The Dark Age Of Xbox (2010-2015)
New Management Picks Up the Pieces
With the PlayStation 4 outselling the Xbox One three to one, it was time for change. Both consumer loyalty and content deals had been lost to Sony. Don Mattrick was fired shortly after E3 2013 and replaced with Phil Spencer, who set about recovering the brand's image. It wasn't easy at first; Kinect was still attached to the Xbox One like a ball and chain, putting off potential buyers with a peripheral most of them didn't want. At this point, the device was widely disliked and the motion-controlled shovel-ware wasn't improving in the slightest. The technical talk of the Microsoft Cloud also didn't help, as it rarely manifested itself in gaming.
Their approach to development and acquisition still caused problems in places; when Rise of the Tomb Raider was announced as an Xbox exclusive in 2014, gamers accused them of bribing developer Crystal Dynamic, so they didn't try that again. At long last in 2015, the Kinect was unbundled from the console and eventually abandoned shortly thereafter. This was replaced by something far more desirable: backwards compatibility. Because Microsoft built its systems on relatively unchanged architecture, the Xbox One was given the ability to play many 360 and original Xbox games. It was certainly a much needed redemption and Phil Spencer would continue to make positive decisions for the company.
Over time however, the Xbox One wouldn't gather much momentum critically. While it still sold well, there was no denying that the big games the system needed just weren't landing with the right impact. Halo had suffered a downturn under its new developer, Gears of War and Forza were starting to show their age and other titles would fail outright. Sea of Thieves, Crackdown 3 and to a lesser extent Quantum Break; these titles continued to erode gamer trust in Xbox's ability to deliver killer apps (though the former has improved dramatically since its initial launch). For over a decade, there was still no big name series to wow gamers like Halo did. This continues in 2020.