For starters, It sounds like you'd just be happiest on PC. There's a lot of wild math going on here when first and foremost gaming is just another form of entertainment. If for whatever reason you aren't being entertained I think you need to revisit things.
The Xbox exclusive games compensated the situation, you could not play certain japanese games or, obviously, the firts party of other companies, but the Xbox exclusives justify the choice of Xbox.
Lmao, you couldn't play any Japanese games. With the OG Xbox and Xbox 360 there was an attempt to pull in Asian markets with commissioned exclusives (often times these were Microsoft published and just developed by the most popular studios), but Xbox couldn't do anything to pull in the most iconic Japanese franchises and thus those plans to grow in Asia all blew up leading to those same iconic franchises continuing to skip them. This started to change toward the end of the Xbox One Generation and has completely flipped in this generation. We're not talking about one or two hidden gems. We're talking entire iconic franchises. Games that literally defined a genre and put JRPG on the map. The entire modern Persona Franchise (3 - 5) has been ported over, all of Yakuza ported over, Mana, Dragon Quest, more Tales games, and Final Fantasy, and so so many more. And many are here to stay with day and date multiplatform releases from now on. Even Square has pledged as much and openly regretted platform exclusivity. You wrote "certain" Japanese games. I'm not going to assume what you thought when you wrote that, but I'm going to tell you that when I read that it sounds like 10 or so Japanese developed/published games skipped Xbox prior this generation. The reality is that I could spend days writing a list of all the Japanese games that have skipped Xbox just since the 360 generation, and could whip up a list of the opposite in well probably still a day as I'd need to fact check it, but you get the point. It's a lot. As someone who since Xbox has come out has used Xbox as my main platform, this is the ONLY generation where I've not been forced to buy a Playstation because I want to play a freaking One Piece Game (I think the first Xbox One Piece game was maybe burning blood). For Eons Xbox hasn't even been able to manage a port for licensed games of one of literal most popular anime in all of the world (and it's way bigger in Japan). And it's not like one piece wasn't huge until recently.
Choosing a platform for me is not a quick decision, it's about building your digital gamer life there, your game library, your achievements... you create a commitment to the platform, trusting its path, promises and brand identity.
I'm confused about this point, because you go on to complain about Xbox stealing your last 20 years... the Xbox One/PS4 openly reset commitments to the platform and digital due to not originally supporting backwards compatibility. At that time (now only a few over 10 years ago) is when you would have started building your current library. And I'm gonna be honest... in what way is Xbox failing those things now more than during the Xbox One Generation? They had ZERO exclusives back then. It wasn't even a matter of sharing with other platforms. They just had no studios due (literally five before their 2018 buying spree). Their release cadence was awful and the quality was a shot in the dark as often times exclusives came from third party studios that Xbox published. Their brand identity was even more chaotic. They started with their terrible messaging and then pivoted away from that way too late. They were even the more expensive product because they insisted on forcing everyone to have a Kinect. And I really don't know what trust you'd have gotten from the "always on; always watching you" meme phase. They even set up an easy target with Sony calling them out on their confusing digital license explanation. It's crazy because Xbox consistently still has more exclusives now than ever before even with their multiplatform plans because their first party size is that big.
But all this is collapsing, right now the Xbox platform is simply the worst place to play in the world, it just has less games. There's only Gamepass left, which is a very good service, the best, but it's far from justifying the existence of the platform. I chose 20 years ago to build my gaming life on Xbox, now I'm a"stuck" here, and these days I'm really sorry and disappointed
I really hope they know what they are doing and that the next Xbox will make up for all this mess.
So I'm just going to sum up with what I objectively see. Just objectively.
1) The Xbox Series Consoles have more support from developers and publishers (and thus more games) than Xbox has EVER had.
2) Xbox as a gaming entity has more 1st party developers and more third party studios it works with to publisher their games than ever.
3) Xbox is letting their studios slowly expand to support all platforms (very slowly; as of now it's just the traditionally multiplatform Bethesda and ABK and a handful of projects from XGS many needing a support studio to port to PS).
4) Xbox has continued to improve its gaming ecosystem this generation with Xbox Play Anywhere, Game Pass, and Cloud.
5) Playstation continues to lose support from it's scores of third party exclusives.
6) Playstation first party studios have been very very inconsistent with their release cadence lately (and behind the scenes we keep hearing of canceled projects).
7) Even Playstation is releasing their first party games on other platforms (in the case of MLB the Show other consoles).
I'm incredibly loving where Xbox is. You couldn't pay me to switch to Playstation. Why would I leave behind Xbox Play Anywhere, Game Pass, and something as basic as free cloud saves? But if you feel differently... again it sounds like you'd prefer PC. I say that because if you see exclusives as the only reason to buy a console, well they're all going to PC. Except Nintendo (for now). You say you invest a lot of time in deciding a console platform. Well why not just do that again. What pros does Playstation offer you? What has changed in the past 20 years? They got Forza Horizon 5 and Sea of Thieves (not really counting the Bethesda games and then there's Pentiment... Grounded)? They'll get who knows what else who knows when else. On the other hand Persona has gone from being PS exclusive to having it's mainline franchise ported over. Atlus has gone from supporting everything but Xbox to doing do day and date. And again it's not just those few titles. The list of defacto PS exclusives because games just skipped Xbox was insane. It's still bigger than it should be (it shouldn't exist at all), but it has gone down a LOT.
Why not make a list? I think you're letting a lot of the internet fear mongering get to you. It's just video games and should just be what you enjoy. Write down the games you enjoy most and what platforms they support. Then look at those platforms and write down what features they support. Search even further and find a cost break down (like PS plus vs Game Pass prices for X tier with XYZ features) and see what value is offered (like Steam has free cloud saves and online multiplayer and in general lower pricing). I'd also suggest looking at your most recently played games, because I'd be surprised if those 20 years of Xbox have actually trapped you in anyway. Every first party Xbox game had been Play Anywhere (with PC) since like 2015 (or 2017 somewhere in the mid to late Xbox One). And the number of third parties taking advantage of it isn't low. Ubisoft games also have their own cross save for all platforms. Certain other games do too. All in all Xbox is not going to disappear overnight. Microsoft isn't pulling in losses; Microsoft is making billions on the platform (way back in 2021 they reported 15 billion USD in gaming revenue; as in before ABK and Zenimax). This is gaming. I'd definitely argue that if you're finding yourself trying to justify either console purchase decision, then there's a problem. Do you enjoy gaming on Xbox? If the answer is no (and that answer can be because certain games you want to play are skipping the platform) then make that change.
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