What Went Wrong with Microsofts Strategy for Xbox this Gen?

[Wman1996]

Quite a few of the issues are carried over from Xbox One, and some new ones have arrived.
-Day One releases on Xbox and PC.
-Not enough third-party true exclusives, timed exclusives or console exclusives people want to play.
-People dump on PS5 not feeling like a necessary upgrade from PS4, but let's not sugarcoat PS4's first two years or so as really fantastic. Most games people love on PS4 (whether exclusives or multiplats) released in 2016 or later. All of this to say PS5 has had some cross-gen and PS5-gen only games that people want to play. More so than on Xbox. People want to play games like Spider-Man, God of War, Demon's Souls, GT7, Ratchet & Clank, Horizon, and even now stuff like Astro Bot.
Halo Infinite has gotten a better reception than Halo 5, but let's not pretend it's considered some fantastic game. Plenty of people would take the Bungie Halo games, namely the campaigns. Infinite didn't even release until slightly over a year into the Xbox Series, when it was intended as a launch title. I do think Halo Infinite at its current quality (or better) released at launch or by May 2021 would've helped the first year of Xbox Series a lot.
-PS5 feels new. It has an obviously new controller with a premium feel and features, and it has a new OS. Xbox Series X/S have a very modest change in the controller (the smallest change to date from one Xbox console to the next) and use the same OS as Xbox One.
-Optics. PlayStation has a lot of issues but look much more competent than Xbox in both PR and sales.

-Announcing the successor is in development as early as 2024. We're in the days now where generations are about 7 years or more. It doesn't look good to announce development of a successor about 3.5 years into your current platform. Xbox 5 is tracking for November 2026, November 2027 at the latest. 

-Switch and the upcoming Switch 2. Now this is a pretty small reason, I barely even mentioned it. Wii U was an unappealing console that existed during the first 3+ years of Xbox One. I do not think it was taking any Xbox One sales. People who had an Xbox One and a Wii U probably prioritized their Xbox. Switch has been selling like gangbusters, especially around the time Series X/S launched. And with Switch 2 imminent, people would rather save their money for it than a Series X/S. Again, not a big factor but I have to think Nintendo's success has taken a few million units away from Xbox Series X/S.