◼ TECHNOLOGY Bloomberg Businessweek November 16, 202029XBOX:
MICROSOFT.
PLAYSTATION:
SONY
INTERACTIVE
ENTERTAINMENT.
DATA:
PEW
RESEARCH
SURVEY,
11/2019-9/2020
Wespenttwoweekstestingthegameconsoles
thatMicrosoftCorp.andSonyCorp.releasedon
Nov. 10 andNov.12,respectively,theirfirstmajor
newsystemsinsevenyears.Bothhavetheirstrong
points—likeallowinggamestoloadmuchfaster—
andweaknesses,mostlywhenitcomestothe
gamesthemselves.●MICROSOFTXBOX
MicrosoftcallstheXboxSeriesX themostpowerful
gameconsoleevermade.Butwitha meagerlineup
ofgamesthisyear,thatclaimwon’tmeanmuch
fora while.(ItalsoreleasedtheX’ssmaller,less
powerfulcounterpart,theSeriesS.)Theconsoles
aresleekandeasytouse.Gamesbootupalmost
immediately,evenontheSeriesS.Loadingscreens
aren’tcompletelygone,buttheyappearforno
morethana fewseconds.Startingfromthecon-
sole’shomescreen,there’sbarelyenoughtimeto
checkTwitterbeforeyou’reoffshootingaliensor
raidingwithVikings.
ThenewXboxarriveswithouta singleexclusive
game.Everygameavailableforpurchasethisyear
canbefoundelsewhere,whetherit’sonthenew
PlayStationortheoldXbox.Themostanticipated
releaseoftheyear,Microsoft’sHaloInfinite, wasTHE BOTTOM LINE Trump has pushed the limits of Twitter’s
rules as president. He may find himself on a shorter leash once
he leaves office.When asked why people flock to Twitter,
employees and executives point to world events
as key drivers such as the Olympics or the World
Cup. More than 81% of Twitter’s users are outside
the U.S., and none of the most retweeted or quote-
tweeted posts globally in 2019 had to do with U.S.
politics. This October, Twitter’s current CFO,
Ned Segal, dismissed the idea that Trump
was meaningfully driving user growth.
Twitter did list Trump as the “top” pol-
itician on Twitter in 2019, but five of the
top eight were Democrats, including former
President Barack Obama (2), Representative
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (4), Senator Bernie
Sanders (6), former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton (7), and Biden (8). Biden, whose Twitter
game is pretty pedestrian, actually inspired
more engagement on Twitter than Trump in
September of this year, according to analytics
company Conviva.
Investors don’t appear worried. When the mar-
kets closed on Tuesday, Nov. 10, Twitter’s stock was
up almost 7.5% from its level when trading began on
Election Day. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey,
who’s been under scrutiny from activist investors
all year, received a vote of support from the board
the day before the election. “Twitter may see some
initial softness, but I believe they’ve outgrown any
Trump dependency,” says Mark Shmulik, an ana-
lyst at Sanford C. Bernstein.
Trump is also unlikely to leave Twitter unless
really forced to. He’s always been obsessed with
his own public profile, bragging about the size of
crowds at his rallies and television ratings during
his appearances. Even without @POTUS, Trump
has almost 90 million followers on Twitter and has
said he’d have even more if Twitter didn’t artificially
reduce his follower count, a baseless claim. He often
tweets dozens of times per day and will undoubt-
edly remain a subject of political interest. Efforts
to bring conservative Twitter users to another ser-
vice such as the right-leaning free-speech network
Parler appear to be picking up steam, though the
audience there is nowhere near Twitter’s size, and
Trump himself hasn’t opened an account.
But boisterous politicians have existed forever,
and new outspoken leaders are sure to emerge on
Twitter. “I just expect he’s keeping the seat warm
for the next colorful politician to take his place,”
Shmulik says. “He’s laid out a playbook for how to
use Twitter, and certainly others will try to follow.”
�Kurt Wagner● Next-gen game consoles are faster,
but you may want to wait for more titles