Let's talk about the Xbox, shall we? A relatively young entrance into the industry, having been introduced in 2001, the Xbox has nonetheless gone through 3 iterations (4 if you count the Xbox One X, although as it's an upgrade rather than a new system I'd say 3.5 at best) and, despite its modest success, it seems to never be talked about outside of dedicated platforms to its existence, with all focus being given to Sony and Nintendo. Have you ever owned an Xbox console? What makes the system so un/appealing to you? Would you feel differently about Microsoft's consoles if they were cheaper, or had a bigger variety of games? What do you think the Xbox needs to do to be a more relevant gaming platform?
I've never owned an Xbox and I probably never will, the games I generally want is usually released exclusively for a different console, such as Pokémon, or getting released to a console I already own, plus I also grew up with the Playstation which have probably left me a little biased as well lol. I've never had any interest in a Xbox due to this so I've never had a reason to even consider buying one.
I have always had an irrational hatred of the XBox and I have no idea why. I'll never get one because there have never been any worthwhile exclusive titles for the XBox and I'm 99% sure that there never will be. Sony had Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, among others (though those are multi-system now), Nintendo has everything else, and XBox is just kind of there, pretending that its important. And based off of some of their resent business decisions, I'm starting to get the idea that they might be dropping out of the console market in the coming years. Which has me a little worried, only because it means less competition for Nintendo and Sony, which is not a good thing.
Between the members of my family, we have had every iteration of the Xbox. I really enjoy the power of the Xbox One X, but the games that I'm interested in are all pretty much available on the Playstation. The 360 was also a really fun console with good games, and I preferred it over the PS3 for the most part. The original Xbox was a decent console with an extremely large, clunky controller for my young hands. They make good systems, but I would rather have the consoles that Sony and Nintendo put out, especially with Microsoft now sharing some of their best exclusives with other platforms. Microsoft, to put it shortly, needs better exclusives. Power is a nice thing to have in a console, but the power hardly matters if there aren't intriguing games pulling you into the console.
I actually have fond memories of the original Xbox, which a lot of my friends owned...playing both Halo games on co-op Legendary was always fun. It had Dungeons and Dragons too, which was quite fun. It was far too expensive for me at the time - in 2002 I was 13, very much in love with my Gamecube, had no income to speak of, and very stingy parents who refused to buy it for me - but I had a lot of fun with it with other people. I bought an Xbox360 a few months after launch and I was very happy with it for a few years...this was back when the PS3 cost an astronomical amount and was generally regarded as a joke because of it. The 360 also had some fantastic exclusives - Star Ocean: The Last Hope, Magna Carta II, Mass Effect, Ninety-Nine Nights, and so on. Then the PS3 dropped in price and the first Slim model was released, the exclusives (mostly) made their way over to it, and it got more games besides...and it didn't require disc changing. As soon as I got my PS3, the 360 turned into a glorified DVD player and little else. In the end I traded in my 360 and my entire game collection for a PS Vita and the 360 games I had that were multi-platform on PS3. xD The Xbone...yeaaah. From the beginning it was a joke - anyone else remember the always-online model they had to very swiftly change after the backlash? - and it's never really done anything to justify its existence, at least to me. Power means absolutely nothing if you don't have the games to show it off. The loss of platform exclusivity has really hurt the Xbox in my opinion, because Sony has the better first-party exclusives between the two, and more of them besides...I mean, how often does the Xbox make gaming news these days? On a personal note, the Xbone is noticeably barren for JRPGs, and offhand I can't think of a single thing I'd want to play on it outside of Rare Replay now that the Halo collection is coming to PC...and with Nintendo and Microsoft's partnership it wouldn't shock me if Rare Replay comes to Switch either. Honestly, I think it's only a matter of time before they go the way of Sega and make games for Sony and Nintendo, rather than making systems themselves. We will probably get one more Xbox, and then that will probably be it....despite their stupid issues with crossplay and censorship, Sony are making great strides in the industry with strong first-party exclusives and already confirming PS5's backwards-compatibility - which is an often-requested feature and encourages consumers to buy sooner rather than later - and Nintendo have picked themselves up after the Wii U debacle and are making headway with the Switch. Really, there isn't any room for Microsoft in there.
I only played on Nintendo systems until recently for three reasons. 1) I was more familiar with them (the DS was my first console), 2) none of the other exclusive games appealed to me until I got into hiigh school, and 3) they were less expensive than Sony and Microsoft systems. Persona 5 interested me enough to get a PlayStation 4, and I became more willing to experiment with non-Nintendo franchises. I enjoyed Sony’s offerings so much that waited to get a Vita and PlayStation 2. My experience with Microsoft’s offerings are a bit different. I used to play Skyrim and Minecraft on my friend’s Xbox 360, but wasn’t interested in getting one myself. My parents wouldn’t have let my 9 year old self touch Skyrim with a ten foot pole and I knew I could just buy Minecraft on the computer. It wasn’t until a few years ago that I gave another Xbox a shot. One of my Moms accepted an offer to get me a free Xbox One with her laptop. Of the games I could’ve chosen, I went with Rare Replay. The controller didn’t feel very comfortable, the U.I. on the menu was a mess, and none of the games on Rare Replay appealed to me (collectathons aren’t my thing). I sold it after a few weeks and haven’t touched a Xbox since. Most of the games on Xboxes can be bought on other systems. Why pay for a system when all the games I’m interested in are elsewhere?
