It all comes down to having a compelling experience by which a console can be sold. The PS4 has it by being conservative, the Switch has it by being revolutionary, and the Xbox kind of fell in the middle (although, not nearly as bad as Wii U) where it wasn’t revolutionary, and it wasn’t conservative either - it was just a console with similar experiences to the PS4 that people would rather play on PS4 - especially since PS4 offered a lot more. It’s kind of like GameCube and Xbox, it was like buying neutered versions of PS2 - while they were technically more powerful, they also had weird and less appealing controllers than the familiar PS2 design. They also didn’t have nearly the selection of PS2, so were ultimately not nearly as compelling. Why would you buy a PlayStation with a half-baked Celda game, a gimmicky Mario Kart and 3D Mario game with smaller visions than the last generation? Why not buy the real PS2 with quadruple the library, better features, and most of the iconic experiences of the time (Like FFX, MGS, and GTA), bigger and bolder visions.
Same deal with the Xbox One, what it all breaks down to is it’s not as compelling a product. So, the only reason to buy it aside from some crazy deal is some kind of fanboyist refusal to go for the products that offer you something different and/or something more. The other reason to buy an Xbox One is you have the other console(s) you want already, and still want something new - and so, by virtue of existing, it becomes the option.
Anyway, Xbox One wasn’t all bad. You can ask why it did so much better than Wii U and you’ll find similar reasons.
Being a Nintendo fanboy (and requiring XCX) is my reasoning for buying Wii U, but make no mistake: I am not an advocate for Wii U and strongly disagree it was anywhere near as compelling as even the Wii would have been during those years had Nintendo continued focus on that and brought out a Super Mario Galaxy 3.
And yes, I am AWARE my post is the metaphorical equivalent of a drunk drive that doesn’t at all keep on the track =P
I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.
