Talking Point: Xbox Series X|S Has Been Out For Three Years, And It's Now Hitting Its Stride

Happy birthday Series X - here's hoping for a uplift in your fortunes for the rest of the generation!
All the talent is there, if it can manged properly it will go from strength to strength.

I’m more skeptical, I’m hoping for a bright future
But I can’t see it and I don’t know Xbox future, consoles or software only.
Going on todays shop sales of consoles so far today with all the deals and sales etc, they haven’t got a chance in hell and will be in the same position roughly by the end of this generation.

Sorry xboxers of which I’m one, I think it maybe the harsh truth. But only time will tell.

I always had ideas how companies can turn things around

But i really cant see how xbox can win in a direct compitition with PS, they can win as a publisher but i can never imagine xbox beating PS in console war and i totally understand when Phil said we cant win in the normal sense and people attacked him for me his a smart guy, poeple says oh you just have to give poeple great games...but thats not enough! Sony had their worst year in exclusives this year and had few exlusives in the hole gen, with shady future in live service games ps5 slim price increase and no stand , ps plus 33% price increase...you will think poeple will get angry but ps5 having the best year in sales!!! My logic is going with phil!! Poeple doesnt count the psychic/sociologic side of the gaming community!!
Xbox is hated by media and by other bigger very loyal fanboy base! Xbox need to give great games each year for next 10 years to get the bias off

I'm about to hit my 1 year mark with the system. I like it alot more than I thought i would.

Great console but I feel let down about the graphics quality. Nothing amazing yet. It feels a fast loading Xbox One to me.

@TakeItEasy
You are spot on with some of the things you say.
But it is simple in the mass market general public.
They just simply prefer and want PlayStation and Nintendo as a brand and most definitely the games they produce and Sony have the casual market as well.

And both Sony and Nintendo have been advertising on standard UK tv all this week and I have not seen a single Xbox advert.

They either to start producing top games that appeal to the masses and advertise or don’t bother. I don’t even think the Zenimax and Activison deal will do much for them.

My shop and the 60 shops around the UK have sold every single apart from one or two PS5 disc COD bundle £409.99 and no home delivery stock all sold out.

Series x same bundle and deal a handful sold.
That tells the masses don’t give an arse about the Zenimax and Activsion deal and probably don’t even know it happened.

I've had a PS5/Series S setup for a while now. I'm upgrading the Series S to X very soon. Not only do I play my Xbox more than my PlayStation, but I feel the Series S is starting to struggle a bit with performance on new titles.

A little bit of Hyperbole but ok…
No offence to Ben Kerry but Xbox are nowhere close to ‘hitting their stride’…
Three years of basically nothing with average release after average release, even this year alone most of their big titles gave been kinda meh, Forza is good but lacking content compared to previous games, Starfield is hilariously boring and once again a bad rpg by Bethesda. The only good release this year was Hifi Rush.
Its not good enough. After three years if their hitting their strides they should at least have released something truly memorable, something killer, purchasing ABK and all of Spencers rhetoric means nothing until Xbox is consistently releasing good quality games like their supposed rivals. They have no more excuses, or reason whinge, no more ‘we cant compete’ lies and victim complex, they have nobody to blame about how Xbox is perceived than themselves.
I hope 2024 is a good year, I want to see stellar games on ALL Platforms but will Xbox deliver consistently? Their track record is against them and buying up the market doesnt change that.

The new console generation doesn't start until Nintendo releases a new console.
Right now it's generation 8.5.
Once the Super Switch or whatever they're doing comes out, we'll start to see something that looks like a whole new generation of consoles from the whole industry.

It does kind of feel like the whole ABK battle threw attention into all the "wrong" places. I think now that Microsoft is done hemorrhaging money in legal fees, it can get back to the business of running Xbox!

Perhaps Microsoft could have its "PS3" moment and gain a bigger market share to usher it into the next generation in a much stronger position.

Sony has done away with a lot of its smaller title studios and is putting a heavier focus into Live Service games. Microsoft already has its own with State of Decay, Sea of Thieves, Halo, and Gears.

Microsoft is in a position where it can fill certain voids that Sony is starting to create.

Time will tell. As long as everything leads to better games across the entire industry, I am all for a stronger Xbox!

@themightyant
I strongly believe it’s all about the games.
If you have the games that the masses want then your console and GP sales will slowly pick up over time and into the next generation.

Xbox needs a very good reason for the masses to pick the console or dare I say it an Xbox over the other two consoles.

When I look at next years release schedule that we sort of know of for next year, there is nothing that will grab the masses, maybe a few gamers of course.

Being very honest, I don’t have the real answer they just need I guess a few most definitely must have games exclusive to the Xbox eco system but I honestly don’t know what those games should or could be. It’s definitely not a position I would like to be in at my work environment as a manager.

I know everyone mentions and myself about Xbox and PlayStation but let’s not forget Nintendo 130 million sold and counting.
Some don’t see them as direct competition but they must take some Xbox and maybe even Sony potential customers away from them.

Slow start with games due to COVID but hopefully things pick over the next year or so.

Series X was my entry point for Game Pass, and I had a ton of first party Xbox One games to catch up on too, so I've thoroughly enjoyed these first three years. Definitely hoping for a nice first party cadence from here on out though. Can't wait for Fable, Hellblade 2 and Stalker 2 in particular.

Everyone debating over how Xbox can catch Playstation in sales; but being in third place in sales doesn’t mean an individual can’t have an incredible time with it. The amount of games I have played shows how good a console it is, especially those played on Gamepass. In a world where everything is super expensive and I have a LOT of outgoing costs; Xbox is the most affordable one of the three and lets me play games all year round for the same price as one PS Studios game. Already a good few hours in to Like A Dragon Gaiden, for example.

Also I know most don’t agree but I much prefer Xbox’s IPs to Playstations and that is not even including Zenimax and ABK.

Since exclusives are so important; I do have hope that Xbox can provide a solid catalogue for the rest of the generation (and beyond). Almost every game announced I am excited for (still never got into State of Decay though…).

My issue with this generation is the lack of new IPs. 2006-2009 was the height of all that: Dead Rising, Assassins Creed, Gears of War, Borderlands, the reinvention of Fallout, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc. Thats what I want to see happen again.

@themightyant of course yea the article focuses on exclusives and they make up a big part of the console experience. But just a general look at the Series X, three years into its life span, as a standalone thing. It’s awesome. If you wanna play the new Spiderman or Mario or Final Fantasy game you are out of luck but almost everything else is there.

Hopefully Xbox starts bringing some good games to the system. Need more God of War, The Last of Us and Spider-Man style games that Playstation makes. I havnt been impressed with any of the games Xbox has been coming out with. Starfield was slow, Souls like games are dumb and racing games are only fun for like the first day. Give us more Third person, story driven single player, campaign style games so All of us can be included in gaming...

Unfortunately I've been very underwhelmed with xbox so far this generation. If I'm totally honest PS is always my go to machine as I enjoy their exclusives much more but have always owned (and still do) every xbox so far. I'm still subscribed to gamepass but I really don't know why as I don't see the value in it that many do. I know I sound overly negative but I really do hope that my interest is rekindled in the coming year as more software becomes available

Had mine for about a year now, as a new player I’ve had no end of fantastic content for just the cost of the monthly sub. Shout out to the modern warfare series for being that killer app.

3 years and the only promised feature we have gotten so far is quick resume and even that doesn't work right. I have to personally disagree with this article.

Been an Xbox S owner for one year and I thought I would just play Starfield and not much else … boy was I wrong … but once it got delayed I been playing everything on Gamepass and buying on sale games and have around 90 games in my backlog now. Never been more happy!

I’m still looking for a reason to purchase a series x

I’m still fairly disappointed in both the series x and the PS5 but I do like the direction xbox is going in.

Ive dusted mine more times than ive actually switched it on. Nothing to play. Yearly promises of things to play never pan out……….. next year next year next year - they’re still saying it now!!

All those studios and very little to show for it. Lets wait till next year eh???? Yawn

@Kaloudz Same, it is a brilliant console. Don't have a TV that does the X justice so the S is perfect for me still. p.S. I'll get a X at some point.

I love my series X and have struck with Xbox since the Xbox 360 mainly for the convenience of having nearly all my games accessible each generation. That being said it is mainly 3rd party games that I have been enjoying (Resident Evil, Sonic and various indies). Gamepass Core is a real steal at the price I got it for for a year.

However, any notion of ‘beating’ Sony in sales is a pipe dream. The PS5 is sitting at about 42 million in sales, with the Xbox at about 21 million. Now both pale in comparison to the Switch and I don’t let sales figures influence my console choice (I supported the Wii U heavily for example). Sales are also based on region: Xbox is popular in the US, Canada, the UK and a bit in Europe. Sony are popular there and in Asia as well, which means they have access to a much bigger market (same as Nintendo). So Xbox is unlikely to ever match like for like sales. However, that doesn’t stop it being a cracking system. Now let’s get some more exclusives!

I love the console but boy was that exclusive drought rough, it happened with the X1 which made it worse this time.

As we've been saying since MS started buying studios (and whole damn publishers), they have the resources, they have the studios, it's time to start delivering because, personally, I don't know I'll react to another drought.

If this is X/S hitting it stride ,it doesn’t bode well .

Happy Birthday Series X/S! I do hope the future is brighter than how the first 3 years have gone for you!

I love my Series X but it doesn't have a big time console seller in terms of exclusives and that shows in it's market shares around the world. I still think Microsoft will go the way of Sega - and an immense publisher they will be. It sucks for gamers though as it means less competition in the console space. Maybe Apple will step in eventually?!

I love my Series X. The value out of the backwards compatibility and more than enough next gen titles (more than I have time for) makes me very happy. A fine piece of tech and a happy addition to my Xbox family.

@abe_hikura still in the drought…….. wait till next year