It’s been an interesting half-decade for Microsoft and the Xbox. Its current generation of consoles brings capable devices, being able to run the best of game reasonably well for the most part. Xbox Game Pass has lost a bit of its allure, though, while a few of the console exclusives have since made their debut on PlayStation.
The odds seemed stacked against the latest iteration of consoles in a long line of iterations, each of which has been an iconic presence in the gaming world and a thorn in the side of Sony. But with the PS5 gaining a tangible edge over the latest Xbox machines in terms of sales, the question about whether a brand new Xbox Series S or X makes sense today must be asked.
And sadly, the answer is one we’re fairly sad to admit. Join us on our look back at a once promising console, that continues to be a solid machine that’s being left behind through no fault of its own.
A New Generation of Xbox
Things did start out well for the Xbox Series X | S, with their budget-oriented spec sheets letting each console target a specific audience, with Game Pass and a lineup of exclusives ready to reward the loyalty its players showed over the years. And make no mistake, the S and X are solid consoles that do their job and do it well. It’s just that other consoles, the PS5 chief among them, have simply surpassed what they can do.
But the two consoles do have their own tricks. Quick Resume is one, and the 2022 update that brought the ability to pin a couple of games to the functionality, keeping them suspended until you shut them down, is frankly not appreciated enough. It’s perfect when you’re tackling a new release, chipping away at its content before you take a break.
Return at any time, and you’re right back where you started. While the PS5 does have ways to achieve a similar result, it’s not as straightforward and intuitive as the Xbox’s solution. The duo’s approach to backward compatibility was another feather in their respective hats, and Smart Delivery was an excellent way to ensure you were playing the right version of a title on your new console. On the other hand, the PS5 does leave a lot of room for decision on that front, as you must select the version of games that are backward compatible.
And in terms of their output, the Series X and the PS5 were capable of going toe to toe, their spec sheets boasting of a set of functionalities that had console gamers very excited to see how the two rivals measured up. However, despite a spec sheet capable of giving Sony’s towering machine a fair fight, things didn’t really go according to plan for the latest generation of Xbox, thanks to a poor strategy.
A Gradual Decline
While that was a problem for initial sales of the Xbox, with many reviews of the device noting the lack of great exclusive games as a reason to consider the PS5 for Demon’s Souls and a bunch of other titles, things did turn around as the console’s exclusives began trickling in. There was something for everyone, and the new Xbox machines were great to play them on.
Take Forza Horizon 5, for instance. A gorgeous racing sim that was exclusive to both existing generations of the Xbox, and was an excellent draw for enthusiasts, a reason to choose a new Series X|S over the PS5 if they were in the market to upgrade.
Open world players had a solid option in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with the chance to step into the shoes of a Viking being an excellent reason to upgrade and perhaps even splurge on a Series X. Ori and the Will of the Wisps was a great adventure title from a third party studio, and an excellent showcase of what the current-generation of gaming hardware was built to achieve.
And with Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Forza Horizon 5, Halo Infinite, and a few more great titles backing up its capable build and subtle yet effective design, the Xbox brand was flying the high skies till late 2021. It’s sad then that Microsoft’s confused approach to the Xbox brand diluted it to the point where Forza Horizon 5 has since made its way to the PS5.
Even Gears of War, a franchise that was once mighty in its own right as an Xbox exclusive in an era where the console was seen as the one to get if you liked shooters, made its 2025 debut on PlayStation with Gears of War: Reloaded. Marcus now stands tall among PlayStation’s most iconic characters. But with E-Day set to launch across Xbox Series X and PC next year, who knows if it is really a console exclusive to the Xbox anymore?
Halo: Campaign Evolved is confirmed to take the beloved Xbox franchise in a similar direction, towards a new platform, the PlayStation 5, in 2026. Sea of Thieves and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle were also titles that moved on from exclusivity with the platform. But while both Sony and Microsoft went in different directions, time has since revealed that it was Sony that chose correctly.
Internal Troubles, Public Consequences
While Microsoft bet big on its Game Anywhere effort and positioned Game Pass as your ticket to accessing your library of games across devices, the effort would see the beginning of a shift in momentum for its gaming front and the Xbox brand. Run-ins with the FTC, and public backlash towards its price increase on the top-tier of Game Pass didn’t help, as did the closure of multiple studios and cancellations of several projects.
The company’s move away from platform exclusivity stripped Xbox of a crucial brand advantage, giving franchises little reason to remain locked to Xbox instead of expanding to other platforms. But perhaps more concerning was the insistence on hamstringing potentially great games by making them compatible with the Series S.
By having to attempt feature parity between two consoles that were quite different in what they could achieve, Microsoft not only extended the development cycles of some great releases but also created the scope for performance issues on the Series S that marred the experience for players on several new releases.
Take Black Myth: Wukong, for instance, which Game Science released significantly earlier on the PS5. Control developer Remedy has commented on the challenges involved in creating current-gen experiences that could work well across both consoles’ configurations.
Several titles have since reported poor performance on the Series S, and the console may have even challenged Larian, the team behind Baldur’s Gate III. Indeed, the lack of local co-op on the console up until the release of Patch 8 is a clue towards how it could be difficult to ensure optimal performance on two distinctly disparate systems.
All of these factors have worked against the Xbox Series X|S, weighing it down from reaching its true potential as a pillar of current-gen gaming. And while the Xbox brand seems poised for a fresh foray into the next generation of gaming hardware, at least, one has to wonder if it’s worth picking up either of Xbox’s current-gen offerings today.
The Xbox Soldiers On
With rumors of the next-gen Xbox being more of a PC than a whole console, alongside the release of the ROG Xbox Ally, the Xbox as a brand might be a tad confused about how to get where it’s going, but that doesn’t mean it can’t get there.
Microsoft’s intention to support the development and enjoyment of games across platforms is set to push the next Xbox to function as a sort of mix between a PC and a console, running the Xbox OS but also able to access your Steam library, and even play any PlayStation exclusives that Sony pushes to PC in its own revised approach to exclusivity.
Fable, Forza Horizon 6, the remake of Halo, and so much more are going to be available on the current-gen consoles. But they’re also slated for release on the PS5 and the PS5 Pro. The lack of exclusive titles and the currently turbulent situation with Xbox Game Pass make Sony’s options seem more practical in comparison.
If you had told us that we’d play a Halo or Gears of War title on a PlayStation at the start of this generation, we’d have been amused at the idea. But that’s now a reality, and while the Xbox Series X and S are solid consoles, they’re diminishing champions of a brand that’s facing an identity crisis.
As such, there isn’t much standing in the way of the choice between either of them and the PS5. We wish we could tell you otherwise, but while they may have been worth it at the onset of their life cycle, the Xbox Series X | S might not be the best use of your gaming hardware budget.
But if you come across a holiday sale with a generous discount and no PlayStations in sight, you’re still going to have a lot of fun with the games you get to play on it.
