Say what you want but Halo and Starfield underdelivered. Forza did great (given its perceived popularity) but wasn't that big of a system seller. Much of what you write here is irrevelant (the topic is hardware sales) and exaggerated (for instance, Halo and FH5 didn't do much for GamePass either. IIRC GamePass growth was starting to slow down not long before they released. They couldn't stop this).

You overestimated these games yourself in a discussion with me. You claimed that Xbox will have two big system sellers coming before Sony releases their first (completely ignoring Miles Morales!), thinking it'll help Xbox gain marketshare.

Yes, there is nothing wrong with having high expectations. Just as there is nothing wrong with explaining why some of these expectations were too-positive/unrealistic. But I'm more annoyed by rude and arrogant posts that attack/mock people with literally more reasonable expectations just because they're less positive towards Xbox. You here are misrepresenting my arguments... I didn't say "CoD won't have any positive effect on Xbox hardware" , I meant the marketing/GP CoD impact will be negligible or shortlived. For example, Xbox Series XS's Q4 is looking to decline YoY (over an already terrible 2022 Q4) despite Starfield. That doesn't mean that Starfield had zero impact... it just means that the impact was small enough to call insignificant. It couldn't even offset the decline over an embarrassing Q4 2022 for crying out loud.

"CoD marketing" may be an even smaller factor this late in the generation. I'm pretty sure Xbox One launched with CoD marketing and yet the PS4 crushed it. X360 keeping up with PS3 had little to do with X360 CoD marketing. PS3 was more harmed by CoD simply existing on Xbox, which was easily the superior console in a number of key areas.

You have no idea what my exact expectations for any of these games were so stop saying I had unrealistic expectation. If you're going to talk about expectations, tell me what those exactly are and how they weren't met because my perception of delivering could very well be different from yours.

If you want to keep pretending Xbox didn't benefit from the CoD deals when they had them and won't once they get them again, is a weird hill to die on. Let's look at the facts. Microsoft paid to have marketing rights and so did Sony, right afterwards. Why would they ever do such a thing for so long if it didn't have any positive effects on either brand? Sony fought the ABK deal with CoD being the center piece of their issue. Clearly, Sony and MS understand the benefits of Cod marketing, Why don't you? 

"I didn't say CoD won't have any positive effect on Xbox hardware." No, this is exactly what you said:

"A next-gen version of a multplat CoD would do nothing to a new Xbox. Actually, even a CoD that skips Playstation consoles would not necessarily result in a massive increase to the new Xbox's baseline " You're already backtracking. My entire point was, Xbox consoles and software sales would see a boost and help a next gen console release. Omg, What a crazy take lol. For some reason this bothered you even though there is years of sales data to prove this.

Based on your last sentence about which console was superior and your defense about the ps3, you care more about console wars than any point I was actually making. 

Oh I actually have a fair idea, and I explained how. You said Halo Infinite and Forza Horizon 5 would be the first BIG system sellers on either platforms, ignoring Miles Morales which had great legs at the time of your post. Meaning: you thought these two games would be the notably bigger deals. They weren't.

They say "haters gonna hate" and you're like the embodiment of this right now, as you fail to grasp rather uncomplicated points by clinging onto silly semantics and trying to make something out of nothing. I didn't "backtrack":

"A next-gen version of a multplat CoD would do nothing to a new Xbox."

Keyword "Multiplat". If CoD does stay multiplatform, I don't think it would do much to an all new Xbox in terms of gaining marketshare vs Playstation, because most people will still buy them on their preferred platforms, and most of those who want to jump to the new generation will go for PC or wait for the PS6. A very small minority will switch from PC/PS to Xbox. Are you upset that I said "nothing" which is a figure of speech meaning "VERY little"?

"Actually, even a CoD that skips Playstation consoles would not necessarily result in a massive increase to the new Xbox's baseline."

Emphasis on "Necessarily" and "Massive".

Sorry but I'm not backtracking from either of these opinions! A CoD that skips Playstation and remains on PC would help Xbox gain marketshare (especially when compared to the scenario where it stays multiplat), but it won't "necessarily" be enough to bring Xbox close to Playstation levels, so it may or may not be a "massive" increase. You act like there is no middle ground between small and massive.

My last sentence was an attempt to explain that a lot more was going on between Xbox 360 and PS3 than just CoD marketing deals. Even as a Playstation gamer myself, I bought a X360 and played more games on it than on PS3. CoD had nothing to do with that. During the PS4 generation, the majority of games that were marketed for Xbox ended up selling a lot more on Playstation. I'm not saying marketing deals have zero benefits, but they don't matter as much as you suggest. I'm more interested in the GamePass effect but I won't hold my breath here either. You're free to feel different about it.

Funny that for a "console warrior", I think PC is more responsible for Xbox's decline than Sony/PS5. Perhaps you should address me as a PC fanboy going forward.