Microsoft needs to rethink the way it thinks about its console.

The Xbox One buried itself before its launch when Microsoft announced it as a console that required an internet connection at least every 24 hours (and Phil Spencer’s predecessor, Don Mattrick, cheekily said that if you don’t have internet, buy an Xbox 360…), made the price-hiking Kinect a compulsory part of the package, and also thought about preventing second-hand games. Since then, Microsoft has opened its wallet and attracted a lot of studios to Xbox Game Studios. Sony has taken advantage of all this to take the console generation with the PlayStation 4.

The beginning of the current console generation has been characterized by a lack of stock on both the Sony and Microsoft platforms. Sony got off to a better start with sales, helped by the games (Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls Remake…). On the other hand, the Xbox Series has not been able to achieve the same level of “traction.” Since then, Microsoft has relied heavily on Xbox Game Pass, but this service alone may not be enough to generate interest.

Microsoft also needs exclusive titles, and that is why it has invested heavily (and why it wants to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, but in return, Call of Duty must remain multiplatform for ten years), and that is how it got hold of Bethesda and all the IP and publishers under it. But so far, Halo Infinite or Redfall, for example, have failed to deliver the performance that the Redmond-based company expected of them, and they will not be killer apps (a term that doesn’t it Microsoft because its games are released on PC).

Smaller games, such as Pentiment or Grounded from Obsidian, get good reviews. Still, they are not on the same scale as God of War: Ragnarök from Sony Santa Monica or Horizon II: Forbidden West from Guerrilla Games. All eyes are on Starfield; it’s Todd Howard’s new game, but that one game alone is insufficient. Avowed, the Fable reboot, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II are all in the pipeline, but they’ll have to be great too.

Source: GameRant