What should MS have done differently with Xbox Series X/S (and how much of a difference would it make)

[trunkswd]

This generation is harder to fix than say the Xbox One. Xbox One is relatively easy - launch in 2012 with Halo 4 as a cross-gen launch title for $399 without Kinect and don't have the mandatory online announcement. A better name as well. In hindsight Xbox has always had a close relationship with Bethesda and could have acquired them in the early 360 days and have made Fallout 3, New Vegas, 4, as well as Skyrim as Xbox console exclusives. 

As far as this generation the issue is the acquisitions happened too late as it takes so long to develop games. Though, what I would have done is put Obsidian on a new Fallout game years earlier, which could have meant it coming out in 2024 or 2025. Letting studios develop what they are passionate about I commend Phil for doing. But that hasn't worked and resulted in thousands of people laid off. 

Xbox marketing hasn't been very good for a long time. The marketing for Halo 3 was top notch, but since then has been lackluster.

It feels like Xbox gave up as soon as Starfield came out and wasn't a 10/10 game and quickly decided to release everything on PS5 and Switch. I would have not done so. Forza Horizon 6 boosted Xbox Series sales for the month of May despite how expensive the console is now and the game coming to PS5 in 6 months. 

I would not have shadow dropped Oblivion Remastered and instead keep it Xbox/PC and hype it up as it has been so long since a new Elder Scrolls had come out to help sell consoles. 

Xbox also shot themselves in the foot not securing a longer term contract for the parts for Xbox Series, which is why the price for it increased well before the PS5 did. Sony was able to stockpile parts. If they had better deals in place they might have been able to not have increased the price for longer. 

I don't see a way Xbox Series X|S would match or beat PS5, but they could have done things better and kept the momentum going into the next-generation. 

Going into this generation I originally thought the Xbox Series X|S would have sold better than the Xbox One, but worse than the Xbox 360 (Something like ~70m lifetime). That is with Halo Infinite at launch and being better than it was, Starfield coming out in 2022 and being better than it was, a new Obsidian Fallout game, Fable in 2023 or 2024, Elder Scrolls 6 in 2026, etc. Oh and with the prices going DOWN and not UP. Imagine if the Xbox Series S was $200 and Xbox Series X was $350/$400 at this point in time. 

I get Asha Sharma shifting to their biggest IPs. People won't buy a console for smaller or AA games. But they will for a new Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Halo, Forza Horizon, Gears of War, Fable, and w/e else Activision Blizzard has up their sleeves. CoD will NOT go exclusive, but Xbox could market the fact they own the franchise now and release CoD-themed Xbox consoles.