Was it the games? The hardware? The marketing? Tell us!
We’re fast approaching the 25th anniversary of Xbox (look out for it November 2026!), and over the past couple of decades, the brand has racked up millions of fans who have spent thousands on consoles, games and more.
It might be a fairly short history all things considered, but so much has happened in that time. Each of the original Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S eras have come with their own ups and downs, from major successes like the release of Halo and the glory days of the Xbox 360 library, to the Red Ring of Death and the botched Xbox One launch.
Picked up a series S from GameStop online because it was the only thing in stock. Thing is, I love really powerful hardware in small form factors, but the series S really shows the cracks in Microsoft’s plans IMO. It’s very clear the series S is supposed to be the gamepass console, problem is gamepass quality has been steadily dropping over time and Microsoft buying up companies makes a ton of sense since they haven’t had any major releases other than Forza.
I haven’t touched the series S in probably months. My kids have been playing it quite a bit for games like the Sims and super Lucky’s tale. Everything else can be played on PC, my ps5 or my stream deck so I have no need of it anymore. Not to mention the streaming quality for me on PS5 is just better than XCloud, and that’s just a bonus.
I’ve said it before, Jim Ryan was correct when he said publishers don’t like gamepass and it’s bad for the industry. When I look at the quality of ps plus vs gamepass, it’s clear PlayStation really thinks of it as a supplemental service than a major revenue stream, but doing it that way drives the need to have more quality features and games vs just letting every and any game on your service.