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When talking about the very different philosophies that Sony and Microsoft have brought to this generation of console hardware – and consequently, to their very different visions for the industry's future – it's often argued that where Microsoft sees Xbox as a software and services platform for which consoles are just one possible access device, Sony sees consoles in a more traditional sense, as a monolithic platform whose software and services orbit a singular piece of hardware.
That's more or less true, although the lines are more blurred than these definitions suggest; Sony definitely sees PlayStation as a generation-spanning digital platform to some extent, while Microsoft is clearly invested in the fortunes of the Xbox Series X/S consoles as hardware platforms. The biggest thing missing from this way of conceptualising the companies' strategies, though, isn't their overlapping aspects; it's that Sony doesn't just view each PlayStation as a monolithic console, but rather as the central component in a wider network of products, be they software, services, or hardware.
source https://www.gamesindustry.biz/could-sony-return-to-the-handheld-market-opinion
