They better pull off something amazing at E3, because sony is pushing out exclusives already. They can talk up gamepass all they like, however if they don't start putting out games, their demise will come sooner than later. Forget about catching up to playstation.

I know I'm late to this but whatever.

The only possible way that Xbox could come even close to the PS5 in sales is if Sony literally screws up in almost every way kind of like the PS3.

The disaster of the PS3 is giving people the false notion that the console wars between Xbox & Playstation is close when it isn't. Really it's only close in North America & the U.K, but outside of that Playstation always will dominate Xbox globally.

Despite the PS3 launching at essentially 800$ in 2021 USD, worse online, inferior multiplats, and Xbox having great first-party exclusives, better mulitplats, online, having a year headstart on the PS3 and the Kinect being a huge selling point. The PS3 was still able to outsell the 360 Globally and for the most part, the PS3 was always selling faster than the 360 when they competed head to head. Sony today is too smart to allow another PS3 disaster to happen again. Not even the 360 was able to outsell the PS3 with a 2-1 ratio despite the PS3 looking like the far inferior console to most Americans. How could the Series X possibly do it with no major advantages over the PS5.

Impossible, unless Microsoft buys Sony.

Even if they were giving away xbox for free it would be almost impossible.

Microsoft would have to launch at least 5 new single player masterpieces in year 1, which is impossible as we are already 9 months in, and nothing is even coming this whole year to beat Horizon zero dawn, god of war, spiderman, demon souls, the last of us 2, Ghost of tsushima, death stranding, etc

Microsoft could do it, example sea of thieves as a great opportunity but they made it online, it could have been be best pirate single player ever. Microsoft should have noted that playstation sells because they have plenty single player masterpieces, that's what xbox needs. Online is good, but we already have fortnite and call of duty for that, people buy consoles based on the single player exclusives.

I stand by what I said months ago that there’s no way the X|S beats PS5, but after almost a year of owning a Series X, I couldn’t be happier about choosing it over a PS5. And mainly because of what you outlined in your original post, the value. It starts with the hardware. For the same price I get a more powerful system. But then there’s the controllers. I can play co-op SX games right now using all of my six or seven Xbone controllers alongside my SX controller. If I wanted to play Overcooked on PS5, I’d need to either install the PS4 version and use that one to use my DS4 controllers, or buy multiple $70 DualSense controllers. Yuck.

You were also right about GamePass, it’s been insane value already this gen and will only get more insane once all these studios start dropping games. But just in the last half of 2021 there will be/have been Flight Sim, Hades, Psychonauts 2, Halo, FH5, Back 4 Blood, 12 Minutes, AoE4, State of Decay Homecoming, etc etc.

I think it all hinges on GamePass for them. They can really make up some ground if GamePass takes off. When Nintendo charges $60 for games that never go down in price and Sony charges $70 for games, the value is just too good.

I dunno, man, GamePass has been out for more than four years, and while everyone seems to agree it's a good service...it hasn't had much of an impact on console sales. No more than PSNow (which is a similar but less-known service). 

The power differential between the consoles is negligible, and how can anyone say the XSX's controller is better? I dunno, man, I still don't see it and PS5 is still regularly selling almost 2x what Xbox is on a week to week basis. A similar ratio to last generation. 

I think the only thing Xbox can do is release some games. so far, we're nearing the 1 year anniversary of these consoles and Xbox still only has two exclusives. a Gears tactics game and Death's Door. Halo doesn't come out until December, and I don't personally know of any games that are coming out between them. On the flip side, Sony has countless exclusives - some cross generational, some Gen 8 remasters/rereleases, some indies, some on PC, some that are pure exclusive - and I think gamers worldwide know this. 

As far as I can tell, this generation's competition doesn't start until Halo comes out, and hopefully with every few months when something like Forza Horizon 5, Avowed, Everwild, Perfect Dark, Elder Scrolls VI, Starfield, etc comes out. They've got a lot in the pipeline and damn near unlimited potential, but this generational battle really doesn't start until they start releasing games that can't be bought on the competition. 

In a way yes. But its more that multyplayer games are served by third partys across all platforms. It's their go to for them to sell mtx. So in that world abundand with online multiplats what really shines in the offline single player games. What MS is doing is competing with their partners as gamers choose just a couple of live services to focus on. 

People seem to forget that the Xbox 360 had it's own mishaps that held it back and damaged the brand as well.

Aka. RROD.

Sony wasn't the only company to drop the ball, they just dropped more balls and more often.

By now it seems that all the fuss made about Gamepass, MS not “screwing themselves” and that Sony “finally” has competition, seems that didn’t affect PS.

The system is selling more units launch aligned compared to the PS4 (a very successful system) and they are still selling plenty of games despite people comparing some games being “free” on Gamepass despite you have to buy them on PS.

At the end, it seems that what MS does, doesn’t affect PS.