Consoles have felt like they've been in a rut since they started and I think that shows with how they're performing after all this time. In every way, they should've become a popular gateway into a new medium of entertainment. They didn't. In fact, in a lot of ways gaming has grown beyond the home console and left it behind. Consoles struggle to pick up 200 million users in a lifetime (and by struggle, I mean they fall short of it by quite a large margin (with said margin varying each generation (for example Nintendo's home consoles have historically flopped every other generation (gamecube sold 20 million, Wii sold 100 million, WiiU sold 13 million (oof)...)))). All the billions of gamers are on PC and Mobile. The AAA gaming industry is really starting to feel this disconnect to as costs continue to rise and there's not a ton more people to sell to with high end PC gaming being expensive and consoles still not taking off (rather it seems like they peaked at a rather low altitude).
Speaking from personal experience, I have to say I HATED consoles growing up. Well, that's a major hyperbole. I hated consoles when I started to grow up. As a kid, it was literally all fun and games. There were a lot of us siblings so we'd get every console and share. As I got older though, I started to notice that the console market was uniquely... kinda terrible. My life was increasingly dotted with smartphones, tablets, and PCs and all the digital technologies, and I couldn't help but notice that for everything else I was into... there were very few walls. I could start a Netflix movie on my phone and finish it on my TV picking up exactly where I left off. I could also download content to any device Netflix was on. As time went on I could even download and play mobile games across devices and transfer save data. When I bought a DVD I could watch it on literally any device with a DVD player and then they started selling ditigal codes so you'd have the physical DVD and the digital copy and then they also started up movies anywhere and you can access your digital movie library on any device. I noticed more and more that the consoles offered the polar opposite experience. We STILL don't even have free cloud saves across the board (only Xbox does it). I started to hate consoles and vehemently hate exclusives as I just wanted that experience which I knew was possible because I got it on every other tech platform. I wanted games to be more widely available across the board and I wanted to be able to play wherever and access my library and be able to seamlessly pick up where I left off. I grew very bitter playing video games on consoles knowing they were so anti consumer compared to the rest of the tech in my life. I grew up in an iPhone family and even the iPhone wasn't as locked down as consoles (in fact, as I kid I didn't even recognize it was a closed ecosystem even when with people who used Android whereas it was glaringly obvious with consoles). It reached a critical point when the Xbox One and PS4 initially launched. As always I got every console (over the course of multiple Christmases and birthdays). At first I took not being able to play my 360 and PS3 games as business as usual (I had been playing consoles as old as the Nintendo 64 due to my family), but as time passed I got really, really frustrated with it. The critical point was when Playstation sold PS Now and game streaming as their solution (and my mom not really knowing what it was bought me a few months of it as a gift). It was god awful at the time (streaming was not remotely good enough for gaming TEN YEARS AGO) and felt like such an insult. That's when it really hit me that these companies were choosing to do this. They could give consumers a better, more open, more cohesive, and more valuable experience where everything is as widely available as in other markets but just don't because they're afraid no one would want their box. They failed to properly market a product worth buying and instead keep selling me a ball & chain trap using exclusive games as bait. And I was done with it.
I very nearly stopped gaming entirely as that generation went on. I just was not gaming as much, and didn't really know how to get into PC gaming so it felt like the end. And I've seen my siblings move on from gaming and I always went to school knowing most people didn't game at all on consoles, and it felt like I was starting to get why after so many years of gaming being my favorite form of entertainment (well either gaming or reading). That was when Xbox started to come out with its native backwards compatibility program, PC initiative, and Xbox Play Anywhere. I have to tell you even before I knew how to game on PC, I got excited by that. Xbox was actually doing something to create unique value for it's customers and not just dangle shiny games in front of a mouse trap to try and get people locked into the most walled garden in the digital landscape. It made me enjoy gaming again even when I couldn't take advantage of it. I similarly just felt better about gaming when I saw stuff like Xbox putting Ori on Switch and Xbox pushing for cross play whereas Playstation was against it. Then I really got into gamepass.
It's felt a little sad and disappointing to me seeing how poorly the Xbox fan base has reacted to this generation. To each their own, but I've been estatic at most every move Xbox has made. Having grown up a lot and learned a lot more about business and marketing, I really REALLY think they're messaging, consistency, and execution desperately need work, but the general concept of what is happening I love. Xbox Cloud Gaming is what I wanted PS Now to be. Something that takes advantage of streaming and puts it on devices that can't handle my games instead of a roundabout solution to backwards compatibility that cost $20 a month (though streaming on Sony TVs was neat (I actually made my mom buy a Sony TV for the family room when she upgraded and we still use that TV 10+ years later)). Xbox Game Pass Ultimate eventually got me into PC gaming (a little through a bad old gaming laptop and now a LOT through my Steam deck and Legion Go (steam deck got me into Steam, but I really can't go back from my legion go and having access to Xbox Play Anywhere, PC game pass, cloud gaming, AND steam and any other launcher)). And I am genuinely more happy gaming knowing that Xbox is pushing for an initiative of our games everywhere and supporting digital libraries in ways that are next level compared to other platforms. Just the other day I went on reddit, saw a post that Xenoverse 2 was made Xbox Play Anywhere (it wasn't when it launched), and downloaded that sucker on my legion go. People are scared about digital libraries and I'm lost there because Xbox is the console least likely to make you lose access to your games. Nintendo and PlayStation have historically given gamers the middle finger when it came to game preservation and backwards compatibility. It was inconsistent even within the same console generation (take the Wii for example: the first model launched able to play GameCube games but overtime subsequent models lost this feature). Xbox was the same, but proved that in the One generation (well... later in the One generation) they had a dedication to native backwards compatibility (supporting games we owned in previous gens on disc or digitally). One of my favorite things with the series S|X were how they elevated that with FPS boosts for 360 era games. Wish they just did more of it. Even when Xbox announced games going to other platforms, much like Ori I was happy about the move. Again, marketing and messaging and strategy execution deserve criticism, but at the end of the day I'm somehow who LIKES when good art (and video games are art to me; there's a reason why they are my favorite entertainment medium) can be enjoyed by more people.
I really would like to live in the world where Xbox is praised for leading the charge into changing the console market and gaming industry on the whole into what it should have been eons ago. And maybe we will some day. I've like the meat and core of everything Xbox has done this generation. It has me gaming more than I ever did before (even more than when I was a kid) and enjoying it more than I ever have. Last generation had me feeling hopelessness regarding game. I had despaired that it would always remain as it was, and at the time I saw what it was as nothing but an insult to my worth as a consumer and the worth of video games as an artistic medium to share valuable and just fun experiences with people. Now, I CAN say that I am excited for where gaming is going.
All that said, Microsoft could 100% fumble. OEMs are difficult to handle and we've seen the mess on windows. I would argue that Xbox console hardware should remain proprietary, but Microsoft should work to bring a more Xbox like experience to Windows. Don't make Xbox more windows based, make windows more Xbox based. Then companies like Lenovo can sell gaming devices with an Xbox brand but are still windows PCs just maybe with an Xbox gaming mode like SteamOS (having a Linux desktop mode and steam gaming mode). Overall, make improvements to gaming on windows and bring it under an Xbox branding UX/UI umbrella. This is partially being done with the current Xbox game bar which in compact mode pulls up recently played games across launchers/storefronts and let's you open them or any launcher right from the XBOX game bar menu. Console hardware should remain a proprietary experience though, just with greater connection to other platforms (like with more play anywhere games). Consoles should remain a consistent experience and don't need the full windows gunk. They also do need to stay something that Microsoft can sell at a subsidized cost. The series S would NOT be possible at its price and power if it was a gaming laptop running full windows.
). Anyway, that's my Ted Talk. If you read all the way to the end, wow. Get a life. Go play some games. Again, the website itself told me to get my essay out of here. Clearly I need to be gaming 
.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram