Four years after release the Xbox Series X/S feels half abandoned and makes a very weak case for purchase

It gives me no pleasure to bury an Xbox console. I have a long history with the brand and even told my friend to get an Xbox One 10 years ago, after the botched launch and when PS4 was ascendant. I don't really regret that; we had lot of good times playing multiplayer games before he had a family and dropped gaming, and even after the Xbox served as a solid media center for his wife and him. I think it still may be their only Blu-Ray player.

I've owned every generation of Xbox, I like many of Microsoft's exclusives, and I'm deeply invested in their eco system. There are lots of things I like more about Xbox than PlayStation, including their customer service practices and willingness to be experimental with ideas like Game Pass and backwards compatibility, both of which pushed Sony into having features I like.

But as much as I have been a bit of an Xbot it's hard to see the current state of Microsoft as much different than Sega in the latter half of the 90s, making a series of bad decisions and wavering in their commitment to being a console manufacturer.

Now Microsoft is not Sega. It is an incredibly rich company that is at no risk of bankruptcy. And the nature of modern consoles is such that the Xbox is continuing to receive robust third-party support, since porting games between machines is so much easier than it was in the days of the Saturn or Dreamcast. Just this last year Square Enix announced it would no longer be releasing Sony exclusives, and ported a number of games to Xbox, though not the big modern Final Fantasy titles. Death Stranding just landed on Xbox. And Microsoft itself is a prodigious game maker with a bigger production slate than Sony at the moment, even if it has been a long time since one of those games has been at a level one hopes for from a console exclusive.

Fortunately, due to the modern market, if you only own an Xbox Series console you still have more than enough to play. It's not like the Saturn or the 32X where the software just sort of dried up and owners were left with nothing after a few years. Xbox has lots of games, big and small, arriving every week, and the majority of the big multiplats, which are the vast majority of big games these days, are launching there day and date with PS5. If you want to play Elden Ring or Armored Core or Dragon's Dogma 2 or Jedi Survivor or most other games the Xbox will be fine. But Microsoft has also abandoned exclusivity for many of its games. All of them if you count PC, but even if you don't it has ported a lot of its former console exclusives elsewhere and has promised to port more.

If you own a Playstation 5 you got to play Astro Bot and Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth this year, with no other platform offering either game (yet; though at least Final Fantasy will almost certainly come to PC and maybe even Xbox down the line.) You also got a few more console exclusives that were on PC too like Helldivers II and Granblue Fantasy - ReLink. On the Xbox side there was Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 with the promise of Indiana Jones to come (though that has been rumored to be headed to PS5 before long.) But both those games are on PC and Hellblade was, at least in my opinion, pretty disappointing, which is a theme for Xbox recently.

So Xbox's appeal comes down to Game Pass, a service that has had its price increased significantly in recent years and has also made a concerted push to get on as many other platforms as possible, not just PC but also mobile and set top boxes via streaming. And backwards compatibility to the 360 era, which is a nice thing to have (I played Alan Wake's American Nightmare on it less than a month ago; I use it! I'm literally the target audience!) but not a reason to buy new hardware.

And that's the thing about Xbox as it stands. I bought a launch Xbox Series X and I can't say it was a bad purchase. I've played lots of games on it. I've loved Psychonauts 2 and Forza Horizon 5 and a number of wonderful multiplats. It's been a good machine for me and I've played a lot on it this year. Beyond the Game Pass Game Club I got Balatro, my game of the year, on Xbox so I've booted mine up pretty much every day for that. Xbox has been my main media center for about 15 years (yes, starting in the 360 era after I got mad at my cable provider and switched to streaming very early) and I continue to like it for that. It's a fine machine, there's nothing wrong with it, Quick Resume is extremely nice, no regrets for my purchase.

But if someone asked me today why they should get an Xbox over a PS5 it would be a hard sell. The Xbox Series S is cheaper, but with the new versions it's not MUCH cheaper than a PS5 digital and it's much less powerful. Game Pass is still good, but PS+ has caught up a lot more than has been recognized, and arguably has better day 1 releases, at least if you like indie games. It's a really good machine that doesn't make a case for itself against better competition.

Xbox seems to have accepted that. They're putting more games on PlayStation. They seem unconcerned about big drops in console sales volume and falling further behind. They're more and more focused on streaming. I think there will likely be another Xbox because the console business has changed and is probably sustainable at lower volumes due to how many off the shelf parts there are and how low the barrier to porting is, but I don't think Xbox itself is the focus of Microsoft's games division and I wouldn't be surprised if no console exists in 10 years.

I don't really know how to feel about any of this, but if Xbox One felt like a misstep that Microsoft was desperately trying to correct, Xbox Series feels like acceptance that their foray into the console market is winding down, or at least changing into something much less emphasized. They gave it 25 years, had some successes and some failures, built a strong games division that does have a lot of IP and studios, and that they definitely can do quite a bit with as a software company, but only very briefly had a run as a top tier competitor to Sony and Nintendo.

Maybe I'm wrong and Xbox will turn it around and become a hardware pillar once more, but for now it doesn't really seem like they want to.

And I haven't even discussed the new digital models coming out because...what is there to say? More expensive, a little more storage, they're not just more of the same they're arguably worse. Last generation Xbox came back against the PS4 Pro with the Xbox One X, which IMO was an absolute beast of a console and one of my favorite pieces of gaming hardware. This gen they're just shrugging and putting out refreshes nobody cares about. That alone says a lot.

I wish I had more reasons to turn mine on, Xbox has great games that are very niche and pretty much most of the big stuff has been deeply flawed. The Series X is as really well made console that'll likely be the last one I buy. With the rapidly shrinking market share and the ever increasing shift to multiplatform I don't see why anyone would invest in the platform, which in itself will have a snowball effect. I doubt the nextbox will even get a woldwide release. I wish they had more games for me to buy Fable & Perfect Dark should have been out already.

@thepanzini: The one exception to "the big stuff has been deeply flawed" is Forza Horizon 5. Maybe not the best in the series but an excellent game that was widely played and well liked. But one very good racing game does not a console make.

It's pretty clear that Microsoft's studios have been mismanaged. A lot of people blame it on Microsoft's broader culture and use of contractors. I don't have enough insight to know personally, but the results have been extremely long development cycles with extremely mediocre output. The games are mostly not awful (Redfall excepted, and that was more of a Bethesda thing) but they're not great, and they need to be great. Hyping Starfield for years and years only to release a divisive game that few people loved is a bad look. They've shaken up management and of course added Activision but they just have an awful track record on big games. Gears 5 came out in 2019. 5 years ago. Who knows when we'll see Gears 6. And Gears 5 was not exactly Naughty Dog quality.

I don't know what Microsoft's Xbox plans are but it doesn't seem like they're trying to push consoles right now. I'm somewhat afraid of what will happen to my library in the long run, though I think they'll likely find a way to preserve those. But I agree that the nextbox may be NA only.

Maybe UK too. And there's something of a following in some of South America so limited releases there?

As someone who never owned an Xbox console, I'm grateful for Game Pass and how Microsoft ported a lot of their Xbox exclusives on PC. In fact, it's because of this, I completely skipped the Xbox 360 and PS3 era, and was PC gaming during that generation. I'm not into the console war nonsense and never was. When Sega and Nintendo were going at it, while fun to watch, I had both the SNES and a Genesis. Good times. Also had a two TG-16s, but they didn't last long. And though I loved the Sega Saturn and had lots of fun thanks to imports, the writing was on the wall and I got a PSX. Especially because of Final Fantasy VII. I've been a loyal PlayStation guy since. But if Microsoft would've taken over the market with better games and third party support, then I would be an Xbox guy. For me, it's about where the games are, not who makes the games.

I do believe the Xbox brand will eventually go the way of Sega, if things continue to go bad for them. The only difference, is that they will still release hardware, but they will no longer be an exclusive market. Instead, they will be selling Xbox brand gaming PCs.

I've said this many times before - but while I play absolutely ZERO exclusives on my Xbox, as none of them have really vibed with me since the 360 days, of which it kicked ass, I vastly prefer it to my PS5 - so any time I can play a multi-plat I will choose to play it on the Series X.

BUT other then that I 100% agree. Its kind of a bummer in general. Its a really nice piece of hardware with no real draw.

The mishandling of nearly ALL of the legendary franchises that defined the Xbox/360 eras have all been squandered by malicious corporate practices and mismanagement. Like Halo!? HALO!? I don't think that's hyperbole to say that is THE game of the millennial generation and its just a joke now. I don't know how you fumble that football so many times.

@junkerman: Why do you like the Xbox Series X better than the PS5? Controller? Quick Resume?

I am not sure that Halo was the game of the millennial generation, I'd actually put that as COD4, but it was certainly a huge one, and Microsoft HAS mishandled everything except Forza Horizon (including Forza proper.) More importantly they haven't built any new franchises in a very long time. Sony has Horizon Zero Dawn, Last of Us, Astro Bot, and though it has struggled to build new IP in the PS5 era it at least has stuff like Returnal that people really enjoyed. Microsoft's fresh IP games have all been small or been flops. Maybe Indiana Jones (not really a new IP, but if Spider-Man counts for Sony, and it does, Indiana Jones should count for MS) or Avowed can turn it around, but I'm skeptical.

Once Redfalled twice shy.

As fantastic as Forza Horizon series is and I'm intrigued by the prospects of Fable & Perfect Dark coming back. I am really disappointed the major software output of Xbox is derived from franchises birthed two generations ago.

I bought a Series S in early 2022 back when GPUs were still heavily inflated in price. I intended to use it as a Game Pass box mostly and did for around 8 months. At the start of 2023 I unsubscribed from Game Pass and haven't really touched my Series S since, especially once I was able to get a GPU at a price that wasn't twice MSRP. I have started using my Series S again recently, but only because it has a good version of the Moonlight app for PC streaming. But it's so hard to justify buying games on the Xbox platform when I can get them on PC, have the ability to play them on Steam Deck, and be able to play them in a console-like way on the big TV using Moonlight. My Series S has essentially turned into an Apple TV or similar box that I mostly use for streaming that just also happens to play all of the old 360 era digital games I bought back in the day.

A big flaw in Game Pass is that there is little reason for long time Game Pass subscribers to stay subscribed past a certain point. They don't have a consistent content pipeline like the TV/movie subscription services do so you can go whole months with almost no new notable content. They do trickle out a few smaller games per month, mostly through licensing deals with third parties, but by and large most of the main library hasn't changed in years. I owned an Xbox One and took advantage of all the cheap Game Pass deals back in the day so I played most of the Bethesda, Id, and other Game Pass staples. The only reasons for someone in a situation like mine to get Game Pass now are if I want to play Call of Duty but don't want to commit to buying it, I want to play the increasingly rare Microsoft first party release, or if I see multiple smaller games added to Game Pass that can be finished in a month or less. With how much the price of Game Pass has gone up over the last couple years, if there's only one new indie addition on the platform you want to play it's usually almost as cheap or cheaper to buy the game outright. Same if it's a big RPG or other longer game that will take you multiple months to play.

It's a bummer because the Xbox consoles themselves are quite good. I like the Series S a lot. It's extremely quiet (which is a big deal after how loud the Xbox One was), has a decentish interface, and has a lot of nice convenience features like quick resume. The hardware people did the job. They made good consoles. It's just that everything else around them is hugely disappointing.

I don't know where Microsoft goes from here with the Xbox platform. It almost feels like they've thrown a hail Mary pass in buying Activision with the hope that Call of Duty, WoW, and the King stuff will carry them because outside of that they have no direction.

@bigsocrates: True! I wont die on that hill passionately, I was mostly being dramatic to illustrate I the perplexity of how poorly Halo has been handled in the years after Bungie, and I'm clearly in the ignorant minority but I have a hard time finding inspiration in the COD/EA Sports/Fortnite engine that just churns out samey content. AND I dont remember sitting outside of EB Games (Canadian Gamestop) for midnight releases and skipping out on school with my friends the next day to play COD - but perhaps thats just my nerdy West Coast bubble in the area I grew up in!

As for why I like the Xbox more - yeah quick resume works infintely better then the PS5 one which I can only hold 1 game and it crashes on me often. Xbox Im surprised when I boot it up and I can pick up where i left off on 4 different games even after power outages and months in between.

I like the user interface, I like social platform more (though I rarely use it) and I prefer the controller a lot more. The PS5 controller really upsets me and I hate the haptics and I just find it uncomfortable. Which is a shame because the PS4 controller is still my favorite. Honestly other then the N64 controller (which I think is complete garbage) I've never had a passionate opinion on any other controller before. So yeah! Its just not my preferred console. Plus the Xbox just has a nicer design economy for the hardware itself - the PS5 is massive and its terrible to fit into my minimalist setup without buying a bunch of third party mounting kits or sticking it somewhere it cant vent heat.

I think the actual answer is that you are both right. In that era both franchises were massive at certain times. I was in high school from 2006-2010. For the first two years, Halo was the dominant game among all of my friends, and generally was the big multiplayer game for people in my demographic in North America. In mid 2008, Call of Duty 4 caught on and Halo was quickly forgotten afterward. But before then, Halo was the big franchise for like half a decade. I specifically remember buying Call of Duty 4 (in a cardboard box with a CD key! PC games have changed so much) on launch day because I was a big Call of Duty 2 multiplayer person at the time. I told all of my friends about how good I thought CoD 4's multiplayer was but most of them ignored me because they were focused on other games or still playing Halo. Within six months all of them were playing Call of Duty instead.

@ben_h: Halo was definitely huge for awhile with a certain crowd, but the reason I can't put it as game of a (human) generation is that it wasn't on the biggest console platform of the time. The majority of console gamers just did not have access to it. It definitely had a huge impact and a huge culture behind it, but one of the reasons that COD broke out and became THE defining franchise after COD4 is the multiplat nature.

Once my game pass runs out in March I'm getting rid of my Series X. If I want to play what Xbox publishes, I'll just get a PC – I'll get infinitely more use out of that platform beyond that.

As a PC gamer, I love to treat consoles as collectible items. I would like to see PlayStation and Xbox's first parties coming to PC while their respective developers can make more games.