I have owned every Xbox console generation and the series x will probably be my last one. It’s the console I have played the least by far, and I can just continue playing their games on pc or probably other consoles. I don’t see a reason to get a new Xbox console in the future.

I would love to see how many people have all Xbox platforms. It seems common to have all PlayStation home consoles, and perhaps most Nintendo platforms in general minus Virtual Boy and early Japan-only things like Color TV-games.

Xbox has only had four but seems to have the weakest brand loyalty in terms of consoles. Even with Xbox hardware on decline, Microsoft has a choice to leave when they want. Companies like Atari and Sega didn't have much of a choice when they left the console business as by then they had lost so much money. 

No matter how much people rag on Xbox Series X/S, we are not in Dreamcast territory right now. 

Funny that you bring this up: Wasn’t DC on track to outsell GCN and Xbox (assuming sales figures maintained momentum)? The system was a breakout success at launch, and managed to blast through 9-13mil in only a little over a year, i believe [9.9.99 -> 1.31.01].

It’s difficult to keep investing into an ecosystem when the messaging is so mixed. It’s not exactly putting out a lot of confidence and people are clearly voting with their wallets. If the next hardware was just a Series S2 for £250 and promoted as a Game Pass machine I think they would find some success regardless of if every game is multiplat, heck I’d go as far as saying being fully third party would do more to promote Game Pass than anything. It’s funny that this year they’ll have their best first party output ever yet it might be the worse year in Xbox’ history due to mixed messaging about what exactly is going third party. 

Isn't it even worse? SEGA was far more invested into their videogame division than Microsoft would ever be. Microsoft could write off the whole Xbox division tomorrow and it wouldn't make a dent in their financials. SEGA had their consoles as a way of living, Microsoft is just trying to make it big or go home.

What people doesn't seem to understand is that if Microsoft invest heavily in something it expects huge returns or close it in search of the next big thing. Buying ABK for the division seemed like a last chance if you ask me.

I never bothered with the latest Xbox series. I've got a Xbox One X and its a great console but as soon as they started removing the optical drive and relied on digital purchases I lost all interest to be honest. I no longer subscribe to Xbox Live and when I did it was only for short periods typically in the past. PC gaming is far, far superior and better value. You don't have to have a state of the art PC to run a huge amount of games in fact I typically prefer older PC games to newer ones. I'd rather mod Skyrim or Fallout 4 than play a new PC game typically. I should also point out my Playstation is a Playstation 4 Pro and again likely my last Playstation however here I think there is a chance I may get a standard Playstation 5 when they go dirt cheap just to try out a few games. I've never owned a Nintendo Switch but overall do seem to spend a lot of time gaming, be it older consoles, pc games or android games. I've recently been enjoying playing some emulated Gamecube games.

If someone gave me a Xbox Series X or S I would try it out for sure but I would likely be selling it within 2 months and if it didn't have a optical drive probably immediately thinking about it.

No, the DC wasn't. In the USA:

It performed on Wii U levels after its launch plus first holiday season. It wasn't any better in Japan or Europe either. About half of DC's global lifetime sales (which are around 10m at best) happened at dumping prices once Sega had announced its discontinuation

oof i see. Yeah, i just knew the system had a “record-shattering” launch in NA/USA, and certainly was a big hit for a Sega system for a bit (compared to all the previous Sega systems, that is). If Sega could’ve afforded the price cuts earlier on — as well handled the piracy problem a whole lot better (not to mention: a level of confidence in their product succeeding, as opposed to kinda throwing the towel in right from the start with their unrealistic hardware goals) — then the system certainly could’ve been a big hit!…but ig we’ll never know.

Nah, their next hardware will be streaming only, you cannot subsidise a console without having people buy your hardware. Therefore, it has to be cheap; to sell to those paltry 30m/40m player base.