What is the comeback?
The preparing for next gen?
I mean, absolutely nothing has changed since launch.
They got rid of Kinect, but instead of getting Kinect focused games, you got next to nothing but over marketed indies.
Got rid of forced drm.. but is focusing on a subscription service that also requires xbl for any online portion.
It has been 8 years and counting since Microsoft has made any new AAA games...notice the still counting.. so no difference there.
Still doing third party deals and is slowly soaking up second party developers.
So, I love that these type of articles are released monthly. Almost verbatim.. of which defines the fact that the marketing dollars are trying to convince people things have changed, while in reality, for the last 8 years and counting and for what matters for a gaming console... we are still waiting.
“Do not sell what the people want, make the people buy what you are selling.”
Bill Gates

@Eonjay

"I have never seen a brand that needed so much continual ass kissing. Every freaking day."

Right?? I thought it was just me. How many more Xbox feel good articles do we need to see posted here? What cracks me up with all of these "Phoenix rising from the ashes" articles is, THEY HAVEN'T RISEN FROM ANYTHING! By this time next year, the PS4 will have extended it's lead even further and the Nintendo Switch very well could overtake the Xbox One in global sales (despite only being on the market for 2 years), putting Xbox One in dead last for this generation.

I'd only call it a comeback if you mean MS stopped the bleeding. Holy 180's Batman. Their launch was as disastrous as it gets. MS lost many players to Sony. I own both systems but if I could only own one it would have to be the PS4.

How's the saying go? "When you hit rock bottom the only way to go is up!"

Cant really come back when you're never really there in the first place.

"And how many systems has Sony released this gen?"

Two. Their main, and a weak bump for VR.

That verses XB1, XB1s and XBX.

Godmars

Weak bump with VR?

You mean 1st Gen VR that works on both systems where no one is left out
that has multiple exclusive hits?

Compared to a ZERO "high fidelity VR" lie? And barely any Windows MR sales that piggybacks off of Steam and Oculus because Microsoft has no good games on it either.

@Apocalypse Shadow:
The base PS4 can use VR where the Pro does it better.

And yeah, where Sony actually delivered on tech, MS talked up AR, showed it off hinting of "potential" with their consoles while dismissing VR, all they've done is phase out Kinect support.

@Godmars920, did you really think it through before making your comment, or did it make more since to you before you typed it? Vanilla Playstation 4 vs Original Xbox One. Playstation 4 Slim vs Xbox One S. Playstation 4 Pro vs Xbox One X.

At least you recognize their misdirection leading to nothing on both fronts excluding enterprise and military.

Enjoy,

Just watch the TGA's part were Jeoff and Phil are discussing Xbox's performance this year. Phil choking up like that (I sincerely thought he was going to have a stroke) speaks volumes over the true state of xbox today.

Embarrassment level over 9000.

"At least you recognize their misdirection leading to nothing on both fronts excluding enterprise and military."

Wholly missing whatever i is you're trying to say.

To all the rest, Sony didn't need to put out the Pro, whereas MS needed to put out the XBX in order to compensate for the XB1's hardware limitations. Used it to claim that *XB1* or the Xbox brand was more powerful, even if they didn't actually do much with it.

@omegaheat

The PS4 slim is the natural course of every single PS device since PS1 so it doesn't really count as another model because the Slim has the same performance as the launch PS4, just smaller. So, Sony just have 2 PS4 models this gen compared to 3 Xbox Ones.

the S is clearly NOT the same as the launch model because it supports a UHD drive, upscale games to 4K, have higher CPU clock and also support HDR and ALL these features are NOT AVAILABLE with the launch model.

Xbox has risen from the dead

@Angelic; Xbox right now is better than 5 years ago.

5 years ago, they were still in that 'TVTVTVTVTV' and Kinect phase, where they thought consumer rights didn't matter, you would have to log in every day orso, and other crazy BS.

I love my 360, but once they saw the success of the Wii, they kinda lost focus for a while. Halfway through 360's life-span, they went off the track. Big-time.

Only recently have they understood their mistakes and they're now back into investing in core-gaming experiences, thus acquiring studios, funding projects, etc etc.

So yeah, I'd say that right now they're in a much better position, from a consumer's POV, than they were 5 years ago.

Ryse Son of Rome maybe? 😉

@gamingunited - an approved list of games is still a hell of a lot better than nothing at all though. And in a lot of cases, the games are even improved on the newer system, which is something that we have never seen.

@Krib "...they both look current gen on the OneX"
Lmao, no they don't.

I’m didn’t read the article. And I prefer PS4 over Xbox. But I’m just commenting to point out that yes while ps2, early model ps3s and wii / wii u has backward compatibility the Xbox one x backward compatibility to me is more advanced. It not one goes back to the 360 gen but also original Xbox. As well previous implementation of backward compatibility by Sony and Nintendo did not improve performance of old games like the one x is able to do. From more solid frame rates to games like Forza Horizon 2, the orange box, red dead redemption being in FULL NATIVE 4K. I sold my Xbox one this gen due to lack of use and kept a PS4 pro, but even I gotta admit those are sweet features! And they do not charge extra unlike Nintendo in some instances.

@Angelic

While you weren't asking me, if you look at what brought PS back, it was the games. Switch brought back Nintendo into the home market, but I'd wager that's more because of it also being a mobile, tied to a few key franchise releases that were really well timed. Nintendo consolidated it's two markets, and it's a good way for them to go if they aren't going to chase the power card.

Personally, I don't think one bad gen means that a platform can't be successful the next, nor do I believe that a successful platform means a successful new generation.

@Obscure

What are you on about? Are you responding to the right comment?

I'm not playing anything. If you have reason to dispute what I say with something relevant to what I said, then just say it, instead of your normal tactic of avoiding what I say to try and make me look bad.

I never said anything about multi-console owners, or percentages of who owns what. It's moot to my point about how MS have dropped hard on the games front since last gen.

Do you even know what coy means?

It's not coy to point out that MS had dropped hard from what made the 360 so popular, and that's delivering games. Simple as that. Am I wrong about that? Or were Xbox gamers never one to care about the games? Hell, I wasn't too much into Xbox last gen, but even I couldn't deny they had a lot of appealing exclusive software for the first 5 years.

They had the other features there to round that out. But last gen, it was about the games which you couldn't play anywhere else. They stopped PC support on those games just to promote Xbox. They spent a lot of time promoting that. And then they dialed it back under Mattrick, to pick it up briefly at the start of this gen, to being all but absent except maybe once a year outside the Forza release for big AAA releases.

Am I wrong on MS AAA release schedule the past few years? Did Mattrick not dial back the releases in the past couple years of the 360 to focus more on Kinect? Did MS not have a strong first couple years of software this gen, only to be hardly anything AAA the past few? How many AAA games does MS having coming up in the near future....even if you don't consider we don't know the release dates?

If that's coy, then whatever. My viewpoint on what MS has done isn't diminishing MS sales, so it shouldn't matter. MS is the reason they are failing right now, despite all the things they have done right since to make themselves look good.

You're trying to make MS look good when they haven't done this gen what they did last gen to make the system so popular, and no matter how you try to spin the numbers for games, MS has been on a constant downward trajectory of actual big game releases. You can gussy up the numbers with a bunch of mid-tier games, but SoT, SoD2, and CD3....games that would have barely gotten any notice in the past, now being risen up to the hype levels of a gears or halo...which themselves aren't even as hyped as they used to be.

But hey....they brought some studios. XBOX HAS RISEN, AND ALL IS GOOD. THE SAVIOR IS UPON US!!!!.

Sad just how low of a standard you have for MS.

@rainslacker

"Hell, I wasn't too much into Xbox last gen, but even I couldn't deny they had a lot of appealing exclusive software for the first 5 years."

Care to name them? As far i can remember, Mattrick didn´t do much regarding first party exclusive content at least (of course) you´re talking about third party exclusives.

Also, the most important aspect that you´re ignoring is the fact, that last gen Mattrick doesn´t had to clean any mess from Robbie Bach. It took 4 years to Phil Spencer be at the same position that Don Mattrick had from the start (VP) and end his carreer on Microsoft as PRESIDENT! 8 months after Phil got promoted to VP and Microsoft studios now has 8 new studios and according to rumors, more acquisitions are on the way. That´s a LOT more than Mattrick did for Xbox in more than 10 years. It´s been 4 years and 8 months since Phil Spencer took over Xbox and i´m sure that most Xbox owners/fans would have him over Mattrick! I have faith in Phil Spencer´s vision for Xbox and i´m sure that in the next 5 years or so when we can finally make a fair comparisson between him and Mattrick´s tenure on Xbox. Until then, have a sit and watch, because when all is said and done, i know who´ll emerge victorious.

"They had the other features there to round that out. But last gen, it was about the games which you couldn't play anywhere else."

And who actually care about Xbox One games been avaliable on WINDOWS 10 PC other than stupid fanboys? Console gamers will ALWAYS be console gamers and Phil Spencer is, and will be giving console gamers less and less reasons to even think about PC gaming since the X already run most games at native 4K and Scarlett will (probably) run games at Native 4K/60fps! With K&M support! I rather pay $500 on a brand new Scarlett than spend $3000+ on a PC to match or surpass Scarlett´s power&performance.

"Am I wrong on MS AAA release schedule the past few years? Did Mattrick not dial back the releases in the past couple years of the 360 to focus more on Kinect? Did MS not have a strong first couple years of software this gen, only to be hardly anything AAA the past few? How many AAA games does MS having coming up in the near future....even if you don't consider we don't know the release dates?"

You got your head buried on sands of the past! Does Xbox future looks bad to you? Playground, The Initiative, Ninja Theory, Obsidian are all top tier quality studios and only god knows what the smaller studios will be able to deliver with Microsoft´s funds, resources and shared technology! Already told you about what´s comming! Halo Infinite, Gears 5, Playground´s RPG, New RARE Ip, New Ninja Theory Ip, Crackdown 3, Battletoads, Ori and MORE to be announced because i very much doubt that Xbox at E3 2019 will be all about deep dive on previous already announced games!

"But hey....they brought some studios. XBOX HAS RISEN, AND ALL IS GOOD. THE SAVIOR IS UPON US!!!!.

Sad just how low of a standard you have for MS."

Phil Spencer already admited that Xbox One has been lacking on exclusive first party games! He´s WORKING on it! He already acquired/created 8 new studios in less than 8 months! The vast majority of these studios has focus on SP games and 3 of them are focused/experience in deliver RPG games! There´s more acquisitions on the horizon! Quality games aren´t magically made overnight. So i got ask you:

WTF do you want from Phil Spencer??? What´s there to be negative about Xbox´s future??? What´s there´s to have less faith now than before???

@Obscure_Observer

"WTF do you want from Phil Spencer??? What´s there to be negative about Xbox´s future??? What´s there´s to have less faith now than before???"

The amount of question marks shows a bit of emotion, which indicates bias. Please, be objective about argumentation. Ever heard of "History repeats itself"? XBox has had many big studios and partnerships before. Several times. They all went down the gutter. They acquired new studios, again. So, now all is well? You don't even have games to be expected in the next couples years by these new studios.

You don't even want to wait for the company to prove itself. Your logic here is that you should be bragging about a college degree four years away just because you already signed the papers and took the loan. You should brag when your graduation is close, and then brag when you get it, and when you get a job for it.
AKA, stop bragging about Microsoft's acquisitions, because their track record is repeatedly terrible, their projects are several years away, basically making the entire XBox One generation an entire waste for anyone that isn't interested in just 3rd party titles. Wait till we see in depth proof that these games will be great and actually release.

Stop insinuating Phil Spencer has only just gotten control of XBox. It has been 5 years. He has been in a leadership position for a very long time. It doesn't take 5 years to make a game. His focus, and this is because Microsoft is in control and this is MS' focus, is to look good for the brand image. That is it. I have no doubt he enjoys the industry. But, how could everything but Forza bomb so hard in terms of quality, and why is that the case when the quantity of games is so low already? Then we have ridiculously long delays and we have cancellations.

I truly am excited about having a grand comeback for these franchises. But, I am skeptical, and I should be. Don't confuse excitement with wishful thinking. I want these things to do well. But, I'm not here to argue what I feel. If I argue then it's going to be realistic expectations. The history is there and it's happening right now. Wait till they deliver the goods before saying that it works.

@AngelicIceDiamond

"What do you call PS3's mishaps at the beginning? Or the Wii U life cycle then and with Switch success?"

PS3 was still quite successful. 15 million units short of the PS1, for a drastically more expensive box. While launching to directly compete with the Wii's astronomical success. It also served the major purpose of pushing the Bluray format, which was a different success on its own. The PS4 could be a comeback if you're trying to compare the sales to more successful Sony products, but the product is very successful nonetheless. Sony was not poorly managing the PS3 the way MS was with the XBox since 2010, and the initial console quality control.

The mishaps being too many design changes and showcases before the final design at launch? The console itself was terrific and had great games consistently for most of its lifetime. It never stopped giving gamers what they wanted. What mishaps do you refer to? It had wifi built in, a hard drive with every unit, rechargeable controllers, and free online. That's over $150 of accessories/add-ons to get separately for XBox users at the time, not including the yearly $60. PSN also commonly used dedicated servers. More players, less lag, when a game uses them, and it was free.

I don't see what you're getting at. Perhaps you read my comments and see that I am commonly ecstatic for Sony and Nintendo. But, my bias is only for gaming itself. MS' history has damaged this market. Their initial game line-up was great, because they bought studios which ran themselves until the 360 dropped.

The Wii U was a flop. What do you want me to say? It had a few good games, but the performance and reliance on the gamepad gimmick limits third party support. They expected the success of the Wii to instantly carry over. Kind of like how MS expected 360 users to flock over to the One so easily, not expecting the public backlash.

Of course the Switch is a comeback. Did you expect me to say otherwise? You must have if you asked the question. The Wii U sold way less than all the other Nintendo consoles. It was a failure.

The XBox One isn't a failure in terms of sales, but we don't know the actual sales. For one, MS reports sales to retailers, which can be a thousands of extra units sitting on pallets. The competition both provide info for what is actually in consumers hands. If they wanted to quickly inflate their numbers they can just report sales to the retailers. Too bad X1 stopped reporting the numbers altogether.

The failure is primarily in their customer treatment, lack of delivering on promises and substantial product quality and quantity, attempt to shoehorn their policies onto the consumer until they saw that the sales directly reflected the media backlash, poor console design, forceful gimmick reliance using the Kinect, playing ignorant and constantly trying to spin PR, and proceeding to a service based system and backwards compatibility to fill the void of not delivering in exclusives. Then, to keep pushing the "Most powerful console" message. Well, obviously the newest, and $100 higher option will be the most powerful console. It's just such a shame that people bought it to get no defining exclusives for it, except maybe FHorizon. Because, next gen is not far. People dropped half a grand on a box that they will feel obliged to replace. It's looking really good for next gen with the new AMD Ryzen series and 7nm fabrication, which will decrease production prices, product sizes, and power usage. The jump might be bigger from the X1X than we think.

Did I answer your short reply with everything it could have possibly led to or nah? XD

I said exclusives

Top of my head. Gears, Halo, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Fable, Alan Wake, FM2, few JRPG's, few key timed exclusives. Some smaller games which made the rounds. Quite a few bigger games which had timed exclusivity.

Mattrick delivered games. Some by MS, some 2nd/3rd party. He increased the popularity of XBox more than Spencer, and did this among the casuals with Kinect Spencer has only bolstered the popularity of Xbox and given talking points for their existing fans, and maybe a few who have come on board.

The difference in people talking up MS now is different. This gen, its mostly the ardent fan boys who talk up MS. Last gen, there was a lot more reasonable discussion about Xbox. Last gen it was, "We have these games now or very soon". This gen it's, "Wait for it".

This notion Spencer has made the brand more popular is based on a metric of where they were at when Spencer took over, not where Xbox was before. Mattrick trashed the brand this gen. For all of Mattricks faults, Mattrick delivered more games in less time than Spencer will deliver in his time with X1 THIS GEN. Most of the games Spencer has delivered, were started with Mattrick.

So, don't give me this crap that Mattrick didn't deliver. his failure with X1, doesn't undermine the games he brought in one way or another.

It shouldn't take 4 years to buy studios or make games. it took them less than a year to close down studios. They did that despite not having other content. This notion that Spencer is all about the games and making XBox great is more recent, because he could have had those studios to make other games instead. Now, 4 years later, they're now getting started?

Tell me....what about the last three years when all we heard was how they're making games....1 billion invested apparently...and we just had to wait until closer to release to see them?

Now it's, "We just had to wait for them to get their shit together, now all you have to do is wait for them to actually make the games".

You see why its not easy to take them seriously?

MS can ruin Nokia, buy them, make them into something, then ruin them again in less time than Spencer's been in charge of MS. But they can't make buy up and make more games in that time?

It's a constant waiting game. People had faith that Sony would deliver after after their criticized sparse holiday...and they have in spades...beyond expectations. What has MS done to prove they are worthy of that respect, when it's always about waiting for them? Should people really invest when it's just about waiting, when SPENCER HASN'T PROVEN HIMSELF! It's not that hard to understand, and excuses on needing time don't get games onto my X1.

"Windows 10 exclusive argument BS".

I was referring to console exclusivity. This gen, they have faltered greatly on the quantity/quality of those titles....or they aren't doing the same things which made the 360 so popular.

"buried on sands of the past!"

I'm talking about what made the 360 popular compared to X1 The past seems relevant.

"Does Xbox future looks bad?"

No. But this gen is terrible. Does this gen look that good to you? Do you think the X1 is delivering on the same quality content as the 360?

Future is all good and fine. I'll consider it when Scarlett comes around. No benefit of the doubt afforded though.

"He´s WORKING on it!"

Yeah....So I've heard. For the past 4 years.

I don't know if its paid but it has 'delusional' written all over it.

There aren't enough positive Sony articles to really make that assertion are there? Maybe 1-2 every couple weeks or so? MS can easily get that many in a day, usually with a thesis which is so silly it's hard to take it seriously.

Sony does plenty of good things, but realistically, do we see a constant barrage of how Sony's games are so good for their brand? Or do we see more about how Sony has downgraded their games, is arrogant and anti-consumer because they won't allow cross play, and how they're policies are ass backwards because they're censoring games, blocking people's accounts(even when its Epic), and won't allow name changes?

There is a palpable difference in tone between Sony and MS when it comes to the press. MS seems to get plenty of leeway in everything they do, or they look the other way when they don't do much....like deliver games. But Sony gets criticized when someone sneezes in the general vicinity of Sony HQ.

That said....while the article was decently written, it made postulations borne from bias, instead of fact. The presentations of fact seemed more to confirm the bias that the author already felt. There is no way to say that Xbox has risen, because generally, they seem to be just chugging along without completely failing. But I think a lot of that isn't because of the X1X, but rather, the fact that the press isn't calling them out for being so bad.

Let's face the truth here. If Sony were this bad with game releases, or had the DRM/Online stuff at the start of this gen, they'd have been torn apart by the press. While the press did their due diligence with the launch issues, they seem to have completely forgotten about that, and think that any effort by MS is excuse enough to just ignore their output. A new console, some BC, and MS now seems to have a free pass to GaaS, and barely any game releases. MS set the bar so low, that it's easy enough to step over.

Because you dont see for the most part these type of articles about the PS4. This article is pretty laughable like the NDP article from a few weeks ago. That guy from the NDP group was on another forum, talking about the unprecedented success of the 1x. The funny thing is he couldn't or wouldn't give the actual numbers because they dont give actual hardware numbers and Microsoft has for a long time kept their sales numbers a secret because they are so bad compared to the competition. It was the weirdest discussion. Yet here we are with the manufacture in last place being talked about as having some renewed success when the numbers aren't there to back up such an assertion.