Suffice it say compared to the last "console war" in regard to the Xbox 360 and PS3, Microsoft was the clear victor. They came out a year before the PS3 and even the Wii on top of gaining strong third-party and first-party support. They hit a snag with the Red Ring of Death, but still recovered after that smoothly.
Microsoft entered this generation with a chip on their shoulder and it might have been this mentality that caused the Xbox One to stumble out the gate. Thankfully, as of 2020 seven years later, Microsoft has recovered nicely. Let's take a look back at the systems fumbles and saves in honor of the new hardware on the horizon.
10 Hurt: Always On
The idea of constantly having to check in online ever 24 hours did not sit well with even the most diehard of Xbox fans.
This mentality was how the system was built so removing it cost Microsoft years of recovery time before they were able to land on their feet. This backpedaling did not inspire confidence in fans.
9 Saved: Xbox One S
The Xbox One S, which launched in 2016, was the first big recovery point. It was like a clean slate for them. The box was smaller, added in functionality missing from the previous model, and was all around cheaper.
From there Microsoft was practically trying to give them away over the years with good bundles and price drops in general. Eventually sales of the system started to climb.
8 Hurt: Xbox One X
On the other hand, their next hardware iteration was not as grand. The Xbox One X was confusing. Every generation of consoles had revisions, but creating a marginally better system was unheard of until this and the PS4 Pro released.
Technically it is more powerful. Games look better and the performance speed increased, but for the price, compared to the S model, it really wasn’t worth it.
7 Saved: Backwards Compatibility
One of the key saving graves of the hardware was introducing backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games in 2015. Then, in 2017, they added original Xbox games as well. No matter what version of the Xbox one had, games would both look and run better.
This was all native meaning the Xbox One was like a remaster machine. Plus if one had the physical disc, it was free to download the game. Not charging for this, compared to how Sony was handling their backwards compatibility, was seen as a huge win.
6 Hurt: Launch Price
The launch price, compared to the PS4, was a huge blunder. Microsoft did not backpedal on this though as they wanted that Kinect 2.0 in the box. It was critical to their strategy.
That is to say it was critical until a year later, almost to the day, when they announced they would be offering bundles without the camera for $400. It took that long to figure out that problem, which upset many fans. Then eventually support fell off for it altogether.
5 Saved: Xbox Game Pass
Backwards compatibility was a big get for the system, but so was the introduction of the Xbox Game Pass in 2017. At first it seemed too good to be true. One set price, monthly, and one can download games as much as they want on the service?
Plus all firstly-party games would launch with it? It seemed unreal and yet they double down on it hard and continues to be an incredible deal.
4 Hurt: The Dashboard
The PS4’s interface may not be flashy and gets some getting used to. However, it is fine art compared to the Xbox One’s.
The Dashboard was, and still is, being constantly retooled and revised, making every iteration confusing to interact with. Hopefully the next system picks a lane and sticks to it.
3 Saved: Xbox Play Anywhere
The Xbox Play Anywhere feature was introduced in 2016. It allowed some games, like Gears of War 4, to also be played on PCs via the Microsoft Store.
If one knew how to manipulate the system, this meant that one household could play multiplayer together between PC and console versions. It wasn’t a huge advantage, but it was another positive notch in Microsoft’s belt nonetheless.
2 Hurt: Lacking Exclusives
The biggest downfall to the Xbox One was its lack of exclusives. This includes first-party choices along with third-party ones as well. At best they had some games, like Rise of the Tomb Raider, as timed exclusives but even those deals did not last long.
There was a lot of promising stuff, but a lot got canceled like Scalebound.
1 Saved: Acquiring Studios
This may not have helped the Xbox One, but after the first few fumbling years of canceling games and studios, Microsoft started to look ahead. This console war may have been over for them from day one, but acquiring studios could help win the next war.
Some of these studios include Mojang, Double Fine, Ninja Theory, Obsidian Entertainment, and so much more. The future looks bright for the Xbox Series X.