There are two important questions regarding the next Xbox: What’ll make it sell, and what do fans want from it? The answers will intersect more often than one would think, as several Xbox fans have opted out of the current generation. For reference, the not-so-popular Xbox One sold around 58 million units, while the even less popular Xbox Series sold about 28 million units. The hidden question surrounding this new Xbox is not only will it be good, but can Xbox make a comeback? Fans and critics alike have a lot of opinions about where the brand has been going, mostly negative. It is a difficult pill to swallow, as the competition has been shrinking, leaving PlayStation now with the sole spoils. So what’ll make the Xbox worth getting, what can they offer that no PlayStation or Xbox currently has?
What Xbox Fans Want
It might be easier to please previously established Xbox players. You make the hardware stronger, the experience convenient and simplified—and bring back exclusives if that’s still in the cards. That last one might be a problem even if the new Xbox—I mean “Microsoft Gaming”—CEO, Asha Sharma, is suggesting that exclusives may be back. There is no confirmation of this, only speculation as of yet. That possibility could be the quickest way to get the brand back on track. Or it could be another vain effort with a friendly face.
Xbox Exclusive Features
New features are a must for any upcoming hardware. Quick resume is a great edition, allowing for multiple games to be readily playable. It was PC-like, working the games like tabs on a computer. But that was more of a cute add on than a revolution. Although, the backwards-compatible library was a great feature as well. That likely won’t be enough for this next generation. The “Snap” feature on the Xbox One was a pretty neat feature too, before it was cut out. It allowed players to, for example, have a YouTube video playing in the background while playing your game at the same time. If Microsoft brought each of these back on top of some new features, that could be a great incentive for Xbox players to upgrade. Perhaps that is also an incentive for the general console player.
Reviving the Brand
The other piece of the puzzle to get the fanbase back on track with the new console is reframing the brand. Since the Xbox failure has essentially made it niche, Xbox fans probably have a stronger sense of community than others. For better or worse, Game Pass has also created its own community since people had to follow updates to the library. In the height of it, when a group of friends on Xbox would decide on what to play, they’d look to the Game Pass library for multiplayer games to try out. It gauges interest.
Microsoft has always been good at being a friendly face, although their actions proved to be exponentially disappointing. They never hit the marketing quite right, their failures beginning with the Xbox One and the confusion surrounding launch. This time, to keep their share of the home console market, they are likely to do real work to listen to their consumers. “Exclusives? Alright we’ll get right on that.” “Improved UI? We’ll roll out more updates.” “Game Pass has become too expensive? We’ll try getting it cheaper.” “We’re laying off too many developers? Tough luck, bro.”
They seem to already be doing work to reverse the terrible marketing up to this point. Microsoft has officially abandoned the “This is an Xbox” campaign for one, assuming a more traditional home console attitude. But this is not to say that the brand hasn’t been doing a good job in other ways. Xbox showcases recently have been pretty decent, with partner overviews showing players personal insights from developers. This helps foster a sense of community and a respect for the art of game design (aside from the layoffs, obviously). All to say: the brand does indeed have the opportunity to make a turnaround with their messaging.
Player Demographics
Now about catering to the home console audience—or better yet, the gaming audience as a whole. It has been confirmed by Sharma herself that the next Xbox will be able to play PC games, implying the console to be a hybrid. By itself, this opens up a whole new demographic of the PC player, especially those looking for the home console convenience similarly provided by the incoming Steam Machine. The reception of the Steam Machine before the Xbox announcement proves a vested interest by players for a streamlined PC experience.
If all goes well, the next Xbox is going to have broad appeal to all gamers. That’s already a big reason to buy for a lot of players and oozes excitement by the fact alone. The issue then being the price. If it is anything at all like the Steam Machine, then it might be priced according to pre-built PCs. That’s expensive for anyone, but especially the console gamer. So that means that when the next Xbox inevitably reveals its ballooned price point, it’ll need more reasons for a purchase.
Microsoft’s Plans for the Next Xbox
What’ll help with this is putting an emphasis on the entire Xbox library, and to make it accessible. The current consoles already have a great backwards compatibility feature for the games a generation behind. The next level to that would be to make the generations further back also accessible on the new console, something the Xbox Series X has already proven to do. While not all original Xbox or Xbox 360 games are available, a select number of them are playable. This would allow new players to experience all that Xbox has to offer, while bringing back players with a strong sense of nostalgia. Interestingly, at the Game Developer’s Conference this year, the Xbox team announced that their Xbox Backwards Compatibility Program is returning in celebration of Xbox’s 25th anniversary. Great news for all players that are able to get their hands on a Series X or the upcoming console.
As long as this new hardware lives up to its rumors, perhaps that is all that it needs to make a turnaround for the Xbox brand. But is there some secret spice that would really lift expectations farther than what we know? If there is, it probably exists in the Microsoft gaming ecosystem. Will we start seeing accessories for the console, or even entirely new ways of playing? VR, AR, Gyro, cloud gaming, handheld.
If it turns out that this next Xbox is more than just a hybrid console, it might reach the next level of ingenuity and innovation. That would get a lot more people on board, to even the most casual of players. Typically, Sony and Microsoft have targeted the mature audience, those already invested in video games. The strategy might shift this next generation to a broader demographic, a blue ocean. The most convincing features tend to be the ones we don’t know about.
Xbox’s Uncertain Future
It is the hope of many Xbox users that Microsoft still has some cards up their sleeves come next generation. For it to truly be successful, Microsoft shouldn’t only be asking the fans what’ll make this work. They need to estimate what every single player wants, in spite of what fans may think is best. Maybe exclusives aren’t the answer, and the ease of play is more important. Perhaps gatekeeping third party games, such as Sony has been doing with Silent Hill, isn’t what they should be emulating. Microsoft may already have their hidden key message about the next Xbox in our faces, something like: “Play whatever you want, however you want.” At the very least, this console needs be a bigger part of the puzzle, rather than being “another piece of hardware.”
