This week I've been: Playing Ghost of Yōtei and Silent Hill F on the PS5 and neglecting my Xbox Series X. Sorry, Xbox.
I have played on Xbox for a long time, starting with an original Xbox, as a kid. That was a hand-me-down, and I distinctly remember begging my mum for an Xbox 360 (then subsequently a second 360 when the first one got hit with a distinct maroon circle). I have (fond?) memories of playing on an Xbox 360 without its case and with the window open to stop it from overheating, and jamming things into the disk tray or banging the top to open it so I can pop in the new Call of Duty game.
This is all to say, despite good memories of the Xbox brand, things have been going slowly downhill for my appreciation of it, and for the first time ever, I plan on skipping whatever Microsoft puts out next.
In the latter half of 2024, Microsoft unveiled its 'This is an Xbox' marketing campaign. In it, we see an Xbox (naturally) running Xbox Game Pass, alongside a laptop, mobile phone, and even a Steam Deck. The declaration is clear here: 'the future is cloud streaming'. Naturally, marketing is at least half bluster, but the 11 months since have seen Microsoft thoroughly commit to this messaging.
In fact, many new game trailers don't just say the game is coming to Xbox, they say it is coming to 'Xbox Series X |S, Xbox PC, and Xbox Cloud'. The Cloud isn't just a way to play the game, but a marketing point in game trailers.
Microsoft's game plan seems to be getting Xbox on everything, rather than getting everyone on Xbox. Exclusives, in the traditional sense, don't really exist anymore for Microsoft. If you are a PC gamer, you miss practically nothing from the company's large roster of game studios, but this is even mostly true if you have a PlayStation 5.
The broader games industry at large is moving in this direction, with the majority of the PS5's exclusive catalogue being available to play on PC (perhaps after a short wait). So, in a sense, the point of consoles is not to compete with PC but with other consoles, which is what surprises me so much about Xbox's strategy. You can functionally own a PlayStation and a PC, and get some use out of both.
Choosing a single console between Sony and Microsoft, I find the Dualsense and its pretty whacky haptics to offer something genuinely quite different to the rest of the market. I also prefer Sony's UI, trophy system, and social functions. Plus, exclusives stay on it for an allotted time, so it's the only way to play a handful of pretty great games a year or so early. Both console generations have controllers weak to stick drift, which is a huge shame, as the 8BitDo Pro 3 hooked up to my PC wipes the floor with both of them when it comes to ease of use.
If you want to buy a console between the Xbox and PlayStation for the sake of getting a console experience, the PlayStation feels like the obvious winner between the two.
The existence of a company like Xbox is a good thing, though. It's something to challenge the oligarchy in the console gaming space. Fundamentally, Nintendo and Sony can function as separate entities without having to compete as much as the likes of Sony and Microsoft. That's because, for better and for worse, Nintendo feels like it operates in its own domain. Nintendo has many unique selling points that aren't matched elsewhere.
And Xbox Game Pass has been Xbox's crowning achievement over the last half a decade or so. Access to hundreds of games for $10-15 a month, and it comes with the added bonus of being able to stream some of them to your phone, complete with cloud saves to avoid losing any save data. But the recent price hike of Xbox Game Pass has finally pushed it above what I'm willing to pay.
The Ultimate tier I previously paid for jumped up by 50%, adding Fortnite Crew to the service too. Now, for $15 a month, you can opt for the Premium tier, which comes with half the games, as well as access to multiplayer. Importantly, Premium doesn't come with day one access to Xbox Games Studio games.
The PC only tier also got a price bump of 40%, so it's more expensive across the board to use Xbox Game Pass than before. $30 a month (or $360 a year) is quite a lot of money, and more than I've spent on individual games I've played on the service in the last year.
Xbox Game Pass still gets some great games: Grounded 2 launched on the service in July, Keeper just came out a few days ago, and The Outer Worlds 2 will release on it soon. If I were to buy all of those games at full price (which I wouldn't, as I don't have time to play them all right now), that would only eat through a third of the Game Pass subscription cost, and you can actually 'own' the games, too—as much as one ever can these days.
Grounded 2 costs the price of one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (the only way to play the game via XGP), and, assuming you want to play it for more than a month, you've already overspent on it. And, with limited time to play games, I need to plan out what I want to finish in advance. I longed for a service like Xbox Game Pass as a kid, which could deliver me a nearly endless supply of games, but I've become more selective about what I play now and don't think I'd get $360 worth of value out of my subscription this year.
But, Microsoft does do hardware, and part of the joy of a console is that experience. People aren't buying consoles purely for access to games, as there are plenty of ways to play games. They are doing so to get a relatively fuss-free gaming experience, at an affordable price point, without having to think about anything else. Though even affordability could be going out the window.
My PC is my gaming device, but also my access to social media and the wider web, plus it's something I write music and edit videos on, and generally exist alongside. When I turn on my PlayStation 5, 99% of the time it's because I intend on playing a game. That divide is one of my favourite elements of owning a console.
Xbox is reportedly still "actively investing in our future first-party consoles and devices", but we have had two new bits of hardware with the Xbox logo launch this year alone.
Let's take the recent Asus ROG Xbox Ally X. For all intents and purposes, this isn't an Xbox. It's a Windows device with some clever OS wrappings (and it seems like an impressive one at that). You are playing PC versions of games, with the trials and tribulations that come with it. You aren't getting intuitive, specifically designed software and hardware handshakes for a device you are supposed to play from the comfort of your sofa. You are getting a mini PC with an Xbox logo on it. You are still getting the closest to an Xbox that a handheld gaming PC can feel right now, though.
Then, we also recently saw the launch of a Meta Quest 3S, complete with Xbox's iconic black and green theming, plus an Xbox controller. The intent of this collaboration seems to be to encourage buyers to use their Xbox Game Pass subscription with the headset.
I'm sure whatever is next will be the 'most powerful Xbox' yet and will likely have a slightly redesigned controller alongside it. If we're lucky, we may even get Hall effect or TMR sticks to deal with drift. But, a focus on collaborations and cloud streaming, plus the rising prices of Xbox Game Pass, leaves Xbox feeling too expensive and not unique enough for my time or money.
As a PC gamer, my interest in consoles as a whole has wavered, but I can't say I haven't enjoyed booting up Donkey Kong Bananza on Nintendo Switch 2 or Ghost of Yōtei on PlayStation 5. My Xbox, however, has become a bit of a joke when friends come over: the mistake I made five years ago. In fact, booting it up to play Grounded 2 with my brother not only required downloading the game itself and an update for the system, but also plugging it into the mains and hooking up an Ethernet cable. It became the device I unplugged to plug in something else.
With the Xbox Series Y, Xbox 720, or whatever name Microsoft cooks up for its next-generation console, I don't want that same joke sitting on my shelf.
1. Best overall:
Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS ed.
2. Best budget:
Steam Deck
3. Best Windows:
MSI Claw 8 AI+
4. Best big screen:
Lenovo Legion Go
5. Best compact:
Ayaneo Flip DS
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