Obviously it hasn't peaked yet.
The people who say the XBS is already in decline are jumping to conclusions after one disappointing holiday season. Reminds me of the people who think Nintendo should release the Switch 2 ASAP because the Switch was down yoy.

I don't understand the logic of Xbox peaking in a year with what will be most likely its worst lineup of games with hardly any being current gen only. Top it off with the continued shortages all year. Then we look ahead to the games yet to come from 3rd and 1st party for this gen and everything else. I don't get it. Someone has to be trolling if they say Xbox has already peaked. 

Imagine calling an Arkane game “GamePass filler”. Glad to say I can’t relate to that level of disconnect.

And Horizon is not the same thing as Motorsport, not even close. That’s like saying Gran Turismo is the same as Hot Wheels Racing. It’s also not a “remake”, it’s a sequel that has had years of extra time in the oven. It’s not “more of the same”. 

On topic, of course the peak years are ahead. The software onslaught has not even really begun.

Svennoj also owns all three consoles + PC so I guess he's not interested in childish console war crap either, and yet you want me to call him out because he's the only person here who mentioned that a segment of Starfield/Bethesda fans already bought a Series XS. I didn't notice him saying "most", just that its system selling factor may be overestimated. He didn't outright say it won't be a system seller:

"But perhaps Starfield will create enough buzz to move consoles in summer."

Whats the point in bringing it up in the first place? Yeah I'm sure some people may have already bought the console for starfield, but as usual a vast majority will buy it when the game comes out, the same as every other big console exclusive. This whataboutism could be said about any other console as well. 

This thread just reminds me of when some people would say the switch would fall off a cliff, because people had already bought it for zelda and mario, or other silly reasons.

"if you were looking for Starfield, no reason not to buy one sooner rather than later"

" I doubt if Starfield will move a whole lot on its own"

It's the same bullshit all over again.

Time is a flat circle. People never learn.

If we talk about "peak year", maybe? But we won't know until we get the sales data for 2023. If Xbox Series X/S follows the same pattern as Xbox One did, then most likely it will be on decline this year. Xbox One released in 2013, peaked in 2015. For Xbox Series X/S which released in 2020 it would mean that the peak year would be 2022. That's why in my opinion 2023 is the make or break year for Xbox Series X/S. If they fail to deliver this year, I think the platform will start the decline and every year after 2022 it will sell less and less. At the same time, I personally think that they have a higher chance to sell more consoles this year than they did the last year, because IMO if it wasn't for certain decisions and not having a great year software-wise, I think that Xbox One should have done better in 2016 than it did in 2015.

I think exactly the same. The main issue is the trust build by MS. The great promise of 1st party AAA titles day one on GP on the most powerful and the most affordable consoles during Summer 2020 greatly pushed sales.  And then no Halo (nor big game) at launch, okay-ish 2021, very lackluster 2022, made the whole momentum fade a bit, and we start to hear the same narrative as for the Xbox One in 2015 "this year gonna be big for Xbox, heavy hitters will come anytime soon".

So definitly make or break year.

I think exactly the same. The main issue is the trust build by MS. The great promise of 1st party AAA titles day one on GP on the most powerful and the most affordable consoles during Summer 2020 greatly pushed sales.  And then no Halo (nor big game) at launch, okay-ish 2021, very lackluster 2022, made the whole momentum fade a bit, and we start to hear the same narrative as for the Xbox One in 2015 "this year gonna be big for Xbox, heavy hitters will come anytime soon".

So definitly make or break year.

He's entitled to his opinion which doesn't justify anyone's mockery. This is nothing like the ridiculous Switch cliff theories (which I actively made fun of). There's a plethora of good reasons that Xbox may peak early, this doesn't mean it would "fall off a cliff", because it can maintain decent sales/legs for many years to come without necessarily matching its early peak.

Series XS was significantly overtracked, had a terrible Q4, started this year with a serious decline for the first 5 or 6 weeks, and MS expects hardware revenue to drop YoY at least for the first quarter. Did that ever occur with the Switch? Does Switch directly compete with Playstation? No. Did Switch get insane deals and pricedrops AND fail at selling well enough in its strongest market? No. Does Nintendo put their (VASTLY more popular) games on PC day 1? No. Did Series XS unify two different mega popular lineups into one platform? No. Is it portable? No. You're drawing some strange parallels.

I expect Series XS to peak either this year of in 2024 (Though I'm still not sure if MS will have a traditional generation), but guessing it already peaked is by no means a preposterous prediction.

I will agree that the "No reason not to buy one sooner rather than later" part is silly and maybe poorly worded, but I'd rather focus on the overall meaning.

"I doubt if Starfield will move a whole lot on its own." is a fair take. You're gonna have to ask him what he considers "a whole lot" because that is subjective, and Starfield may not be all that huge (it's a new IP after all, and Bethesda is inconsistent) and 80% of its sales could come from the PC crowd. He closed his comment saying he may be wrong and it would create enough buzz.

This thread might be glorious to return to in 11 months lol. I think Series XS will beat last year because it should be easy to outperform their last Q4 and make up for the slow start of this year, even if Microsoft's titles don't quite live up to the hype (which most of them will anyway).