8 Biggest Xbox Risks (That Totally Backfired)
1. Lack Of Exclusives
GamePass was the last-minute windfall that the Xbox One needed and so it's naturally been positioned front and centre of the Xbox Series X. The "killer app" of the console is a mighty tempting prospect. A subscription service that lets you into a giant library of instant-access games? Sounds like a dream come true.
But here's the thing. Subscription TV services, like Netflix, are starting to find out that the model perhaps can't last forever. It doesn't matter how much content they have, numbers are dropping. The only thing that temporarily stems the flow is a new season of, say, Stranger Things that gets everybody's attention.
Whilst Phil Spencer seems to think that Bethesda's Starfield won't drive people away from PS5, it is historically proven that exclusives win the race to the top. A certain black-and-green new kid on the block in 2001 wouldn't have made a splash without Halo, Project Gotham, Fable, Elder Scrolls etc...
GamePass has kept Xbox trucking along but it's not been the revolution many expected. A gargantuan, tempting library of games one "might play" repeatedly pales compared to "must-play" games that capture news cycles and social media like Final Fantasy XVI, Spider-Man 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Xbox needs a needle-mover, a true generation-defining exclusive and it needs it now. Whilst Xbox buys studios to pad GamePass out, it leaves beloved original franchises abandoned or in states of disarray. It's laser focus has produced a console of quantity over quality. It also devalues what could've been. Halo and Gears of War, once the Xbox's biggest sellers, have become fodder for The GamePass Machine rather than major launch events.
For gamers that can only afford to make a single console choice it's like being asked to decide between eating a few full-priced fulfilling, perfectly curated steak meals over the year or only ever being offered the fast food approach of GamePass' on-demand delivery.
And the numbers of Xbox's sales for the last five years, don't lie that something is missing.