Major problems Xbox Series X needs to fix for Microsoft

If Microsoft plays its cards right, the Xbox Series X could even win the next-gen battle. A few years back, that seemed unthinkable.

Here are the key issues Microsoft needs to address with the Series X if it wants a shot at victory. The company appears to have plans for some. Others, not so much. All seem necessary for the Xbox Series X to tower over the PlayStation 5 come Holiday 2020 and beyond.

[Daniel2183]

Get the exclusives sorted and it’s easy street to a successful generation

[Godmars290]

Yes, just make gold from lead. Fix what is regarded to be your greatest weakness and inability. Easy peasy.

[Fishy Fingers]

Stick Windows, even Windows RT on the thing.

Honestly its ridiculous they havent done it yet.... You have the worlds most popular OS and you're not using it to your advantage?

[Immagaiden]

“If Microsoft plays its cards right, the Xbox Series X could even win the next-gen battle. A few years back, that seemed unthinkable.”

That’s always unthinkable. Xbox brand doesn’t have the global clout to come out on top in console sales.

Xbox 360 in particular is the only console in history that sold over 45 million in North America yet still failed to cross 100 million worldwide, which speaks volumes of how limited Xbox’s commercial appeal can be.

[SyntheticForm]

I agree.

PlayStation was first on the scene and they're firmly entrenched, and they've always solidly delivered with games. This has been consistent since the birth of PlayStation.

Though every brand has its downtimes, PlayStation has always kept up the excitement. If there was a dry point, PlayStation users would always be assured that a potential hit was just around the corner, keeping things exciting. Microsoft and Xbox on the other hand have simply and utterly failed to do this.

I like both brands, but Xbox needs to get in gear and start delivering some real excitement - they need wave after wave of it, in fact.

[phoenixwing]

what will happen is series x will announce a bunch of games but none of them will be at a quality level when compared to sony because they'll all have budget constraints for their streaming service. at least that's what i'm expecting. in short aside from halo/gears/forza a bunch of AA not AAA

[SyntheticForm]

@phoenix

Quality is certainly an issue as well - definitely, but this gen Microsoft didn't even bother showing up to the party. They never arrived. They've done a few things I've liked, but the general output of games and quality games at that has been simply nil, and that's the biggest problem.

Microsoft and Xbox need to consistently deliver tangible excitement from here on out. They need to be like Sony in that regard - how even when things are dry, there's something just around the corner to keep us perked up and attentive and excited.

They need to focus their teams on utterly brand new franchises - utterly brand new. They're just getting stale now. Okay, they have things in the works, great, but we need to see it, and we need to see it now. They need to actually show us these things very soon. No more 'We have X studios working on X amount of -- 'No Microsoft, show us now.'

[Godmars290]

The real issue is that by going with this multi - PC/iOS/console - agenda MS have made their own console a minor if not outright non factor. They're measuring success in terms of subscriptions, not hardware or even software.

Yes, overall structure of Game Pass gives or should give devs creative freedom, let them explore any genre of game, MS's mindset since COD and Halo 2 has been online coop, and they're not going to give that up anytime soon, they have no reason to. After three console gens have yet to realize the limitations that causes.

[neutralgamer1992]

Make better exclusive games and keep at it the whole generation. Regardless of any features or subscriptions games help sell hardware

Look at Nintendo and Sony even during worst of times they still delivered great must play exclusives

[gamer7804]

Article starts off strong but the latter items don’t matter much like VR etc

[PhoenixUp]

“If Microsoft plays its cards right, the Xbox Series X could even win the next-gen battle.”

I wonder if Xbox Series X does really well if Microsoft would go back to proudly producing hardware sales numbers

[Petebloodyonion]

MS needs to focus on only 1 thing with Xbox and it's the ability to play games, games, games, and games.
That's the only thing
If MS can communicate this message: we play your past, your current, and even your future games with ease
It will be successful.

[ApocalypseShadow]

Lmao! Comeback story. Lmao! Win next generation. These crazy articles.

Yes. They need exclusives. If Disney put all their content on Netflix, what's the likelihood that consumers would subscribe to Disney Plus? That's right. Less likely. "But, it's just options." Lol. Keep telling yourselves that.

Power will not mean as much as you think. OG Xbox and Xbox One X proved that power didn't increase sales over Sony. Or the industry would have noticed the sales increase. Or a lower price. There's still this thing called "worldwide."

A console focused on playing games. Wow. That's a great idea. Why didn't Sony and Nintendo think of that./S

You don't need XBL? Lol! You can't even play F2P games without it. And service will not tip the scale.

Kinect doomed an entire generation? Now that's revisionist BS. It was lack of good games for Kinect and AAA games created from a company worth a trillion. And, by the time Microsoft joins the VR party, Sony would already have had 800-1,000 VR games and experiences to play. They're already late to the party.

X4. It's simple. But nope. They won't use it as it seems inferior to PS5. Which is simple and to the point. You know what PlayStation it is. All these other crazy names just leads to confusion. Series X? "Does that mean a better one it's coming out soon after that one? "Then I'll wait for that one." Do you see what Series X has already done by just being named that? It's a fail name.

[sampsonon]

GAMES GAMES GAMES