In the age of Fortnite clones and mobile game rip-offs (we’re looking at you, bootleg Pokémon Go games) it comes to little-to no surprise that even the biggest video game companies on the market are guilty of ripping each other off.
Sony broke into the video game console market in December of 1994. While Sony’s initial console didn’t pack a lot of punch technically, the console introduced us to timeless games and characters. Games like Spyro the Dragon and Crash Bandicoot captured the hearts of people around the world and still continue to capture our hearts with their recent remasters today.
Microsoft wouldn’t give Sony a run for the money in the console industry until November 15, 2001, when Microsoft released the original Xbox. While the Xbox didn’t have a multitude of exclusive titles like the PlayStation, games like Halo and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic changed gaming forever.
It was around the time of the Xbox 360’s release date in 2005 when gamers started taking the sides of their favorite console companies. Now the rivalry is as classic as Pepsi cs. Coke or the Big Mac vs. the Whopper. The right answers being an ice-cold Coke with a Big Mac, by the way. But whether you claim to be a Sony Pony or a hardcore Xbox fanboy, you have to agree that your company or console of choice is guilty of stealing a few ideas from their competitor along the way.
20 PlayStation: Ripped Off Achievements
Any gamer who owned an Xbox 360 can tell you the odd yet addictive satisfaction that came with achievements. Bragging to your buddies that you had a higher Gamerscore or just the pure happiness and sweat of unlocking impossible achievements like beating Super Meat Boy without dying once.
Achievements started up a new culture in gaming where gamers now cared about seemingly pointless tasks just for bragging rights.
In comes PlayStation to steal the idea right from Microsoft by adding in their Trophy system. Trophies were more or less the same as achievements, offering the same avant-garde tasks for gamers but organizing the accomplishments as bronze, silver, gold, and even platinum trophies for those who completed every trophy. Achievements were just too addicting for gamers that Sony had to rip off Microsoft's idea and make their own form of it.
19 Xbox: Ripped Off Analog Sticks
Now, the modern day controller is pretty simple. You usually have yourself a few buttons scattered throughout, maybe a logo in the middle, but there’s one thing you just gotta have today: analog sticks. Enter in Sony’s DualShock Controller, one of the most innovative controllers in the history of gaming. You wouldn’t describe it as innovative, as it looks like one of the most basic controllers in existence. But the simplicity of the DualShock is where it excelled the most.
So when Microsoft released the Xbox with games like Halo and Perfect Dark, it was a necessity to have a controller that could service those game’s complex controls. Xbox practically had no choice but to steal the dual-analog idea, but stealing is stealing, and we’re gonna call them out on it.
18 PlayStation: Ripped Off Xbox Live
When the Xbox 360 made its debut in 2005, Xbox Live was its main attraction. It was n online service that could quickly connect you with your friends or random players from across the world. Now as with many of the entries on this list, an online gaming service wasn’t an original idea of Microsoft, the idea was actually thought up by Sega and used on their failed console, The Dreamcast.
But Microsoft perfected this idea on the Xbox 360 and Sony was forced to play catch-up.
While Sony’s service boasted no price tag, unlike Xbox Live, the service was much slower and buggier than its competitor. And many gamers who owned a PS3 will never forget in 2011 when PlayStation suffered a historic network outage. The outage affected approximately 77 million PSN accounts and lasted for 23 days. This was one idea that Sony definitely needed to learn how to steal better.
17 Xbox: Ripped Off Gran Turismo
While the original PlayStation introduced us to a slew of timeless games like Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, and PaRappa the Rapper, one of the most popular games to come off the console was Gran Turismo. When the game released in 1997, gamers at the time shared the thought that games could never look any better than this.
Gran Turismo changed racing games forever with its lifelike graphics and gameplay and became the console’s most sold game, selling over 10.8 million copies. The success of Gran Turismo put a lot of pressure on Microsoft to have their own racing game to compete against Gran Turismo, and that game became Forza Motorsport. While Forza might have its own uniqueness, it’s obvious to see it was heavily inspired by Gran Turismo, making it a notable entry that Xbox stole from Sony.
16 PlayStation: Ripped Off The Red Ring
There’s four words that instil fear into any gamer growing up in the mid-2000s, and they're “Red Rings of Death.” For those unfamiliar with the infamous nickname, the “Red Rings of Death” described an issue that Xbox 360 consoles faced where the console overheated resulting in a permanently broken console. Personally, I went through three Xbox’s and still shed tears for my fallen consoles to this day.
A survey conducted by Game Informer reported 54.2% of Xbox 360 owners were affected by the issue.
But where does PlayStation “play” into this issue? Well, Sony had a similar technical issue affecting PS4s that gamers called the “Blue Light of Death.” The problem also resulted in broken PS4s due to this eerie blue light, but thankfully only affected 1% of PS4 buyers.
15 Xbox: Ripped Off PSVR
The gaming industry likes to go through a lot of gimmicks. In the 2000s, it was motion controls, and now it’s VR. Whether VR is a gimmick that is here to stay remains to be determined, but it’s hard to deny the overwhelming popularity of VR in today’s gaming landscape. The company currently leading the charge for consoles is Sony with their PSVR.
The PSVR is undoubtedly pretty cool.
If you ever get the opportunity, load up the game Superhot and watch your inner child be released in the virtual world. But with PSVR dominating the console VR market, Xbox had to find a way to get its foot in the door. Say hello to HoloLens. HoloLens is Microsoft’s version of VR, and instead of being inside a game-world, the real-life world becomes your video game. It’s definitely cool but currently will run you $3,000 versus Sony’s PSVR for $299.
14 PlayStation: Ripped Off Halo
If you grew up with an Xbox in your household, then there was only one shooter that was probably hailed by you and all your friends. That was Halo. The first Halo released alongside the original Xbox back in 2001, and I know I’ve said this a lot, but this game really did change the industry.
While games like Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, or Rainbow Six Siege dominate the FPS genre today, back in the early 2000s Halo owned the FPS genre. Sony was desperate to break into the FPS genre, and they finally did with the release of the Killzone series. Killzone dropped back in 2004 on the PS2 and the game just so happened to feature futuristic combat that was also set in the midst of a galactic war. *Sniff, Sniff*, I think I smell a Halo rip off.
13 Xbox: Ripped Off Triggers
Think you got a trigger-finger? Well, you wouldn’t even know what a trigger was if it weren’t for Sony. We’re bringing back Sony’s innovative controller, the DualShock, for this one. That controller literally paved the way for controllers today; offering not only the basic controller layout we see today but offering innovations like the aforementioned dual analog sticks but also introducing the world to triggers.
So while Xbox did release one of the most popular FPS games of all time in Halo, they really should be thanking Sony for their success.
Kids today will never know the struggles of playing GoldenEye with an N64 control. Perfecting the controls for first-person shooter games was near impossible before Sony thankfully released the DualShock. So Xbox, make sure to write Sony a thank you note for this one.
12 PlayStation: Ripped Off Built-In Hard Drives
You know what I miss about the old gaming industry? The story-driven games that looked terrible but were still a ton of fun to play, or the satisfaction of blowing the dust out of your N64 cartridge to finally get the game to work. You know what I don’t miss? Memory cards.
Memory cards were terrible. They held the smallest amount of space, and when they weren’t slow, they were being corrupted erasing all your precious saved data. Nobody is nostalgic for memory cards and we have Microsoft to thank for that. The cool thing about the original Xbox was that it featured everything inside this glowing green box, including the hard drive. Hard drives were faster, could hold more information, and Sony thankfully followed Microsoft’s lead with hard drives on their PS3 system.
11 Xbox: Ripped Off Slim Consoles
While it seems like we’re on the brink of another generation of consoles releasing from Sony and Microsoft, we’re in the age of mini-generations. With consoles like the Xbox One S, the PS4 Pro, and the Xbox One X, we see the release of many consoles now that usually slightly upgrade the original console. Those upgrades come in the form of slimmer machines, sleeker designs, and upgraded power.
Out of the two gaming giants, it was Sony who was first to do this, giving us the PS2 Slim.
The Slim models were exactly what they sound like: slimmer and lighter versions of the PS2. It was nothing special, but it opened the door for Microsoft to introduce us to consoles like the Xbox 360 Elite and the 360 S, both consoles that fixed the aforementioned “Red Rings of Death” while also upgrading the original console's power.
10 PlayStation: Ripped Off The Home Screen
With the complex home screens of today, it’s hard to remember the downright garbage home screens of the past. If you owned any console before the Xbox 360, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. Home screens used to be the most avoided place for any gamer. It was a dark, bleak interface that offered nothing but settings for your system and a place to access your saved data.
The PS2’s home screen was guilty of this, so was the GameCube’s, and even the original Xbox’s home screen. I swear you could’ve made horror movies about those home screens, and we have the Xbox 360’s home screen to thank for bailing us out of this abyss. Finally, a home screen that was not only bright and vibrant but also allowed us to access so much more information than we could ever before.
9 Xbox: Ripped Off Game Streaming
It’s sad to think that backward compatibility was almost a thing of the past. Thankfully, Xbox made tremendous strides in making the Xbox One backward compatible, but the PS4 is still severely lacking in this field. So instead of making their consoles backward compatible, Sony decided to make a streaming service where you could stream your favorite games of the past straight to your PS4 console, calling it PlayStation Now.
The service is alright. It’s a bit pricey and only offers a great experience for those with great wifi connections. But it didn’t take long for Xbox to copy the idea and throw their own hat into the game streaming market. Since Xbox One is already backward compatible, Xbox Game Pass allows gamers to stream over 100 current-gen titles to their system, making it one idea that Xbox definitely improved upon after ripping off.
8 PlayStation: Ripped Off Motion Controls
This was one gaming gimmick that I couldn’t wait for the gaming industry to throw in the trash. Motion controls seriously sucked. Even the gimmick for the original Wii grew old when Nintendo couldn’t find a way to top the fun most people experienced in Wii Sports. But for a long time, motion controls were “it”, and first Xbox jumped on the bandwagon with Kinect and then PlayStation with their Move controllers.
Instead of just ripping-off Xbox in this one, Sony ripped off the controllers from Nintendo and the camera from Xbox’s Kinect.
And the results weren’t half bad. The Move was probably the most responsive out of all the motion controllers. Unfortunately, the Move was probably the biggest failure commercially out of the three and didn’t offer many good games to back it up.
7 Xbox: Ripped Off Bringing Used Games Back
Before it was popular to hate on EA, for one summer following E3 it was popular to hate on Xbox. Do you remember why? Well, they basically shot themselves in the foot by removing used games entirely from their upcoming console. While it does seem like we're moving towards that direction today with game streaming services, Microsoft definitely brought up this idea way too early.
Gamers were not ready to say goodbye to physical discs and say hello to an only-digital world.
But Xbox thought otherwise, but definitely not for long. They received so much flak on the issue, and PlayStation received so much praise for just letting gamers play used games on the PS4 that Xbox had no choice but to fold and copy the PS4. Xbox was just a little too early to the industry with this idea but they’re definitely still kicking themselves today for this failed idea.
6 PlayStation: Ripped Off Second Screen Options
Who could forget when Xbox and PlayStation were battling over second screen options? In an effort to put Xbox everywhere in your household, Xbox unveiled Xbox One SmartGlass, an app that you could download on your smartphone or tablet to share the Xbox One’s screen or take control of the Xbox entirely.
I still remember some nights where I’d take control of the Xbox with my tablet unbeknownst to my father who was on the Xbox and mess with him for hours on end. SmartGlass was fun but didn’t receive much popularity on the Xbox One, but that didn’t stop Sony from ripping it off. Instead of releasing an app, Sony released the PS Vita which could screen share the PS4 and be used as a controller for the device.
5 Xbox: Ripped Off CD Formatted Games
Sony took a huge risk when the company decided to release their first console as a system that read CD-formatted games. Previous to that gamers were only really familiar with cartridges and any companies who strayed from this didn’t do too well. But the original PlayStation once again innovated by offering the gaming industry CD formatted games that we still use today.
Not only could CDs hold more information but they did it while being lighter and sleeker for our convenience.
Nintendo decided to defy the new format, opting for the smaller discs that we saw on the GameCube (That they still get flak for). But Microsoft realized this format was the future and followed Sony in making the original Xbox ready to read disc-formatted games.
4 PlayStation: Ripped Off The Friends List
When it comes to the company that has pushed their console outside of gaming the most, Microsoft has usually been the winner with the Xbox. When the original Xbox made its debut, it had an awesome feature where you were able to add other online users to your friends list so you could easily play with them. It was awesome knowing that if I had a good game with someone I could easily befriend them through Xbox and get another game with them at any time.
Connecting with gamers across the world was never as easy as Microsoft had just made it.
Leaving Sony no choice but to rip-off the genius idea by implementing their own friends list on the PS3. By then, however, Xbox was already making party chats and other ways that you could connect with friends that PlayStation would also go on to rip-off.
3 Xbox: Ripped Off The DVD Player
It’s no secret that video game consoles are becoming less and less about video games and more about allowing you to access any form of entertainment on a console. That all started when Sony put the DVD player in their PlayStation 2.
The PS2 made it possible to destroy your friends in Star Wars Battlefront only to then kick back and watch Empire Strikes Back afterward. It was a great idea that helped gamers feel like they were getting more bang for their buck when they bought a video game console. This lead to Xbox jumping onto the DVD player hype-train when they released the original Xbox a year later. Now both companies compete to feature as many non-gamer options on their consoles so that anyone can find an excuse to own a PS4 or Xbox One.
2 PlayStation: Ripped Off Xbox's Hardware Focus
When the PlayStation made its debut all the way back in 1994, its main focus was the games, not the hardware. And don’t get me wrong, PlayStation definitely still focuses on the games as they have one of the most diverse game lineups amongst the competition. But Xbox’s technical display with the original Xbox forced Sony to also care about the hardware.
Despite Sony selling more consoles, the original Xbox blew the PS2 away when it came to specs. Time to get a little nerdy: Xbox’s CPU blew away the PS2’s with a 733MHz versus Sony’s 295 MHz processor. The PS2 lost, specs wise, and Sony definitely decided to step it up. Now the current PlayStation rivals the Xbox’s power all while still delivering on the diverse set of games that we will always love. Proof of this is PlayStation’s newest masterpiece, God of War.
1 Xbox: Ripped Off PlayStation’s Software Focus
That’s right, while both companies rip each other off along the way, this war between these two consoles has definitely bettered both the PS4 and Xbox. For Microsoft, it’s made them put an improved focus on the games they release. Xbox has been guilty of having a very narrow focus when it comes to their games, releasing mostly shooters and games that lack the creativity that PlayStation’s games continue to have.
That all changed with the release of Xbox Live Arcade, which featured an indie game takeover. Xbox had to step up their games if they wanted to compete with PlayStation, it started with Xbox Live Arcade and continues with releases like Sea of Thieves. No matter which console you support in this seemingly endless console war, remember that everybody wins when we have good competition.