The Daily life of Phil Spencer.

The morning brings sounds of banging on Spencer's office door followed by someone yelling are they here yet,later on further banging and more sounds of are they here yet continue this is followed in the afternoon by more banging and are they here yet still continuing to resound throughout the confines of Xbox headquarters,  finally a desperate voice shouts back just go and stick your head in the mud. suddenly all is quiet and peace has returned allowing Phil to once again resume his  Lotus position atop his desk.

Many years pass till one fateful day a loud bang wakes Phil from his meditation followed by a muffled are they here yet,a wildeyed Phil opens the door to be met by the  strange sight of a creature covered in mud you!! yells Phil only to gain another response of are they here yet ,Suddenly there's a glint in Phil's eye and he says yes yes we have zenimax now, and expecting an excited response is surprised see the creature suddenly turn and stagger down the hall and out into street leaving a trail  of mud on the wall, never to be seen again.Phil once again enters his office puzzled but also glad that the episode has finally ended only to hear his secretary callout there's something written in the mud on the wall looking closer he sees scrawled in mud the words Said Yes.....   Where are they then.

How is it the unsung hero, when it has so much media attention (social usually) ?
Also you constantly hear about it from MS fans, and everyone agree's GP is good value?

Theres nothing unsung about that.

While I wouldn't agree with all your points the Xbox making such a push to show that backwards compatibility is a key feature clearly also had ripple effects onto the PS5 having near complete PS4 compatibility so it's great that they pushed for that for gamers on either the MS or Sony machine.

One thing I would add @smroadkill15 is that (and I'm sorry if this was mentioned already by someone here) while the argument of "you can play all the games on the PC too though" is true in ways, it's also not exactly easy or possible to do it at the same graphical fidelity of the XBSSX looking at Steam hardware surveys shows that a huge number of people gaming on the PC are still rocking Graphics cards like the 1060 or even the now woeful 1050ti as their card of choice, and even if a PC user wants to upgrade their gaming rig right now to something that is 4k capable it's near impossible to get a GPU better than a 730 without paying wildly above the RRP due to cryptomining, so yeah while it is possible if you have a decent gaming PC to play Microsofts software offerings, Hardware surveys suggests the majority of players could not reach Xbox's current levels of graphic settings on their setups and that a graphical upgrade is near impossible without looking to scalpers.

It would actually be a great time for MS to try and win some PC gamers over to their system by maybe trying to get more PC gamers to look at it the other way around, instead of "but you can also play those games on the PC" thinking of it as "sod it... I can't get a GPU that will run these at 4k, I can also play these games on the XBSSX I'll get that instead"

Since Microsoft conveniently releases each and every game for PC, I have absolutely zero need to get an Xbox these days. Instead I enjoy playing my games with buttery smooth 144 fps. But yeah, I'm thankful that they made this possible. I also see Sony opening up more for PC gaming. So I guess I won't be getting any console any time soon. Besides Nintendo of course.

Microsoft sure made some good choices for gamers in the last couple of years. But it's kind of a pattern that always the manufacturer that is in disadvantage is shining with such things. It's all business in the end. None of these companies gives a flying fuck about gamers.

It sucks that I have essentially added them to the "same as Sony, Nintendo, Steam, GOG, Ubisoft, Actiblizzard, Origin/EA" pile. They are doing genuinely good stuff... that I can no longer enjoy: not only that, but I'm officially "deplatformed" when it comes to standard issue gaming. EGS is the only thing remaining on the platter...

It sucks, at least for me. I wish they had done all this back in 2017... back when I could still enjoy the system and they were the real hero for supporting mods in a freaking console. Urgh. I really feel bad now.

I think the "hero-status" of xobox is not unsung at all. As threads like this proof. I see it everywhere, online and with a lot of my friends - everybody seems hyped about xbox right now. But to me, this is soley justified to a certain extent. Like b.c. is super cool to have and game pass is incredible value.
But when it comes to exclusive games, especially first party, i think xbox is almoust the opposite of an unsung hero - they seem to get a free pass with their abysmal output. And I think it is astounding hiw big of a role marketing and announcements play with this.
Sony has their cards close to their chest. We know next to nothing about their releases in 2022 and beyond. Xbox has so many things announced. How many years until all of that is released? Their catalogue is incredible, undeniably so, but all of this is in the future. I really hope they will deliver on all of this, but I want games to play, not to look forward too. This seems like a sentiment a lot of people don't share with me. It seems, as long as people have something to look forward to, all is fine for them.
But what was the launch lineup for series x/s, and what have they released since? Not saying that sony is so much better, but at least there is something here.
When Halo releases, is absolutely great and there is not much noise about it, then I will consider xbox being unsung heros.

^ this.

Alot of xbox fans are very understanding of their platform holder.

4K is overrated imo and MS also conveniently makes all games work well on Series S. You don't need a high end GPU to enjoy all games at 1080p. Sure there are some RT advantages on the X yet so far there is little where it makes a big difference. So with a 1060, you're perfectly fine for now. And those that care about high fps already game at 144 fps.

Those that weren't play at 4K or 144 fps yet, won't care about switching to a series X to play at 4K or 120fps. Plus you need a high end TV as well to make use of 120fps and VRR. On monitors VRR is much more common and also offer the sweet spot of resolution 1440p.

So no, don't think MS can win any PC gamers over with the Series X. To make full advantage of it, you're still out an expensive console and a much more expensive tv while having to now pay for online gaming and lose access to modding.

I'd say Microsft rather than Xbox 

You can get everything on Windows too

I agree with that. I also don't consider, "I can play all the same games on PC" as a negative thing. Xbox is giving costumers options for how and where they want to play their games, and they are the only ones offering that for all their games. If someone doesn't need to buy an XSX to play their latest games or use Game Pass, that is great! But I think many people on gaming forums over estimate how many people actually have a gaming a PC and just because someone has a capable PC, doesn't mean they don't want a console. I've seen as many people with a capable PC say they have or want a XSX than those who choose not to buy one because they have a PC. There is benefit of playing on both PC and XSX especially if someone has Game Pass Ultimate.