5 logo.

Much like sports fans, video game fans are often fiercely loyal to their chosen team – by which I mean their chosen platform. Whether it's PlayStation, Xbox or Switch, many refuse to engage with anything that isn't their favourite, as demonstrated by a somewhat petty dispute over the PS5 logo this week.

Xbox recently confirmed that it will continue to display the PS5 logo on trailers for games coming to multiple platforms at next week's Xbox Games Showcase. That means for an upcoming game such as Fable, which is coming to both platforms, you'll see both the Xbox and PS5 logos. (Whether you think either of these are among the best logos of all time probably depends on which console you own.)

A Playstation ad with no logos (above) vs an Xbox ad with the PS5 logo (below) (Image credit: Microsoft/Sony)

"We'll be very clear about what platforms a game is coming to and want to continue the precedent," Xbox chief content officer Matt Booty told the official Xbox podcast. "I think we've got a good system going, where we make it clear in Showcase."

Cue outrage from many an indignant Xbox fan. "I feel like the bare minimum expectation many had was for Xbox to really focus on their own platform at least for the time of the Showcase," tweets one Xbox fan, while another adds, "No hardware, PS logos everywhere, it's gonna feel like a true 3rd party showcase!"

While it might seem a little ridiculous for fans to be upset about a simple PS5 logo, the controversy makes a little more sense given the context that Sony doesn't show Xbox logos on multi-platform games during its own State of Play showcases. As one Redditor puts it, "Xbox fans getting cucked lol."

And now, Xbox's new boss Asha Sharma has waded into the debate. “Seeing the feedback on logos. It was a miss, and I own it. We are talking about how we adjust for future XBOX shows," she tweeted.

As a non-gamer, I can't help but find the whole controversy somewhat overblown. If anything, surely Xbox's platform transparency is a pro-consumer move, whereas Sony is the one acting shady by neglecting to include the Xbox logo?

Either way, it isn't an amazing look for the new boss to be seen to capitulate quite so quickly to the loudest voices on social media, even over something as arguably insignificant as a rival logo.

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