It’s been a difficult decade for the Xbox brand. Ever since the car crash like rollout of the Xbox One, Microsoft has been playing catchup with Sony and Nintendo in convincing consumers to part with their hand-earned money for gaming hardware. To quote former Xbox boss Phil Spencer, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 generation was the wrong video game generation to “lose”, because that’s when physical discs were replaced with buying games digitally. When the Xbox Series X and Series S were released in late 2020, convincing PlayStation 4 owners that had already built up a library of digital games to switch was a big ask.
It’s a shame, because there’s a lot to like about the Xbox Series X. From a hardware perspective, games on the Xbox Series X still look great and play well, despite the console being six years old at this point. There are rumblings about a new generation of video game hardware coming in 2027 (rising component prices might get in the way of that), and I think that’s a hard sell. Few games hit the ceiling of the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 hardware, and I don’t see a huge demand for games that look better than, say, Forza Horizon 6.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that Xbox hasn’t exactly been covering itself in glory when it comes to games from their first-party studios. I’m a huge Elder Scrolls fan, but Starfield didn’t speak to me at all. Redfall was a flop. I liked Halo Infinite, but less than probably any other entry in the series, not counting Halo Wars. It’s not all bad, of course. The Forza Horizon series is consistently excellent, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is one of my favorite games in recent years, Doom: The Dark Ages is a huge improvement over Doom Eternal, and Obsidian has reliably been delivering bangers big and small, including Grounded, Pentiment, The Outer Worlds II, and Avowed.
The importance of individual Xbox games being smash hits is reduced somewhat thanks to Xbox Game Pass, Microsofts Netflix like subscription service that gives you access to almost all of their first-party Xbox games along with some third-party ones for a monthly fee. The value of Game Pass has been reduced somewhat due to recent price increases, but it’s still a great deal. If you’re one of those who skipped the Xbox One and pick up a Series X or Series S today, you can get immediate access to all of the exclusive games you’ve missed by subscribing to Game Pass. I’m not subscribed right now, but I likely will resubscribe when Forza Horizon 6 comes out.
Will I buy the next Xbox console? Probably not. Like I mentioned above, I don’t really see the need for improved hardware, and I don’t have a lot of confidence in the long-term commitment of Microsoft to the Xbox hardware given how poorly the Xbox Series X and Series S have sold. It’s more likely I’ll keep playing new Xbox releases on my Series X, and pick up whatever console Sony releases next to catch up with the PlayStation games I’ve missed since I last owned one. For now, I’m pretty happy with my Xbox Series X.
