no speculation on the handheld as a console? Sarah Bond came from T-mobile and I'm speculating that her connections to the carrier might make the handheld have a persistent data connection via 5G. Most cloud games on gamepass are not touch controlled btw but uses the xbox controller or third party adapters and the phone or tablet is just a streaming display. A hand held xbox would be native as a controller and display device not so different than what the Dreamcast had ith it's memory /display add-on. Also, the controller itself could be internet persistent where latency is minimized which Stadia was trying to do. You can still share games digitally for friends on your xbox account and would be interesting if Xbox offers a marketplace for owned games.
I’d buy a ps pro if there were new games worth playing. Soul games are the only thing I really buy at release these days. Most of what I play is old games mixed with a bit of online pve grind games
my One X kind of ended up the same... specifically as my 4K Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive machine. Still eyeing up a Series X at some point if the price is right, but having recently got a PS5, there's not really much justification for it.
Don was doing what boss asked him to do. After years of taking blame he said in interview that task he was given was take over living rooms and to deliver machine which will do it. Basically all in one
@@olearturI mean, wasn't that why Microsoft initially created Xbox? The threat of Sony taking over the living room and Microsoft wanting to do it instead.
@@oleartur Makes sense, Windows already fell off after Windows 7, and nowadays it's a barely functioning mess that people only use because they're required to use the equally terrible and non-functional Microsoft 365 subscription service. Microsoft has always been a software company, so why does none of their software work properly anymore?
@@michael2093he’s literally the reason I and many others skipped the Xbone. Short term gains mean nothing when you lose your long time fan base. This is coming from an og Xbox and 360 owner
I got a used series X for my birthday this year and have been loving it for what it is. It plays games great on the couch. If Microsoft remembers Xbox is for games & gamers, we should be okay.
But that’s irrelevant because your average gamer isn’t into emulation or isn’t interested in dev mode on their Xbox. I hate emulation, I buy all my retro games physically. The only good thing about emulation is preservation. Other than that, I never touched it.
@alwhitney1968 You're a joke stop talking emulation is amazing it preserves gaming history and you can play those games on any device. Your old physical games won't last forever 😂 things degrade over time as items get older and older
@Mike-t5r9q physical media over digital any day, games from 50 years ago are still playable physically today. That stuff doesn't just degrade by its self no matter what
Remember when videogames had compelling single player modes that didn't require online and servers? When the full games were on the disk and worked out of the box? When micro transactions weren't force fed and required to win? Ahh the good old days.......
@@dammyoyesanya4656 those are key license software. Much downloading and patching required.... There was a time games had to work out the box... Online update wasn't a thing yet....
@@dammyoyesanya4656 I think Nintendo and Sony are overrated as well. Nintendo has been making the same games for years and Sony just continues making open world titles with different skins that gamers are getting sick of. They’re no better than Xbox other than they have marketable IP that bring gamers in. Other than that their games are pretty ordinary compared to what they used to be.
@@Roach22 Going by your logic God of War is the same game as Uncharted? You mentioned they are all the same skins, I guess Killzone is the same game as Ratchet and Clank. Since they all use the same skins.
I wish Xbox went into a more conservative direction. The Series X should’ve been a complete brand overhaul that echoed the xbox 360 days. Just a great console with great games and none of the BS.
For just console owners, yeah definitely. I moved to PC the past couple of years and honestly I've been keeping busy just replaying all the classics I love and finding hidden gems I missed on Steam.
I can't believe the 9th generation of consoles are already 4 years old. Has it been that long? I still felt like those hardware were introduced yesterday. Surely, time flies.
As someone super invested on Xbox due to the humongous library I've been building there for the last 14 years, the most I got out of it this year (apart from the standard backlog cleaning) has been the "finally" ports. Finally we have more square enix titles, finally we have death stranding, etc
Death stranding is a bigger gain than people think. Sony helped fund publish and create the decima engine, I really can't believe they sold the IP tbh.
as an xbox fan it's sad to see their current situation, I used my series x a lot in the beginning of the gen but yeah today not so much and i pretty much moved to pc and ps5. I only hope they don't do anything stupid regarding digital games like shutting down servers otherwise i will need to rebuy my games on ps5
The current gen is a strange one anyway, both for Sony and Microsoft. We should be approaching the summit of this console generation, yet games wise it feels like we barely got started. Up to this year I had no incentive to upgrade from PS4, especially as I'm not owning a 4K screen. The biggest titles so far were all cross gen, while changing this year with a lot more 9th gen exclusives. Maybe 2025 will be a year where some actual system sellers will go to market. GTA6 will be that game for me. But especially Microsofts strategy I can't understand, there is no way they are ever going to earn back that mountain of money they used to buy Bethesda and Activision. So like you mentioned, the suits step in. Combine that with ever escalating development costs for AAA games and you end up with generations where as a platform holder you just can't come up with a steady supply of exclusives to drive demand. And adding the multiplat and PC support with it, it puts consoles as a concept behind. And tying to finance that through a subscription model sounds near impossible. Sony on the other hand also has a though time. It's quickly sprawling all over the place with multiple bets on everything, but seemingly not fully committing to them. A mediocre support for PSVR2, a very confusing and restricted handheld, a barely interesting streaming service, confusing subscription tiers and a terrible approach in exploiting their legacy with backwards compatibility. Add to that an ever expanding list of extremely expensive accessories (Pro controller, Portal, Pulse Elite audio products, the separate disk drive) and of course the monstrously expensive mid gen PRO console ( Where you at best get 4 years out of ) and they can count themselves lucky their are financially in a good place, as it's certainly not their strategy at the moment that brings them at the top. Besides all that, consoles used to be really plug and play as you'd buy the game, pop it in and start playing. That concept is dead, and console gaming lost its low barrier for entry. With day one patches, regular MASSIVE updates and games releasing is such poor technical conditions you have to jump through a lot of hoops to just get going. And most ridiculously asking the players to choose what compromise to make (quality mode vs performance) It's become no different that PC gaming.
Consoles are still vastly cheaper for performance and more user friendly than PC. If you buy a game for your PlayStation or Xbox it will work guaranteed you also don't have to worry about a GPU or CPU not being compatible with each other because everything in the console is designed to go together. Until PC can boast that consoles will always exist. All of that you listed are either also issues on PC (patches and updates) or enthusiast products that most console gamers have no interest in to begin with. They exist so Sony can get more money out of its hardcore users. Fun fact for everyone the PS4 Pro was less than 10% of all PS4 sales.
I collected some original Xbox games recently and remembered my enthusiasm for it 20 years ago. Dead or Alive 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Otogi 2… We got great Japanese exclusives before.
@ Huh? DoA5 and DoA6 came out on PS4. DoA5 did well financially. I think their biggest mistakes were “censoring” the females’ costumes in DoA6 and too much DLC.
A company's downfall begins when their board of directors forces decisions outside of their expertise, The board's bloated egos think that their funding automatically gives them qualifications to make every decision.
Xbox is only a tiny part of Microsoft, it only exists because Bill Gates saw the PS2 as a threat to computers. The only reason it still exists is because Phil Spencer pitched Game Pass as another tech monopoly for Microsoft like Windows. Microsoft hasn't been shy about their desire to get out of hardware since the One failed.
Hate to say it, but the Kinect for Xbox 1 was ahead of its time! It let you ditch the controller and use your body and voice. It could track your moves, recognise your face, and made games like “Rise of Nightmares” feel immersive.
Thank you for mentioning that digital purchases are not ownership. I spent so much money on the PS3 storefront when I was a late teen/young adult thinking the purchases were going to transfer over to the PS4 and how wrong I was. I Think I have like $2000 worth of games saved on my system that is gone forever when that system will break one day. It was the slim model so they're almost as durable as a damn N64 but one day it will be gone. I am not completely against buying digital games but I always get them discounted and games I truly love I will get a physical copy to keep it. Don't buy digital consoles because there is literally no point to their existence other than to drive a market that only takes away ownership to consumers.
I did the same with my ps3. I skipped the ps4 ( i know, big mistake) and sold my ps3 in preperation for the ps5. Imagine my surprise when i found out my games were not available. But, i bought another ps3 and my account can still download the games i bought.
This generation really does not feel like 4 years have passed since XBSX and PS5 launched. I'm gueesing the next one won't be that much different simply because of PS5 PRO and Series X (or X2?) having enough juice to last until the end of the decade
As someone who used to collect, selling all my collection. And sticking with PC and Series X Gamepass is the winner in my eyes. I love it, because its saving me 1000s Australia a year of ultimate gamepass is now $280au Which is still great value. But I use a VPN and get a year for the next 5 years for $136au for the next 5 years. So I'm happy tbh. I'm over buying all my games
Because of the whole licensing issues with digital games I don’t buy games unless they’re on sale and the discount is at least 50%. I agree with you on Game Pass but also because there are games on there that are great that I never would have considered playing outside of Game Pass.
@@Roach22 On my PC I wait for discounts, and the freebies are great. I just bought RE4 Remake because it got cheap enough for me. For context it's the RE game I wanted remade the most. I've had on GC from 3 days after the US launch, I imported a copy because I didn't want to wait for the European launch. Wii, X360 and PC. The X360 and PC ports are dreadful, the whole game doesn't feel right. I thinks it's because it's the stripped down PS2 port. So much patience lol.
I just don’t get how a über rich company like Microsoft mismanages its gaming division this poorly. They have funds, the talent, and resources to make great games… and instead, they go all-in on Gamepass, mishandle the internal studios they already have, and spend billions acquiring others. Even pre-2013 Mattrick era Xbox had more games people wanted, Kinect BS aside. Imagine if they used to money spent to buyout publishers, to improve their internal development studios, give them more resources. Phil Spencer and current Xbox leadership needs to go.
Because for 4 gens straight now Xbox has failed to unseat either Sony or Nintendo in the market. Yes Microsoft could probably outlast Nintendo and Sony in a war of attrition but that means pissing money away for the foreseeable future waiting for either Nintendo or Sony to go bankrupt.
This has been the case for a long time. Phil should have been fired after halo infinite released if not before. His laissez fair approach has never worked, and those two dead years killed their reputation. It’s when I dropped off and went PC. And now there’s no reason to own Xbox hardware if you can get your hands on a PC.
I switched from PS5 to Series X mostly due to Game Pass (a friend gave me a year for free) Exclusives are easily the best thing about the PS5 but unfortunately it felt like this year Sony really slowed down on them and overall, there wasn’t any good games worth playing that I couldn’t play on Xbox. The Series X, in contrast, is a fantastic piece of hardware that provides backwards compatibility on X360 games and some OG Xbox games, in addition to the previous generation. This alone to me is a huge advantage over Sony as a console gamer, and is by far the strongest reason to own one. Sony has gone the nickel and dime way by charging a bunch of money for remasters, territory restrictions everywhere and attempts to get as much profit as possible from everything they possibly can. Also, they completely screwed PS3 digital libraries everywhere. MS should focus on Xbox and double down on their BC strategy, have stronger exclusives and position themselves as a complete piece of hardware that offers the best value among all the consoles.
People who don't understand license agreements. Think about the way you purchase Microsoft Windows. You're not purchasing the disc. You're purchasing the product key. Microsoft is just gracious enough to provide an install disc with your purchase
I've had my Series X for almost 2 years now, I made the upgrade from the One S and just wanted a device where I could get the best from the Xbox titles plus backwards compatability for some 360 and OG titles. I've not used it as much this year due to picking up a PS5 last Christmas, but there's a few titles I've gotten for the system new this year. It tends to be the one I get most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games for, and I did grab Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor Refantazio for it. There's plenty of Series/One titles I've yet to grab as well. This is the first time since the 6th gen that I've had all of the current consoles, and if I hadn't started playing FFXIV on my PS5 I'd likely have put more time into the Series X.
I just got the Series X last month after having a Series S for the last 2 years and Xbox One S 4 1/2years before that. Having a disc drive really does make a difference since I have a bunch of games in my backlog that aren't on game pass.
The economics of cloud gaming will never make sense to me. You cant go faster than the speed of light, so they'd need to build data centers in every town to get latency to a (still worse than local) playable state. So I cant see how having multiple data centers with thousands of Xbox's worth of hardware in each of them is better than selling one Xbox per house and having them pay for the electricity. Also, bandwidth isn't free. A high quality Netflix stream uses like 5-10GB an hour and they're just doing 24fps or 30fps video content. A 60-120fps 1080p game stream would need at least double that to not look all crunched with artifacts. Compare 10-20GB an hour to stream a game, to simply downloading the game locally or selling it on a disc. So yeah, the economics of game streaming wouldn't be able to support a mass market unless they're just targeting the smartphone gamer crowd that are used to not having high quality gaming experiences.
As someone who has been using Xcloud for several years now, the service itself gets better and better with time. Little known fact, Google Stadia had an EXCELLENT level of okay quality. The lag was practically non existent..... and this was several years ago. Xcloud has caught up quite well and I've been able to play a lot of fast twitch (1st person shooters and fighting games) with very limited hiccups. The biggest difference I've seen has not only been the connection quality but the quality of the device being used to interface. A high end cell phone (Samsung S22 and above) and/or a laptop with a good gpu built in gives the best results. So I see what the Xbox brand is doing and ummmmm, it's actually working quite well.
@@tdtellem Having a few beta testers is a far cry from trying to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people using the service at the same time. Also remember that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. If you really like twitch shooters, you'll always be at a disadvantage compared to the guys that could simply afford to buy the $300-500 box once every 6-8 years.
It is about is it good enough for some people. And it seems it is. I use xCloud to test and sometimes play some games when I’m traveling and have my steam deck with me. Is it as good as playing on a dedicated hardware. No. Is is good enough for some games. Yes. But for me even a low end hardware to play the games natively will be better than could gaming.
@@mravg79 The main thing I'm thinking about is the cost to Microsoft, not even if the services is good or not. Right now the cost is manageable because it's still basically in a beta test phase with not many users, but if they wanted to move all ~20 million remaining Xbox gamers over to cloud...... Ongoing bandwidth costs would be insane, building data centers everywhere would be insane, electrical costs would be insane (when the Xbox is in your house, you're the one paying the power bill). I guess Microsoft could charge you like, $50 to $100 a month, but the service would still be offering lower quality game play and visuals compared to just having a cheap $500 box sitting under the TV
4 years and still no exclusive games that take advantage of the new-gen hw. What was the point of this generation? I mean, even the One X runs some games better than the Series S. Worst console generation EVER.
What do you mean? Flight Sim takes full advantage of the hardware, especially for SX, Hellblade 2, Horizon 5, Forza Motorsport with the SX capable of RT at 60fps with 4K being common during gameplay, Starfield, and were soon going to have Stalker 2 in a couple weeks, and Indiana Jones, both of which will run at 60fps on the Series X. Tha may not be an * exorbitant* amount of games, but to say there are “none”, is a bit hyperbolic.
The OneX can have a better resolution output than the SeriesS but it doesn’t match the SeriesS on performance. Cyberpunk runs at twice the frame rate on the SeriesS for example
Just wanted to say that you putting the mic right by your face. It makes a HUGE difference for me and I can hear you more clearly. I have some auditory processing issues so thank you for having the mic set up this way. Great stuff!
Xbox was born because MS didn't want Sony to control the living room. The PC wasn't widely adopted by core gamers before the '90s because there were many better gaming platforms available in the '80s, like the C64, the Amiga, the PC Engine and the NES.
I truly believe Microsoft is done with the traditional console after the Series X. I know for a while, a generic prediction for Sony and Microsoft is the idea that they're going to simply make "Roku stick" likes that just plug into a TV and offer a bare bones, streamed, gaming experience, but I truly believe that's the direction Microsoft is headed. An "Xbox stick" of sorts, with native releases on PS5/PC. That to me is very clearly the message they're giving to me as a consumer.
They're pretty much heading there full speed for the last few years No home system, a handheld with online functionality, becoming the biggest publisher in the industry, pushing GamePass In fact I wouldn't be surprised to wake up one day and see the headline saying "Microsoft and Sony to secure a historical deal - GamePass available on PlayStation starting X Month YY Year"
I think they're also going to focus on selling controllers and accessories. The numbers show tons of people use the Xbox controller on PC, much more than people use PlayStation. Most can agree the Xbox controller is awesome, aside from it being prone to stick drift.
Social media’s continued rise has, quite possibly, also been a continued thorn in the side of XBOX. As Adam has insinuated multiple times, the console wars are still a thing. People really seem to care more about buying a plastic box that has games one can’t play on another plastic box. XBOX has been doing better for physical games; especially from Limited Run Games, but Microsoft isn’t interested in exclusivity either. They’re interested in XBOX as a service. By investing in these larger publishers and Gamepass, the brand is profitable and likely isn’t going anywhere, however, the console may sadly do so. Sucks since the Series X is a very well- built console with more content then people would likely credit it for. Their investment in backwards compatibility is nothing to scoff at.
That last part baffles me so much people love to argue games, then sell back compat so short. In a generation where most titles have PC releases and are old game remasters. And the much better back compat doesn't just give the Xbox over 600 games, most of which aren't on PS4 and enhancements to them too... just like the remasters do 😭 what are we arguing about
@AlphaladZXA The issue isn’t an argument for enjoying an XBOX console; it’s that people don’t trust and require XBOX. I enjoy my XBOX hardware, but I cannot stand their business model. P.C.’s can already run most backward compatible games either through emulation or a native version. Microsoft is stupid enough to port all their games to their competitors’ platforms. Competition that doesn’t care to show the same grace in return. After the ‘This is An XBOX’ commercial today, many people, including myself are regretting purchasing a Series console. If *every* single, first- party game comes to other platforms and those platforms won’t play ball with Microsoft, no one should invest in their consoles. We were lied to at the beginning of this generation by Microsoft. We’ve invested money on a abandoned platform. Not that Sony or Nintendo are the “good guys” either, but people appreciate it when companies respect these investments… Not lie to their customers… *Again and again.* Preserve your library, friend.
OH god its four years old. I"m currently working on a personal story video tied to the original xbox. I"m dealing with the fact i'm a crusty old man with Xbox, then 360, now the series x. God.
This is the year that I gave up on the Xbox ecosystem completely. I bought a One X a few years back to play some 8th gen games in 4k. After seeing all of the issues that came out of Xbox, I got a PS4 pro to pick back up with the PS4. In doing so, I realized that by getting an Xbox as my console of choice, I slightly alienated myself from some friends who mainly play on Playstation. It's not that serious, but man, those are some real-world consequences for putting my money on team green. And what did I get for it? Nothing I couldn't have gotten if I'd just bought a PS4 pro in the first place. Goodbye, big green fart.
I usually agree with most of your takes, but this one felt disingenuous. The concept of exclusives tied only to consoles has been fading. This applies to both Xbox Series and the PS5. What's more, you omitted some big exclusive games, albeit timed, coming to the Xbox this holiday season (Stalker 2 is a few days away, Indiana Jones, MS Flight Sim, Avowed in February, with many more on the horizon). I feel like everyone gives PS5 a pass for having a weak ass year (yes Astrobot is cute but it only sold 1.5 million copies and there are 60 some odd million consoles sold. Every other game is also either on PC or coming to PC. If you're gonna make these kinds of assertions, at least be even handed and call it out everywhere. At the end of the day, you're entitled to your opinion, this particular take just rubbed me the wrong way.
Agree with a lot of this, but not the exclusivity part. As someone with a PC, why would I even consider XBox hardware? However, I still own a PS5 and Switch. Obviously, Switch has tons of exclusives, and PS5 has timed exclusives that matter. I just get Game Pass on PC and never miss a thing. I’m not arguing the financial aspect or how Microsoft wins if I’m on PC, I’m only arguing this take that XBox having no exclusives hurts XBox.
@mundanemorselsmundanemorse7028 I totally agree with what you're saying. I wasn't trying to say you need an Xbox over PC. I was mostly referring to people only on Xbox and PS. Yes M$ has been ported some games over and left it open in the future, but as it stands you can't play FH5, Gears, Halo, Avowed, Starfield, etc on the PS5. The argument of, "well it's on PC, so I don't need an Xbox" is totally good by me if you also apply that logic to PS. All of PS5s big games, and timed exclusives are also on PC. Every game, save Astrobot, is on PC day and date or confirmed to be coming to PC. PC master race is winning on all sides lol.
Yeah, I think the console days are coming to an end. When Xbox is pushing for digital only that is basically their way of saying “buy pc”. They are ready made their digital services available on firestick, you only require a controller now. I don’t see myself buying anymore consoles period, specifically due to the lack of new original games that actually worth buying. You don’t know what kinda of a shit show game you are getting anymore either. I too purchased a gaming laptop and I enjoy it thoroughly. I obviously still have my consoles for older games and the physical copies, totally worth it in that respect. I also think that consoles need to take a step back and just become video gaming consoles again. With Xbox for playing Blu-ray you need to install an app and buy a third party remote control, you can go on the internet but it’s not user friendly. Gamers I don’t think use consoles the way MS/Xbox thinks gamers do. We use our phones, tablets/ipads, or computers to go on the internet.
(This is going to be a long comment) Everything that Microsoft has said this year makes me feel uneasy about their brand. The fact that Halo is randomly changing engines to Unreal 5 gives me a hint that Halo will be on PlayStation. This new direction that Xbox is going makes me feel like the Series X might be their last console. Microsoft going all into GamePass hints to me that "GamePass" will be the new face of Xbox. You don't invest billions of dollars in something and do not know what you are trying to accomplish. At that point... You're investing in the future. All in short. GamePass is the new Xbox console.
Honestly, the kind of points raised in your video are kind of why I went with the Steam Deck over the Series S. If things are going mainly digital, and licensing will only last so long , then I'd be a fool to pay full price for them when I can get all the games these platforms have at a ridiculously low price via one of their flash sales if I'm patient enough.
I used to think this whole console generation was dull and sad. But now that PS5 games are getting cheap, I find myself quickly building a large collection for it. Meanwhile I bought 1 Series X game this year, and it was a LRG release. There are some games I would have bought on Xbox because I had historically played them on Xbox, but most are either Smart Delivery (aka Xbox One on disc), digital only, or now in the case of Alan Wake 2, only partly on disc because Xbox Blurays are lower capacity. In previous generations the Xbox brand really was a 3 platform. Now it's like a bad knock off.
I recently purchased a brand new Series X for around $15 due to a trade in, and it sits alongside my gaming rig that acts as my main platform. The Series X is a fantastic machine, and is genuinely one of the most well engineered pieces of tech I’ve owned. The fact that I cannot hear it while pushing it hard, even if I literally put my ear up to it, is very impressive. Quick Resume feels like some black magic witch craft, and the console overall is incredibly fast, efficient, and still very performant 4 years on into its lifecycle. Shame that sales have tanked for it, as MS really did create a fantastic beast of a machine here, with great software enhancements for games as well, enhancements that were often times automatic for older titles like auto HDR, and giving 360 and OG Xbox games 60fps support. Although my PC is still my main platform, and that will never change, the SX is fun as hell to play on, and so far, doesn’t feel redundant for my lifestyle.
Having a PC made ever getting an Xbox irrelevant, at least in my situation. Sadly I just haven't cared too much for the Xbox brand since like 2013-2014.
Bought an Series X in Christmas 2022, it was on a promotion and I took it as an opportunity to enter the Xbox console environment as this was my first Xbox ever. Is a nice little machine that I can take with me on a travel, and I took the opportunity to play older Xbox games (Gears saga as an example), or Red Dead Redemption 1. But I love Forza Horizon, I have 4 and 5, as the older ones are already delisted, last year I bought a second hand Xbox One X, cleaned it, painted, attached an older external SSD so the games have faster loading, and bought the physical version of Forza Horizon 1, 2 and 3, and also Ace Combat 6. I already have a nice PC. In the end, I have a great use for the Xbox One X for older and delisted games, and the Series S I take with me if I'm going to travel. As the newer games are also available on the PC, I don't see the reason for the Series X nowadays as this console don't have exclusives, as only just be that you want a living room experience and easier setup for games. Is really sad because this console have good hardware. It reminds me when I had Sony PSP, that little console was so good, and the only thing I felt that was abandoned by Sony.
I still think the xbox could work as a console if they just offered more exclusive content. It frustrating to see them try to offer games exclusively through online distribution when most consumers want and still prefer physical/tangable experiences. Streaming your games that you own to your phone or laptop when you are away is a great idea though but banking on it to save the business isn't a very good idea in my opinion. If Microsoft could put in more effort to secure more console exclusive experiences or do what sony does and try to make deals for third party exclusivity then I think the brand could come back.
You bring this up around xbox fanatics and they go crazy, I think it's a cope. Sony and Nintendo have never forgotten this basic aspect of console gaming and oh look, they're doing much better than xbox. Jeez, let's just jeep pretending exclusives don't matter. I believe this was the xbox biggest mistake and it broke the trust of a lot of people. If your console has no exclusives then it will not succeed, simple as that.
Console exclusivity is starting to become a thing of the past as every platform besides Nintendo is going multiplatform. I don't know why people obsess over it so much especially since it's anti-consumer. Besides, Xbox still has exclusives like Halo, Gears, Forza and other games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 coming this month, and Avowed, Fable and South of Midnight next year.
For sure. I hope the idea hits MS them like a brick thru the windshield of one of their fancy Forza Horizon cars. They should always get the best games as exclusives. Best ammo to stay in the fight.
@@cun7us If you have multiple platforms competing for sales you have to have something to entice customers to choose one platform over the other. If it isn't software it will be features. Imagine Nintendo patenting motion controls or Microsoft patenting Game Pass. The very nature of capitalism is anti-consumer.
I know this video was most likely recorded before November 7th, but make sure to mention in the PS5 video that the Decima Engine is now on Xbox due to Death Stranding now having an Xbox version. The Decima Engine is Sony's engine, which means that the Horizon games could potentially be ported to Xbox. I guess this also means that the game OD will also be coming to a PlayStation platforms.
Both Xbox and PS5 had identical Ryzen 2 and RDNA2 chip sete. Of course, it's easy to port. Save for the RAM set up the Xbox One and PS4 were identical too.
To be honest, I never was an Xbox until I saw the series X. They nailed the design look, I have zero regrets buying it on day one. The heavy hitter games needs to come out more consistently. Can they lower the price on the ssd card, that would help a lot.
I think the strategy for Xbox consoles needs to be better integration with pc, so more dual license digital purchases. And also, there has to be at least a few consoles exclusives if PlayStation and Nintendo still have exclusives. Add to it, they need to keep doing what they can to get more third party support on Xbox. If they can do these three things there is at least a possibility of growth but at least they won’t lose their existing customers when the next gen comes out.
Microsoft's strategy is bizzare...all they needed to do was make a console that didn't red ring & burst into flames alongside some compelling exclusive software not on PC with a good marketing campaign....but nah the cloud will save em 🥴
They tried that with the One it failed. They tried to appeal to hardcore gamers with the Series X it also failed. And Xbox for 4 gens straight now has failed to unseat either Nintendo or Sony's dominance in the console space even the 360's success has asterisks attached to it.
My Series X is still the console I use most right now, but as soon as my Analogue 3D shows up next year, I'll be playing through all of my N64 games again. I dont have much hope for future console generations, but the Switch successor may be good. I'll buy a used one, though.
As someone who predominantly played Xbox since 2001 with thousands invested on digital Xbox games, I am starting to shift to PC going forward (for multiplats). This year the greatest AAA titles were not on Xbox. (Wukong, Stellar Blade, SH2 etc). Even some smaller releases now skip Xbox (for example the Glover remaster is skipping Xbox day 1). I do not want to micromanage what games are and aren't coming to Xbox, so I feel it is only logical to use PC instead. I think Sony does a better job in securing the games that are going to matter.
This video showed up on my recommendations and you made a good video man. I liked hearing and was fascinated by the history leading up to this console. I’m a lifelong Nintendo and PlayStation user, so I didn’t know it.
Great video Mr. Koralik, To be honest both PS5 and Series had had a lackluster year, i think the idea of exclusives is going the way of the dodo since Sony is also putting their exclusives (the 3 that they had this year) on PC and recently Death Stranding went to Xbox, also you skip over future games like the announcement of Gears of war E day, Perfect dark, games that will come out like Avowed, Fable, games that will make me and many others stick to gamepass like the new doom, i think MS this year is pretty happy due to the success of Black Ops 6 and from a Cod player pov i have seen a good amount of people getting gamepass due to cod, so i think calling Gamepass not a success if an understatement with all due respect.
Well, it's hard to cover games that don't exist yet when talking about the past year. As for COD, I don't deny the individual success of the game, but it doesn't help the brand considering it's also on everything else.
@@Michael-jr3gzthey know what they’re doing. It’s just disingenuous talk cos they want to lump PlayStation and Xbox together in all of Microsoft’s shortcomings
We all hated Google Stadia, which was the reason we didn’t support it, and let it die. The Cloud is gonna be Microsoft downfall because they want to treat the console the way a PC runs with GoG and Steam, on top of the fact that no one wants to play low quality games. On top of that, internet services aren't unlimited data. We have to pay to have extra data. I can't imagine a home of 5 playing all day from the cloud, not to mention everyone cellphones hooked up to the wife, and maybe streaming Netflix or music media all through the internet. The Internet bill is going to be off the roof. Internet provides have a cap. Just look at what happened with internet providers during the pandemic when everyone was homeschooled. Prices went up like crazy.
I still greatly enjoy mine. Even the concept of gamepass is very enjoyable in my book as it has gotten me into games that I normally would not have looked at such as subnautica.
Simplicity always trumps everything else. Xbox is going nowhere. physical media is going nowhere. and if Xbox chooses to go all digital, they will lose millions of customers. If the series S would have launched with a disc drive it would have sold so much better imo considering the series X selling point was having a disc drive. But the new cod launch has seemed to have been profitable.
I’m one of the few that absolutely loves the Series X the most this gen: current games, lots of backwards compatible games, Gamepass, being able to play Spotify over every game, quick resume and emulation (I own the games and have a cartridge/save transfer so I’m actually playing them legally). They wanted a PC for TVs and I feel that’s what I’m getting without spending a lot on a new PC. I’m happy with it but to each their own
I'm someone that has been very happy with my series x. I don't have time to play every game under the sun so I think there is an overabundance of games to play if I'm looking for something. Game pass has been a breath of fresh air and I don't understand the complaints about it.
Not really suprising that Xbox is struggling when they have games like Skyrim in space, barley working vampire killer live service, hellblade 2 walking simulator and Halo not really Infinite. Let's not forget that other games they were supossed to be released by now like State of decay 3 and Perfect Dark are stuck in development hell.
They're not struggling financially. Black Ops 6 sold over half a billion copies in its first couple of weeks and Xbox made $8.5 billion last financial year from software revenue. Console sales are down but they sell them at a loss anyway. Perfect Dark isn't in development hell anymore so you're a bit out of touch. They showed a gameplay preview in their recent showcase and it should be releasing sometime next year.
@@cun7us Microsoft not struggling financially is not the point, they try to buy their way to success, lack any creativity in their own right, and almost all games announced at this point are still vaporware - people have been waiting forever for them to pull their thumb out and saying a certain game will be released sometime next year has been on repeat for 5+ years
@@tonyg5597 all due respect, it doesn't really matter what you think. What matters is if customers are happy with their service and whether Xbox is making money. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Indiana Jones are both releasing before the end of the year on Game Pass and they're looking to be good too. I think it's people like you who have been stuck on repeat for 5+ years.
The Xbox One S was my first Xbox, I want the Series X but I really haven't gotten much of a reason to upgrade yet personally. With all the IP they own now there's no excuse as to why Xbox isn't rivaling Nintendo like Sega did back in the 90s. They have Crash, Spyro, Banjo and the rest of Rare and a ton of other iconic franchises. They should start reviving them and start giving people a reason to buy their hardware, just make great games.
Because the hardware doesn't sell enough to justify the money they'd lose by making it exclusive. Plus they only barely avoided the FTC coming down on them by keeping Call of Duty multiplatform. Unlike Nintendo and Sony Microsoft does not need Xbox as a platform to be successful.
I’m a retro Nintendo player having grown up in the 80’s/90’s. But the Xbox 360 was one of my favourite consoles of all time because of the quality of games!! COD4, MW2, Red Dead, FIFA, GTA4, Halo 3 etc were all incredible games with absolutely no focus on micro transactions and season passes. You buy a game, you’ve got the game! I bought an Xbox Series X and every time I go to play a game, it takes me 5 hours to install an update before I can play it. Then when I load up, I’m bombarded with pop ups for season pass and DLC. It’s off putting! I play my Nintendo Switch now more than any console because the games are complete on cartridge and focus on quality over DLC and live service. I’m even enjoying some Xbox 360 classics like Red Dead Redemption on there! I recently purchased Hogwarts Legacy on the Switch knowing it was a visual downgrade just for the convenience of playing handheld. Xbox should get back to making good games and stop pushing live service micro transactions.
I got a Series X this summer and I've been mostly playing backwards compatible games from the Xbox 360, but also past-gen games like RE7 and DMC5SE. I did play Halo Infinite out of curiosity and... It's a 343 Halo game? Good, nothing super special. The third party studios don't offer me anything I'd like to play and the console manufacturer also doen't make anything good. Yeah, I'd love to play Perfect Dark (seems like an immersive-sim like, exciting) and Gears E-Day (finally a good third person shooter) but at this point they might as well be next-gen games or games that will release at the tail-end of this gen.
If I could not have a PC for some reason, I would get the Xbox Series X. Control is the problem with DRM and PC offers the most control and the most games for a while now. Besides the ease of setup, consoles offer nothing else. The original Xbox and 360 era was glorious but we will never return to that.
29:59, I think everything you said was valid, Xbox doesn't have much to offer other than a possible elder scrolls or exclusive call of duty that will bring people in. Perfect Dark looks kinda cool but to buy the whole system is pretty unappealing. I think with next generation I'm just going to get a PC if they abandon the physical side lol. As far as the cloud gaming I think they are trying to be like Netflix the problem is casual people don't even know about this aspcet of xbox usually they've done a poor job promoting it thus it will fail.
The Hardware itself is perfectly really great for the price, but at the end of the day I don't think it was a worthwhile purchase. Only feature I think has been worth it is for the 4k blu ray playback, though that's an extremely niche use-case in today's world. Ever since I got my Steam Deck both the Series S and X I have at home collect dust. I have specific reasons for the S and the X but for the average use case I would MUCH rather recommend you save up extra cash and get a PC.
To get a PC on par with the PS5 or Series you're looking at nearly a grand. That's over double the base PS5 and about 3 or 4 times as much as the Series S.
@wolfman210 That's very relative my dude. Yes if you want to play games in native 4k and 30-60fps medium settings probably around 900 USD. But with those 900 on top of getting PS5 "performance*" you get the flexibility to play at a myriad of resolutions, details, effects, with free online, no massive patches, access to every piece of emulation software, free games left and right, every storefront, a millones other use cases etc. If you are already comfortable spending 500-600 usd might as well save up a little more and go PC
Back in the 90s and 2000s it was so exciting imagining what the next gen consoles would bring. Technology was moving so fast. Now games all feel the same and just aren’t fun anymore. Every game on the PS1 felt and played differently. The variety was amazing. Games for novice players games that were a challenge. Games now have zero risk too when you die. You just go back 2 minutes so the intensity and stress is all gone. Most games are mindless now. Thwres not a single game that’s coming out that I’m excited for
Even those days were bad for us jRPG fans. There were years where I had nothing to play. Especially on Xbox since they seem to only care about FPS and sport games. Two Genre I care nothing about.
The series x is technically a decent console. It just has nothing special or unique going for it outside of a handful of situational and niche appeal cases. That said, I have absolutely nothing against people who enjoy and love their Xbox consoles. However, I can’t wait to see what Microsoft does next GEN and if they decide to follow through with the whole PC console hybrid model because the whole subsidize hardware model just isn’t working for them anymore.
Great video. I know you don’t like the all digital versions (I’m not a fan of all digital either), but I think the Series S is a quality console. I’ve had mine for almost 4 years now and it’s never put a foot wrong. Just wish that Xbox would release a disc drive for it.
Buying a series X during the holidays sales so I can play GTA VI next year. Been perfectly happy with my Xbox One X since 2017. This generation is so weird. Lol
It was a big disappointment. Microsoft gave up on it and it will probably be the last console they make. Only Nintendo and Sony will remain in the console market moving forward.
Owned and preferred xbox since the 360 but as I'm not bothered about game pass and never had it. I'm just gonna go to PS and nintendo for the future, no point committing to xbox now sadly. Will just keep my series x til xbox ditchs hardware. Sad times for gaming as I'm an 80's boy who loved console wars
While it is true that the great financial crisis changed a number of things permanently, console generation intervals were definitely not one of those things in my view. Yes, the GFC "artificially" stretched out the XBox360/PS3 generation, but all the subsequent intervals have simply been tied to the state of technology and the diminishing returns of gaming graphics/performance. IOW, the current generation situation (malaise?) wouldn't be too much different today with or without the GFC. As much as I like the Xbox ecosystem, we have to admit that it is rapidly running out of reasons to exist at all. If it were up to me I would have started rolling the Xbox ecosystem into the PC world a couple of years ago. An "Xbox" would just be a consolized PC that you can play from your couch without a mouse or keyboard.
It's been strange days for the Xbox. I don't ever recall there being a company like Microsoft Xbox that obviously does not know what it wants to be anymore, but yet still is able to not go bankrupt. They're out in no man's land. Seems unsustainable.
There have been reports and rumors that Microsoft has been wanting to get out of gaming since the One failed. All the confusion around Xbox has probably been Phil Spencer trying to justify its continued existence in Microsoft's eyes.
Original Xbox was exciting and interesting. All their other ones after that have been crap IMO. Not just in terms of hardware reliability (I sell video games) but there's just never really been anything that has made me feel I have to own one. In many ways while it feels like they helped make gaming more "Accessible" and more mainstream they also cheapened it. I'm quite happy playing Nintendo, PS, and computer games instead.
Adam, can you please do a retrospective on the 8th gen consoles (as a whole and then separate PS4,X1…your take on them,experience and all that good stuff…), like how you did on the 5th,6th,7th gen etc. i really enjoyed those videos back in the day.That would be cool 😎
Hey everyone, sorry, I know the title card is wrong. The next one will be too, it wasn't noticed until I left the country. Enjoy the video!
no speculation on the handheld as a console? Sarah Bond came from T-mobile and I'm speculating that her connections to the carrier might make the handheld have a persistent data connection via 5G. Most cloud games on gamepass are not touch controlled btw but uses the xbox controller or third party adapters and the phone or tablet is just a streaming display. A hand held xbox would be native as a controller and display device not so different than what the Dreamcast had ith it's memory /display add-on. Also, the controller itself could be internet persistent where latency is minimized which Stadia was trying to do. You can still share games digitally for friends on your xbox account and would be interesting if Xbox offers a marketplace for owned games.
I LOVE this series you do! Enjoy your time overseas!
@DanWhite1025 I mean, Canada isn't exactly overseas, but I will!
As long as one of them still makes consoles, the other one is forced to make them too.
Wow, negative Nancy you got everything wrong.
Modern generation of consoles are just good at playing last generation games.
Pretty much yeah.
the only reason i ended up with a ps5 was because it was only a little more than the ps4 pro i actually wanted.
They're just PC's now
I’d buy a ps pro if there were new games worth playing. Soul games are the only thing I really buy at release these days. Most of what I play is old games mixed with a bit of online pve grind games
Except for maybe the Nintendo Switch, but that's more of a previous gen console that doesn't have a current gen successor
Honestly, time feels like such a blur and a rush coming off the xbox 360 to the series x. It's hard to believe how old the 360 is now...
Ye, it feels like yesterday that I attended the skyrim midnight launch event.
While in reality that was 13 years ago.
It’s gonna be 20 next year!
Scary isnt it
My series x still remains a 4k Xbox 360
my One X kind of ended up the same... specifically as my 4K Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive machine. Still eyeing up a Series X at some point if the price is right, but having recently got a PS5, there's not really much justification for it.
Don Matrick was the worst mistake Microsoft ever made. Xbox to date has not recovered from his arrogance and incompetence.
Don was doing what boss asked him to do. After years of taking blame he said in interview that task he was given was take over living rooms and to deliver machine which will do it. Basically all in one
@@olearturI mean, wasn't that why Microsoft initially created Xbox? The threat of Sony taking over the living room and Microsoft wanting to do it instead.
@@oleartur
Makes sense, Windows already fell off after Windows 7, and nowadays it's a barely functioning mess that people only use because they're required to use the equally terrible and non-functional Microsoft 365 subscription service. Microsoft has always been a software company, so why does none of their software work properly anymore?
@@oleartur you can do that without neglecting the gaming side of the console
@@oleartur
In other words what xbox and xbox 360 did?
I miss when Xbox was more fun and offered unique console experiences. I don’t really like this new direction they’re going in
Yea don Mattrick killed xbox
Agreed
@@AkiraYanky unfortunately its more likely phil did. Don Mattick had exclusive games and sold more consoles.
@@michael2093 Fair point
@@michael2093he’s literally the reason I and many others skipped the Xbone. Short term gains mean nothing when you lose your long time fan base.
This is coming from an og Xbox and 360 owner
I got a used series X for my birthday this year and have been loving it for what it is. It plays games great on the couch. If Microsoft remembers Xbox is for games & gamers, we should be okay.
It’s a weird state of affairs that the Series consoles are better emulation machines than they are actual consoles at this point.
But that’s irrelevant because your average gamer isn’t into emulation or isn’t interested in dev mode on their Xbox. I hate emulation, I buy all my retro games physically. The only good thing about emulation is preservation. Other than that, I never touched it.
What? No, they are great actual consoles
@alwhitney1968 You're a joke stop talking emulation is amazing it preserves gaming history and you can play those games on any device. Your old physical games won't last forever 😂 things degrade over time as items get older and older
They run the games that are made for it just fine, there just isn’t a need to own one anymore.
@Mike-t5r9q physical media over digital any day, games from 50 years ago are still playable physically today. That stuff doesn't just degrade by its self no matter what
Remember when videogames had compelling single player modes that didn't require online and servers? When the full games were on the disk and worked out of the box? When micro transactions weren't force fed and required to win? Ahh the good old days.......
Why do you have to remember when there’s two consoles that offer that. The Switch and PS5
Agreed. Gen 8 and 9 are the WORST in video game HISTORY
@@dammyoyesanya4656 those are key license software. Much downloading and patching required.... There was a time games had to work out the box... Online update wasn't a thing yet....
@@dammyoyesanya4656 I think Nintendo and Sony are overrated as well. Nintendo has been making the same games for years and Sony just continues making open world titles with different skins that gamers are getting sick of. They’re no better than Xbox other than they have marketable IP that bring gamers in. Other than that their games are pretty ordinary compared to what they used to be.
@@Roach22 Going by your logic God of War is the same game as Uncharted? You mentioned they are all the same skins, I guess Killzone is the same game as Ratchet and Clank. Since they all use the same skins.
I wish Xbox went into a more conservative direction. The Series X should’ve been a complete brand overhaul that echoed the xbox 360 days. Just a great console with great games and none of the BS.
They could win so much good will by doing that, but instead they go the complete opposite direction.
Number of games released in 2008 for X360: 200
Number of games released in 2018 for XONE: 20
Number of games released in 2024 for Xbox Series X|S: 2
Wholly crap. Is this for real?
@@rafaelraad555 I assume they’re referring to Microsoft published games?
@@rafaelraad555 I’m mostly referring to exclusive games
@@thepurrfectionist365 I got that, and that’s why I was so impressed.
Gaming seems kinda dire these days. Just me who thinks that?
For just console owners, yeah definitely. I moved to PC the past couple of years and honestly I've been keeping busy just replaying all the classics I love and finding hidden gems I missed on Steam.
I can't believe the 9th generation of consoles are already 4 years old. Has it been that long? I still felt like those hardware were introduced yesterday. Surely, time flies.
I think COVID makes it feel like that because a lot of people got the console later in the generation due to supply issues.
As someone super invested on Xbox due to the humongous library I've been building there for the last 14 years, the most I got out of it this year (apart from the standard backlog cleaning) has been the "finally" ports. Finally we have more square enix titles, finally we have death stranding, etc
Death stranding is a bigger gain than people think. Sony helped fund publish and create the decima engine, I really can't believe they sold the IP tbh.
Death stranding and final fantasy 6 are big wins to have on xbox.
as an xbox fan it's sad to see their current situation, I used my series x a lot in the beginning of the gen but yeah today not so much and i pretty much moved to pc and ps5. I only hope they don't do anything stupid regarding digital games like shutting down servers otherwise i will need to rebuy my games on ps5
4 years? Gotta figure out where they went...
Pandemic made 3 years feel like 1 extended boring & stressful one.
@@NinjaRunningWild stressful yes, boring not so much thanks to my retro gaming space I had built early 2021 before everything started
@@NinjaRunningWildi agree lol 2020, 2021 & 2022 were one big year in my memory
I honestly love the Xbox Series X. Its my go to console. It feels robust and is a generally a powerful beast 😅
The current gen is a strange one anyway, both for Sony and Microsoft. We should be approaching the summit of this console generation, yet games wise it feels like we barely got started. Up to this year I had no incentive to upgrade from PS4, especially as I'm not owning a 4K screen. The biggest titles so far were all cross gen, while changing this year with a lot more 9th gen exclusives. Maybe 2025 will be a year where some actual system sellers will go to market. GTA6 will be that game for me.
But especially Microsofts strategy I can't understand, there is no way they are ever going to earn back that mountain of money they used to buy Bethesda and Activision. So like you mentioned, the suits step in. Combine that with ever escalating development costs for AAA games and you end up with generations where as a platform holder you just can't come up with a steady supply of exclusives to drive demand. And adding the multiplat and PC support with it, it puts consoles as a concept behind. And tying to finance that through a subscription model sounds near impossible.
Sony on the other hand also has a though time. It's quickly sprawling all over the place with multiple bets on everything, but seemingly not fully committing to them. A mediocre support for PSVR2, a very confusing and restricted handheld, a barely interesting streaming service, confusing subscription tiers and a terrible approach in exploiting their legacy with backwards compatibility. Add to that an ever expanding list of extremely expensive accessories (Pro controller, Portal, Pulse Elite audio products, the separate disk drive) and of course the monstrously expensive mid gen PRO console ( Where you at best get 4 years out of ) and they can count themselves lucky their are financially in a good place, as it's certainly not their strategy at the moment that brings them at the top.
Besides all that, consoles used to be really plug and play as you'd buy the game, pop it in and start playing. That concept is dead, and console gaming lost its low barrier for entry. With day one patches, regular MASSIVE updates and games releasing is such poor technical conditions you have to jump through a lot of hoops to just get going. And most ridiculously asking the players to choose what compromise to make (quality mode vs performance) It's become no different that PC gaming.
And the bloody micro transactions per game. Literally, it's a value proposal that makes them earn more money blood sucking their fan base.
Dude, you have enough brain for all this and you game on consoles?!! That's why I'm still on Xbox. I'm gonna be SMRT someday.
Consoles are still vastly cheaper for performance and more user friendly than PC. If you buy a game for your PlayStation or Xbox it will work guaranteed you also don't have to worry about a GPU or CPU not being compatible with each other because everything in the console is designed to go together. Until PC can boast that consoles will always exist.
All of that you listed are either also issues on PC (patches and updates) or enthusiast products that most console gamers have no interest in to begin with. They exist so Sony can get more money out of its hardcore users.
Fun fact for everyone the PS4 Pro was less than 10% of all PS4 sales.
I collected some original Xbox games recently and remembered my enthusiasm for it 20 years ago. Dead or Alive 3, Dino Crisis 3, House of the Dead 3, Jet Set Radio Future, Otogi 2… We got great Japanese exclusives before.
Dino crisis 3 is terrible dude
I think you're the first person I've ever seen say that they like Dino Crisis 3
A pity the Dead or Alive series is pretty much dead thanks to their stupid decision to go xbox exclusive
@ Huh? DoA5 and DoA6 came out on PS4. DoA5 did well financially. I think their biggest mistakes were “censoring” the females’ costumes in DoA6 and too much DLC.
Yeah I like being able to play some of my original Xbox games. Gunvalkyrie and the Splinter Cells are great as well on the Series X.
A company's downfall begins when their board of directors forces decisions outside of their expertise, The board's bloated egos think that their funding automatically gives them qualifications to make every decision.
Xbox is only a tiny part of Microsoft, it only exists because Bill Gates saw the PS2 as a threat to computers. The only reason it still exists is because Phil Spencer pitched Game Pass as another tech monopoly for Microsoft like Windows.
Microsoft hasn't been shy about their desire to get out of hardware since the One failed.
Hate to say it, but the Kinect for Xbox 1 was ahead of its time! It let you ditch the controller and use your body and voice. It could track your moves, recognise your face, and made games like “Rise of Nightmares” feel immersive.
I thought it was kind of cool, but it didn't work as well as it should. It was always a bit impresice and a bit of a hassle.
Thank you for mentioning that digital purchases are not ownership. I spent so much money on the PS3 storefront when I was a late teen/young adult thinking the purchases were going to transfer over to the PS4 and how wrong I was. I Think I have like $2000 worth of games saved on my system that is gone forever when that system will break one day. It was the slim model so they're almost as durable as a damn N64 but one day it will be gone. I am not completely against buying digital games but I always get them discounted and games I truly love I will get a physical copy to keep it. Don't buy digital consoles because there is literally no point to their existence other than to drive a market that only takes away ownership to consumers.
I did the same with my ps3. I skipped the ps4 ( i know, big mistake) and sold my ps3 in preperation for the ps5. Imagine my surprise when i found out my games were not available. But, i bought another ps3 and my account can still download the games i bought.
The true November tradition
This generation really does not feel like 4 years have passed since XBSX and PS5 launched. I'm gueesing the next one won't be that much different simply because of PS5 PRO and Series X (or X2?) having enough juice to last until the end of the decade
As someone who used to collect, selling all my collection. And sticking with PC and Series X
Gamepass is the winner in my eyes.
I love it, because its saving me 1000s
Australia a year of ultimate gamepass is now $280au
Which is still great value. But I use a VPN and get a year for the next 5 years for $136au for the next 5 years. So I'm happy tbh.
I'm over buying all my games
Because of the whole licensing issues with digital games I don’t buy games unless they’re on sale and the discount is at least 50%. I agree with you on Game Pass but also because there are games on there that are great that I never would have considered playing outside of Game Pass.
@@Roach22
On my PC I wait for discounts, and the freebies are great. I just bought RE4 Remake because it got cheap enough for me. For context it's the RE game I wanted remade the most. I've had on GC from 3 days after the US launch, I imported a copy because I didn't want to wait for the European launch. Wii, X360 and PC. The X360 and PC ports are dreadful, the whole game doesn't feel right. I thinks it's because it's the stripped down PS2 port. So much patience lol.
I just don’t get how a über rich company like Microsoft mismanages its gaming division this poorly. They have funds, the talent, and resources to make great games… and instead, they go all-in on Gamepass, mishandle the internal studios they already have, and spend billions acquiring others. Even pre-2013 Mattrick era Xbox had more games people wanted, Kinect BS aside. Imagine if they used to money spent to buyout publishers, to improve their internal development studios, give them more resources. Phil Spencer and current Xbox leadership needs to go.
The Mattrick years were far better than the Spencer years
Because for 4 gens straight now Xbox has failed to unseat either Sony or Nintendo in the market. Yes Microsoft could probably outlast Nintendo and Sony in a war of attrition but that means pissing money away for the foreseeable future waiting for either Nintendo or Sony to go bankrupt.
This has been the case for a long time. Phil should have been fired after halo infinite released if not before. His laissez fair approach has never worked, and those two dead years killed their reputation. It’s when I dropped off and went PC. And now there’s no reason to own Xbox hardware if you can get your hands on a PC.
I switched from PS5 to Series X mostly due to Game Pass (a friend gave me a year for free)
Exclusives are easily the best thing about the PS5 but unfortunately it felt like this year Sony really slowed down on them and overall, there wasn’t any good games worth playing that I couldn’t play on Xbox.
The Series X, in contrast, is a fantastic piece of hardware that provides backwards compatibility on X360 games and some OG Xbox games, in addition to the previous generation. This alone to me is a huge advantage over Sony as a console gamer, and is by far the strongest reason to own one.
Sony has gone the nickel and dime way by charging a bunch of money for remasters, territory restrictions everywhere and attempts to get as much profit as possible from everything they possibly can. Also, they completely screwed PS3 digital libraries everywhere.
MS should focus on Xbox and double down on their BC strategy, have stronger exclusives and position themselves as a complete piece of hardware that offers the best value among all the consoles.
People who don't understand license agreements. Think about the way you purchase Microsoft Windows. You're not purchasing the disc. You're purchasing the product key. Microsoft is just gracious enough to provide an install disc with your purchase
And if you get a digital copy of Windows, you don't even get a disc, you just get a product key, which they whitelist on their activation servers.
It’s concerning when Xbox can’t even get basic Capcom arcade ports on time.
I've had my Series X for almost 2 years now, I made the upgrade from the One S and just wanted a device where I could get the best from the Xbox titles plus backwards compatability for some 360 and OG titles. I've not used it as much this year due to picking up a PS5 last Christmas, but there's a few titles I've gotten for the system new this year. It tends to be the one I get most of the Sonic the Hedgehog games for, and I did grab Persona 3 Reload and Metaphor Refantazio for it. There's plenty of Series/One titles I've yet to grab as well.
This is the first time since the 6th gen that I've had all of the current consoles, and if I hadn't started playing FFXIV on my PS5 I'd likely have put more time into the Series X.
I just got the Series X last month after having a Series S for the last 2 years and Xbox One S 4 1/2years before that. Having a disc drive really does make a difference since I have a bunch of games in my backlog that aren't on game pass.
I love my Xbox series X, I can play soooooooo much on it.
The economics of cloud gaming will never make sense to me. You cant go faster than the speed of light, so they'd need to build data centers in every town to get latency to a (still worse than local) playable state. So I cant see how having multiple data centers with thousands of Xbox's worth of hardware in each of them is better than selling one Xbox per house and having them pay for the electricity.
Also, bandwidth isn't free. A high quality Netflix stream uses like 5-10GB an hour and they're just doing 24fps or 30fps video content. A 60-120fps 1080p game stream would need at least double that to not look all crunched with artifacts. Compare 10-20GB an hour to stream a game, to simply downloading the game locally or selling it on a disc.
So yeah, the economics of game streaming wouldn't be able to support a mass market unless they're just targeting the smartphone gamer crowd that are used to not having high quality gaming experiences.
As someone who has been using Xcloud for several years now, the service itself gets better and better with time.
Little known fact, Google Stadia had an EXCELLENT level of okay quality. The lag was practically non existent..... and this was several years ago.
Xcloud has caught up quite well and I've been able to play a lot of fast twitch (1st person shooters and fighting games) with very limited hiccups.
The biggest difference I've seen has not only been the connection quality but the quality of the device being used to interface. A high end cell phone (Samsung S22 and above) and/or a laptop with a good gpu built in gives the best results.
So I see what the Xbox brand is doing and ummmmm, it's actually working quite well.
@@tdtellem Having a few beta testers is a far cry from trying to have hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people using the service at the same time.
Also remember that nothing can go faster than the speed of light. If you really like twitch shooters, you'll always be at a disadvantage compared to the guys that could simply afford to buy the $300-500 box once every 6-8 years.
Agreed
It is about is it good enough for some people. And it seems it is.
I use xCloud to test and sometimes play some games when I’m traveling and have my steam deck with me.
Is it as good as playing on a dedicated hardware. No. Is is good enough for some games. Yes.
But for me even a low end hardware to play the games natively will be better than could gaming.
@@mravg79 The main thing I'm thinking about is the cost to Microsoft, not even if the services is good or not. Right now the cost is manageable because it's still basically in a beta test phase with not many users, but if they wanted to move all ~20 million remaining Xbox gamers over to cloud......
Ongoing bandwidth costs would be insane, building data centers everywhere would be insane, electrical costs would be insane (when the Xbox is in your house, you're the one paying the power bill).
I guess Microsoft could charge you like, $50 to $100 a month, but the service would still be offering lower quality game play and visuals compared to just having a cheap $500 box sitting under the TV
4 years and still no exclusive games that take advantage of the new-gen hw. What was the point of this generation? I mean, even the One X runs some games better than the Series S. Worst console generation EVER.
Agreed
What do you mean? Flight Sim takes full advantage of the hardware, especially for SX, Hellblade 2, Horizon 5, Forza Motorsport with the SX capable of RT at 60fps with 4K being common during gameplay, Starfield, and were soon going to have Stalker 2 in a couple weeks, and Indiana Jones, both of which will run at 60fps on the Series X.
Tha may not be an * exorbitant* amount of games, but to say there are “none”, is a bit hyperbolic.
The OneX can have a better resolution output than the SeriesS but it doesn’t match the SeriesS on performance. Cyberpunk runs at twice the frame rate on the SeriesS for example
@@danieldickerson4838 you are right, 2 games in 4 years... wow
one X does not run ANY game better than the Series S. It can run them in 4k... that's about it.
Just wanted to say that you putting the mic right by your face. It makes a HUGE difference for me and I can hear you more clearly. I have some auditory processing issues so thank you for having the mic set up this way. Great stuff!
Xbox was born because MS didn't want Sony to control the living room. The PC wasn't widely adopted by core gamers before the '90s because there were many better gaming platforms available in the '80s, like the C64, the Amiga, the PC Engine and the NES.
I truly believe Microsoft is done with the traditional console after the Series X. I know for a while, a generic prediction for Sony and Microsoft is the idea that they're going to simply make "Roku stick" likes that just plug into a TV and offer a bare bones, streamed, gaming experience, but I truly believe that's the direction Microsoft is headed. An "Xbox stick" of sorts, with native releases on PS5/PC. That to me is very clearly the message they're giving to me as a consumer.
They're pretty much heading there full speed for the last few years
No home system, a handheld with online functionality, becoming the biggest publisher in the industry, pushing GamePass
In fact I wouldn't be surprised to wake up one day and see the headline saying "Microsoft and Sony to secure a historical deal - GamePass available on PlayStation starting X Month YY Year"
They have one more console left then there done
It’s because you have a brain
I think they're also going to focus on selling controllers and accessories. The numbers show tons of people use the Xbox controller on PC, much more than people use PlayStation. Most can agree the Xbox controller is awesome, aside from it being prone to stick drift.
Except for the fact they confirmed the next console is their most powerful yet...Not sure how that translates to a Roku Stick for you and Adam lol.
Oh look guys I'm Adam, reviewing everything EXCEPT Eggnog and "Home Alone", "Krampus", and "Bad Santa" this Christmas Season
Social media’s continued rise has, quite possibly, also been a continued thorn in the side of XBOX. As Adam has insinuated multiple times, the console wars are still a thing. People really seem to care more about buying a plastic box that has games one can’t play on another plastic box. XBOX has been doing better for physical games; especially from Limited Run Games, but Microsoft isn’t interested in exclusivity either. They’re interested in XBOX as a service. By investing in these larger publishers and Gamepass, the brand is profitable and likely isn’t going anywhere, however, the console may sadly do so. Sucks since the Series X is a very well- built console with more content then people would likely credit it for. Their investment in backwards compatibility is nothing to scoff at.
That last part baffles me so much people love to argue games, then sell back compat so short. In a generation where most titles have PC releases and are old game remasters. And the much better back compat doesn't just give the Xbox over 600 games, most of which aren't on PS4 and enhancements to them too... just like the remasters do 😭 what are we arguing about
@AlphaladZXA The issue isn’t an argument for enjoying an XBOX console; it’s that people don’t trust and require XBOX. I enjoy my XBOX hardware, but I cannot stand their business model. P.C.’s can already run most backward compatible games either through emulation or a native version. Microsoft is stupid enough to port all their games to their competitors’ platforms. Competition that doesn’t care to show the same grace in return. After the ‘This is An XBOX’ commercial today, many people, including myself are regretting purchasing a Series console. If *every* single, first- party game comes to other platforms and those platforms won’t play ball with Microsoft, no one should invest in their consoles. We were lied to at the beginning of this generation by Microsoft. We’ve invested money on a abandoned platform. Not that Sony or Nintendo are the “good guys” either, but people appreciate it when companies respect these investments… Not lie to their customers… *Again and again.* Preserve your library, friend.
OH god its four years old. I"m currently working on a personal story video tied to the original xbox. I"m dealing with the fact i'm a crusty old man with Xbox, then 360, now the series x. God.
Love how your intro is exactly the same like 15 years later. solid!
This is the year that I gave up on the Xbox ecosystem completely. I bought a One X a few years back to play some 8th gen games in 4k. After seeing all of the issues that came out of Xbox, I got a PS4 pro to pick back up with the PS4. In doing so, I realized that by getting an Xbox as my console of choice, I slightly alienated myself from some friends who mainly play on Playstation. It's not that serious, but man, those are some real-world consequences for putting my money on team green. And what did I get for it? Nothing I couldn't have gotten if I'd just bought a PS4 pro in the first place. Goodbye, big green fart.
I usually agree with most of your takes, but this one felt disingenuous.
The concept of exclusives tied only to consoles has been fading. This applies to both Xbox Series and the PS5.
What's more, you omitted some big exclusive games, albeit timed, coming to the Xbox this holiday season (Stalker 2 is a few days away, Indiana Jones, MS Flight Sim, Avowed in February, with many more on the horizon).
I feel like everyone gives PS5 a pass for having a weak ass year (yes Astrobot is cute but it only sold 1.5 million copies and there are 60 some odd million consoles sold. Every other game is also either on PC or coming to PC.
If you're gonna make these kinds of assertions, at least be even handed and call it out everywhere.
At the end of the day, you're entitled to your opinion, this particular take just rubbed me the wrong way.
Agree with a lot of this, but not the exclusivity part. As someone with a PC, why would I even consider XBox hardware? However, I still own a PS5 and Switch. Obviously, Switch has tons of exclusives, and PS5 has timed exclusives that matter. I just get Game Pass on PC and never miss a thing.
I’m not arguing the financial aspect or how Microsoft wins if I’m on PC, I’m only arguing this take that XBox having no exclusives hurts XBox.
@mundanemorselsmundanemorse7028 I totally agree with what you're saying. I wasn't trying to say you need an Xbox over PC.
I was mostly referring to people only on Xbox and PS. Yes M$ has been ported some games over and left it open in the future, but as it stands you can't play FH5, Gears, Halo, Avowed, Starfield, etc on the PS5.
The argument of, "well it's on PC, so I don't need an Xbox" is totally good by me if you also apply that logic to PS. All of PS5s big games, and timed exclusives are also on PC. Every game, save Astrobot, is on PC day and date or confirmed to be coming to PC.
PC master race is winning on all sides lol.
Yup. The Series X is the worst console i've ever bought and invested in. Glad i sold it and got a PS5 instead
Yeah, I think the console days are coming to an end. When Xbox is pushing for digital only that is basically their way of saying “buy pc”. They are ready made their digital services available on firestick, you only require a controller now. I don’t see myself buying anymore consoles period, specifically due to the lack of new original games that actually worth buying. You don’t know what kinda of a shit show game you are getting anymore either. I too purchased a gaming laptop and I enjoy it thoroughly. I obviously still have my consoles for older games and the physical copies, totally worth it in that respect. I also think that consoles need to take a step back and just become video gaming consoles again. With Xbox for playing Blu-ray you need to install an app and buy a third party remote control, you can go on the internet but it’s not user friendly. Gamers I don’t think use consoles the way MS/Xbox thinks gamers do. We use our phones, tablets/ipads, or computers to go on the internet.
(This is going to be a long comment) Everything that Microsoft has said this year makes me feel uneasy about their brand.
The fact that Halo is randomly changing engines to Unreal 5 gives me a hint that Halo will be on PlayStation. This new direction that Xbox is going makes me feel like the Series X might be their last console.
Microsoft going all into GamePass hints to me that "GamePass" will be the new face of Xbox. You don't invest billions of dollars in something and do not know what you are trying to accomplish. At that point... You're investing in the future.
All in short. GamePass is the new Xbox console.
Honestly, the kind of points raised in your video are kind of why I went with the Steam Deck over the Series S. If things are going mainly digital, and licensing will only last so long , then I'd be a fool to pay full price for them when I can get all the games these platforms have at a ridiculously low price via one of their flash sales if I'm patient enough.
I used to think this whole console generation was dull and sad. But now that PS5 games are getting cheap, I find myself quickly building a large collection for it. Meanwhile I bought 1 Series X game this year, and it was a LRG release.
There are some games I would have bought on Xbox because I had historically played them on Xbox, but most are either Smart Delivery (aka Xbox One on disc), digital only, or now in the case of Alan Wake 2, only partly on disc because Xbox Blurays are lower capacity.
In previous generations the Xbox brand really was a 3 platform. Now it's like a bad knock off.
I recently purchased a brand new Series X for around $15 due to a trade in, and it sits alongside my gaming rig that acts as my main platform. The Series X is a fantastic machine, and is genuinely one of the most well engineered pieces of tech I’ve owned. The fact that I cannot hear it while pushing it hard, even if I literally put my ear up to it, is very impressive. Quick Resume feels like some black magic witch craft, and the console overall is incredibly fast, efficient, and still very performant 4 years on into its lifecycle.
Shame that sales have tanked for it, as MS really did create a fantastic beast of a machine here, with great software enhancements for games as well, enhancements that were often times automatic for older titles like auto HDR, and giving 360 and OG Xbox games 60fps support. Although my PC is still my main platform, and that will never change, the SX is fun as hell to play on, and so far, doesn’t feel redundant for my lifestyle.
Having a PC made ever getting an Xbox irrelevant, at least in my situation. Sadly I just haven't cared too much for the Xbox brand since like 2013-2014.
In fairness having a decent gaming rig makes both the Xbox and PlayStation redundant.
Bought an Series X in Christmas 2022, it was on a promotion and I took it as an opportunity to enter the Xbox console environment as this was my first Xbox ever. Is a nice little machine that I can take with me on a travel, and I took the opportunity to play older Xbox games (Gears saga as an example), or Red Dead Redemption 1. But I love Forza Horizon, I have 4 and 5, as the older ones are already delisted, last year I bought a second hand Xbox One X, cleaned it, painted, attached an older external SSD so the games have faster loading, and bought the physical version of Forza Horizon 1, 2 and 3, and also Ace Combat 6. I already have a nice PC.
In the end, I have a great use for the Xbox One X for older and delisted games, and the Series S I take with me if I'm going to travel. As the newer games are also available on the PC, I don't see the reason for the Series X nowadays as this console don't have exclusives, as only just be that you want a living room experience and easier setup for games. Is really sad because this console have good hardware. It reminds me when I had Sony PSP, that little console was so good, and the only thing I felt that was abandoned by Sony.
Bummer. FH3 was special. 1 and 2? Eh... I remember the E3 they unveiled FH3. People were quite impressed.
I think you mean the PSvita. The psp was overrated and only sold well on hype much like the Ps2.
I still think the xbox could work as a console if they just offered more exclusive content. It frustrating to see them try to offer games exclusively through online distribution when most consumers want and still prefer physical/tangable experiences. Streaming your games that you own to your phone or laptop when you are away is a great idea though but banking on it to save the business isn't a very good idea in my opinion. If Microsoft could put in more effort to secure more console exclusive experiences or do what sony does and try to make deals for third party exclusivity then I think the brand could come back.
You bring this up around xbox fanatics and they go crazy, I think it's a cope. Sony and Nintendo have never forgotten this basic aspect of console gaming and oh look, they're doing much better than xbox. Jeez, let's just jeep pretending exclusives don't matter. I believe this was the xbox biggest mistake and it broke the trust of a lot of people. If your console has no exclusives then it will not succeed, simple as that.
Console exclusivity is starting to become a thing of the past as every platform besides Nintendo is going multiplatform. I don't know why people obsess over it so much especially since it's anti-consumer. Besides, Xbox still has exclusives like Halo, Gears, Forza and other games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 coming this month, and Avowed, Fable and South of Midnight next year.
@cun7us sure. They're becoming a thing of the past for Xbox. Hence their current situation. Sony and Nintendo are laughing all the way to the bank.
For sure. I hope the idea hits MS them like a brick thru the windshield of one of their fancy Forza Horizon cars. They should always get the best games as exclusives. Best ammo to stay in the fight.
@@cun7us If you have multiple platforms competing for sales you have to have something to entice customers to choose one platform over the other. If it isn't software it will be features. Imagine Nintendo patenting motion controls or Microsoft patenting Game Pass.
The very nature of capitalism is anti-consumer.
I know this video was most likely recorded before November 7th, but make sure to mention in the PS5 video that the Decima Engine is now on Xbox due to Death Stranding now having an Xbox version. The Decima Engine is Sony's engine, which means that the Horizon games could potentially be ported to Xbox. I guess this also means that the game OD will also be coming to a PlayStation platforms.
Both Xbox and PS5 had identical Ryzen 2 and RDNA2 chip sete. Of course, it's easy to port. Save for the RAM set up the Xbox One and PS4 were identical too.
Make consoles great again! SEGA 2024!
To be honest, I never was an Xbox until I saw the series X. They nailed the design look, I have zero regrets buying it on day one. The heavy hitter games needs to come out more consistently. Can they lower the price on the ssd card, that would help a lot.
I only use my series x for backwards compatible games very few actual new games. I play everything else on ps5
I think the strategy for Xbox consoles needs to be better integration with pc, so more dual license digital purchases. And also, there has to be at least a few consoles exclusives if PlayStation and Nintendo still have exclusives. Add to it, they need to keep doing what they can to get more third party support on Xbox. If they can do these three things there is at least a possibility of growth but at least they won’t lose their existing customers when the next gen comes out.
Microsoft's strategy is bizzare...all they needed to do was make a console that didn't red ring & burst into flames alongside some compelling exclusive software not on PC with a good marketing campaign....but nah the cloud will save em 🥴
They tried that with the One it failed. They tried to appeal to hardcore gamers with the Series X it also failed.
And Xbox for 4 gens straight now has failed to unseat either Nintendo or Sony's dominance in the console space even the 360's success has asterisks attached to it.
My Series X is still the console I use most right now, but as soon as my Analogue 3D shows up next year, I'll be playing through all of my N64 games again.
I dont have much hope for future console generations, but the Switch successor may be good.
I'll buy a used one, though.
God I hate Don Mattrick and Microsoft for ruining Xbox
Man, been watching your videos since 2012. Keep on gaming
As someone who predominantly played Xbox since 2001 with thousands invested on digital Xbox games, I am starting to shift to PC going forward (for multiplats). This year the greatest AAA titles were not on Xbox. (Wukong, Stellar Blade, SH2 etc). Even some smaller releases now skip Xbox (for example the Glover remaster is skipping Xbox day 1). I do not want to micromanage what games are and aren't coming to Xbox, so I feel it is only logical to use PC instead. I think Sony does a better job in securing the games that are going to matter.
This video showed up on my recommendations and you made a good video man. I liked hearing and was fascinated by the history leading up to this console. I’m a lifelong Nintendo and PlayStation user, so I didn’t know it.
Don Mattrick was the worst thing to ever happen to Xbox.
Honestly, my fav type of videos on this channel is this, and talking about Xbox nonetheless!
Great video Mr. Koralik, To be honest both PS5 and Series had had a lackluster year, i think the idea of exclusives is going the way of the dodo since Sony is also putting their exclusives (the 3 that they had this year) on PC and recently Death Stranding went to Xbox, also you skip over future games like the announcement of Gears of war E day, Perfect dark, games that will come out like Avowed, Fable, games that will make me and many others stick to gamepass like the new doom, i think MS this year is pretty happy due to the success of Black Ops 6 and from a Cod player pov i have seen a good amount of people getting gamepass due to cod, so i think calling Gamepass not a success if an understatement with all due respect.
Well, it's hard to cover games that don't exist yet when talking about the past year.
As for COD, I don't deny the individual success of the game, but it doesn't help the brand considering it's also on everything else.
How has PS5 had a lackluster year? We got Helldivers, Final Fantasy, Astro Bot, Stellar Blade and Silent Hill
@@Michael-jr3gzthey know what they’re doing. It’s just disingenuous talk cos they want to lump PlayStation and Xbox together in all of Microsoft’s shortcomings
I believe Microsoft even said they created the original Xbox because they didn’t want Sony to own the lounge room.
We all hated Google Stadia, which was the reason we didn’t support it, and let it die. The Cloud is gonna be Microsoft downfall because they want to treat the console the way a PC runs with GoG and Steam, on top of the fact that no one wants to play low quality games. On top of that, internet services aren't unlimited data. We have to pay to have extra data. I can't imagine a home of 5 playing all day from the cloud, not to mention everyone cellphones hooked up to the wife, and maybe streaming Netflix or music media all through the internet. The Internet bill is going to be off the roof. Internet provides have a cap. Just look at what happened with internet providers during the pandemic when everyone was homeschooled. Prices went up like crazy.
Sounds like FigureItOutcast with that mike. The video is great as always, I was just thinking why it sounds so familiar 😂
I still greatly enjoy mine.
Even the concept of gamepass is very enjoyable in my book as it has gotten me into games that I normally would not have looked at such as subnautica.
Simplicity always trumps everything else. Xbox is going nowhere. physical media is going nowhere. and if Xbox chooses to go all digital, they will lose millions of customers. If the series S would have launched with a disc drive it would have sold so much better imo considering the series X selling point was having a disc drive. But the new cod launch has seemed to have been profitable.
80% of sales being digital and Sony winding down Blu Ray production says otherwise.
And the Series S outsold the Series X.
Microsoft should've just released a digital series x instead of the series s in my opinion.
I actually agree with Cali on something? Truly weird times we live in.
I’m one of the few that absolutely loves the Series X the most this gen: current games, lots of backwards compatible games, Gamepass, being able to play Spotify over every game, quick resume and emulation (I own the games and have a cartridge/save transfer so I’m actually playing them legally). They wanted a PC for TVs and I feel that’s what I’m getting without spending a lot on a new PC. I’m happy with it but to each their own
I'm someone that has been very happy with my series x. I don't have time to play every game under the sun so I think there is an overabundance of games to play if I'm looking for something. Game pass has been a breath of fresh air and I don't understand the complaints about it.
Not really suprising that Xbox is struggling when they have games like Skyrim in space, barley working vampire killer live service, hellblade 2 walking simulator and Halo not really Infinite. Let's not forget that other games they were supossed to be released by now like State of decay 3 and Perfect Dark are stuck in development hell.
They're not struggling financially. Black Ops 6 sold over half a billion copies in its first couple of weeks and Xbox made $8.5 billion last financial year from software revenue. Console sales are down but they sell them at a loss anyway. Perfect Dark isn't in development hell anymore so you're a bit out of touch. They showed a gameplay preview in their recent showcase and it should be releasing sometime next year.
@@cun7us Microsoft not struggling financially is not the point, they try to buy their way to success, lack any creativity in their own right, and almost all games announced at this point are still vaporware - people have been waiting forever for them to pull their thumb out and saying a certain game will be released sometime next year has been on repeat for 5+ years
@@tonyg5597 all due respect, it doesn't really matter what you think. What matters is if customers are happy with their service and whether Xbox is making money. S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 and Indiana Jones are both releasing before the end of the year on Game Pass and they're looking to be good too. I think it's people like you who have been stuck on repeat for 5+ years.
@@cun7us very true… no more than your own comments lacking any value, but that’s what a comment section is for…to comment..so try to cope
The Xbox One S was my first Xbox, I want the Series X but I really haven't gotten much of a reason to upgrade yet personally. With all the IP they own now there's no excuse as to why Xbox isn't rivaling Nintendo like Sega did back in the 90s. They have Crash, Spyro, Banjo and the rest of Rare and a ton of other iconic franchises. They should start reviving them and start giving people a reason to buy their hardware, just make great games.
Because the hardware doesn't sell enough to justify the money they'd lose by making it exclusive. Plus they only barely avoided the FTC coming down on them by keeping Call of Duty multiplatform.
Unlike Nintendo and Sony Microsoft does not need Xbox as a platform to be successful.
I’m a retro Nintendo player having grown up in the 80’s/90’s. But the Xbox 360 was one of my favourite consoles of all time because of the quality of games!! COD4, MW2, Red Dead, FIFA, GTA4, Halo 3 etc were all incredible games with absolutely no focus on micro transactions and season passes. You buy a game, you’ve got the game!
I bought an Xbox Series X and every time I go to play a game, it takes me 5 hours to install an update before I can play it. Then when I load up, I’m bombarded with pop ups for season pass and DLC. It’s off putting!
I play my Nintendo Switch now more than any console because the games are complete on cartridge and focus on quality over DLC and live service.
I’m even enjoying some Xbox 360 classics like Red Dead Redemption on there! I recently purchased Hogwarts Legacy on the Switch knowing it was a visual downgrade just for the convenience of playing handheld.
Xbox should get back to making good games and stop pushing live service micro transactions.
I got a Series X this summer and I've been mostly playing backwards compatible games from the Xbox 360, but also past-gen games like RE7 and DMC5SE. I did play Halo Infinite out of curiosity and... It's a 343 Halo game? Good, nothing super special. The third party studios don't offer me anything I'd like to play and the console manufacturer also doen't make anything good. Yeah, I'd love to play Perfect Dark (seems like an immersive-sim like, exciting) and Gears E-Day (finally a good third person shooter) but at this point they might as well be next-gen games or games that will release at the tail-end of this gen.
Great video Adam, you’re sliming down my guy great work. Keep it up.
If I could not have a PC for some reason, I would get the Xbox Series X. Control is the problem with DRM and PC offers the most control and the most games for a while now. Besides the ease of setup, consoles offer nothing else. The original Xbox and 360 era was glorious but we will never return to that.
Why a Series X when PS5 is better in nearly every way?
29:59, I think everything you said was valid, Xbox doesn't have much to offer other than a possible elder scrolls or exclusive call of duty that will bring people in. Perfect Dark looks kinda cool but to buy the whole system is pretty unappealing. I think with next generation I'm just going to get a PC if they abandon the physical side lol. As far as the cloud gaming I think they are trying to be like Netflix the problem is casual people don't even know about this aspcet of xbox usually they've done a poor job promoting it thus it will fail.
The Hardware itself is perfectly really great for the price, but at the end of the day I don't think it was a worthwhile purchase. Only feature I think has been worth it is for the 4k blu ray playback, though that's an extremely niche use-case in today's world. Ever since I got my Steam Deck both the Series S and X I have at home collect dust. I have specific reasons for the S and the X but for the average use case I would MUCH rather recommend you save up extra cash and get a PC.
To get a PC on par with the PS5 or Series you're looking at nearly a grand. That's over double the base PS5 and about 3 or 4 times as much as the Series S.
@wolfman210 That's very relative my dude. Yes if you want to play games in native 4k and 30-60fps medium settings probably around 900 USD. But with those 900 on top of getting PS5 "performance*" you get the flexibility to play at a myriad of resolutions, details, effects, with free online, no massive patches, access to every piece of emulation software, free games left and right, every storefront, a millones other use cases etc. If you are already comfortable spending 500-600 usd might as well save up a little more and go PC
Back in the 90s and 2000s it was so exciting imagining what the next gen consoles would bring. Technology was moving so fast. Now games all feel the same and just aren’t fun anymore. Every game on the PS1 felt and played differently. The variety was amazing. Games for novice players games that were a challenge. Games now have zero risk too when you die. You just go back 2 minutes so the intensity and stress is all gone. Most games are mindless now. Thwres not a single game that’s coming out that I’m excited for
Love your content, bud.
Console gaming is trash now. We didn't know how good we had it during the 360/ps3 days.
Even those days were bad for us jRPG fans.
There were years where I had nothing to play. Especially on Xbox since they seem to only care about FPS and sport games. Two Genre I care nothing about.
The series x is technically a decent console. It just has nothing special or unique going for it outside of a handful of situational and niche appeal cases. That said, I have absolutely nothing against people who enjoy and love their Xbox consoles. However, I can’t wait to see what Microsoft does next GEN and if they decide to follow through with the whole PC console hybrid model because the whole subsidize hardware model just isn’t working for them anymore.
Most likely it will be a portable pc console.
No games, forcing drm, bland design, bland ui it’s a bad console bud
I just copped series x. This gears of war news gave me the itch to get back into gaming.
Sold mine. Got an OG Ally instead Xbox pretty much turned their back on their home console
Base z1? I'm thinking of getting z1e or a legion go. Ally x would be cool but pricey
It feels like it wasn't that long ago that people were hyped about 8th gen consoles and now we're getting close to the final sprint of 9th gen.
Adam, you look much healthier than in older videos.
Thanks.
Great video. I know you don’t like the all digital versions (I’m not a fan of all digital either), but I think the Series S is a quality console.
I’ve had mine for almost 4 years now and it’s never put a foot wrong. Just wish that Xbox would release a disc drive for it.
Buying a series X during the holidays sales so I can play GTA VI next year. Been perfectly happy with my Xbox One X since 2017. This generation is so weird. Lol
It was a big disappointment. Microsoft gave up on it and it will probably be the last console they make. Only Nintendo and Sony will remain in the console market moving forward.
Nintendo doesn't want to share, microsoft has teh big bucks, sony has identity issues.
Adam ya gotta make a video about sega delisting genesis and Dreamcast games. Sure seems like theyre getting ready for something… Dreamcast classic?
Wasn't planning on it.
Owned and preferred xbox since the 360 but as I'm not bothered about game pass and never had it. I'm just gonna go to PS and nintendo for the future, no point committing to xbox now sadly. Will just keep my series x til xbox ditchs hardware. Sad times for gaming as I'm an 80's boy who loved console wars
While it is true that the great financial crisis changed a number of things permanently, console generation intervals were definitely not one of those things in my view. Yes, the GFC "artificially" stretched out the XBox360/PS3 generation, but all the subsequent intervals have simply been tied to the state of technology and the diminishing returns of gaming graphics/performance. IOW, the current generation situation (malaise?) wouldn't be too much different today with or without the GFC. As much as I like the Xbox ecosystem, we have to admit that it is rapidly running out of reasons to exist at all. If it were up to me I would have started rolling the Xbox ecosystem into the PC world a couple of years ago. An "Xbox" would just be a consolized PC that you can play from your couch without a mouse or keyboard.
It's been strange days for the Xbox. I don't ever recall there being a company like Microsoft Xbox that obviously does not know what it wants to be anymore, but yet still is able to not go bankrupt. They're out in no man's land. Seems unsustainable.
There have been reports and rumors that Microsoft has been wanting to get out of gaming since the One failed. All the confusion around Xbox has probably been Phil Spencer trying to justify its continued existence in Microsoft's eyes.
I find the history of Xbox to be fascinating. From genesis to now, they have had one weird ass ride.
Original Xbox was exciting and interesting. All their other ones after that have been crap IMO. Not just in terms of hardware reliability (I sell video games) but there's just never really been anything that has made me feel I have to own one. In many ways while it feels like they helped make gaming more "Accessible" and more mainstream they also cheapened it. I'm quite happy playing Nintendo, PS, and computer games instead.
Adam, can you please do a retrospective on the 8th gen consoles (as a whole and then separate PS4,X1…your take on them,experience and all that good stuff…), like how you did on the 5th,6th,7th gen etc. i really enjoyed those videos back in the day.That would be cool 😎
It's still active. The Switch.
@ Ah, yes, ok looking forward to it then 😉