The damage was done by that point, trust was lost. My 360 broke down twice, which is how I got playing on the ps3 more. I got a replacement after the 2nd break down but was only using it for console exclusives at that point, not willing to strain the system.

So Witcher 2 and Metro 2033 I played on PC. Fable 3 was a disappointment after 2. Alan Wake was good but low resolution (960x544) which didn't upscale all the pretty to my 1080p projector. Crackdown 2 I skipped, didn't look like a good sequel. 

Nah 3rd party games were all for PS3 or PC for me at that point while PS3 got all the console time. 360 I left for things I really wanted to play like Fez and TWD. Those seemed safe enough to run on 360 lol. (My 360 first overheated with Forza 2 release, then again with Halo 3 right in the middle of one of the best holiday line-ups ever. I already played Bioshock on PC though out of precaution...

PS3 was already picking up greatly at the time, so 360 and ps3 fully swapped places for me. From 2005 to 2007 I played 90% of my console time on 360, from 2008 to 2013 it was 90% on PS3. Since multi-platform difference was small it was the 'safer' bet to play them all on PS3 to avoid wear and tear on 360.

Also HD-DVD packing in had me switch to ps3 as the exclusive movie machine. I had bought the HD-DVD add-on on release, only ended up using it for a dozen movies. 

And the final nail was, I was still very much a cinephile at that point, so accurate sound and color reproduction was very important to me. With sound 360 was restricted to lossy dolby digital 5.1 while PS3 had linear PCM 7.1 and supported 24bit 192khz blu-rays. XBox 360 also had this annoying system wide gamma correction build in to make the colors 'pop', while adding black crush. I did an analysis of the black crush with a DSLR camera on my projector which has in built tools for calibration. But no way to undo unwanted gamma 'correction'

Comparison between 360 and PS3 displaying the same RGB test gradient


PS3 is on top, perfectly linear luminance gradient, 360 on the bottom with black crush and 50% (RGB 127,127,127) either not at 50% on the screen or having to clip the top end to raise 127,127,127 to 50% luminance. 

This was at the time with the whole limited vs full RGB nonsense (above both set to full RGB including projector) and PS3 getting accused to be 'washed out'. But it was only washed out if you corrected your TV to make 360 not have black crush... So when I had calibrated my projector and TV for PS3 (since it was my blu-ray player), there was no going back. 360 just looked too dark now.

Anyway, all added up together, no trust in using 360, 3rd party games just as well on ps3 or PC, better exclusives on PS3 in the second half, games and movies looking better on PS3 after calibrating the display, ps3 easily became my main console and therefore also ps4 became my first next gen purchase.

So XBox One already started at a disadvantage (for me) before the whole Kinect and DRM additions. Then when One S was announced I got interested, but MS also announced One X right at the same time. So I waited for the One X, yet by then I had fallen in love with PSVR1... (And had already bought a PS4 Pro for PSVR)

Spencer started in 2014, couldn't get my trust back after Mattrick. And the wishy washy stance on VR definitely didn't help at the time. 
https://www.roadtovr.com/windows-mixed-reality-dev-headsets-ship-month-vr-content-coming-xbox-scorpio/
https://www.roadtovr.com/xbox-head-phil-spencer-clarifies-stance-vr-xbox-one-x-refreshingly-candid-interview/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/6/20/17485852/microsoft-xbox-one-no-vr-headset-support-windows-mixed-reality-e3-2018

Don Mattrick broke my trust in XBox, Phil Spencer killed my dreams of playing VR on One X. Both attacked physical game ownership. That's one more factor, since PS3 had blu-ray, XBox was first to abandon full game releases on disc, instead download the rest. And then first to have download codes in game boxes. 

So as a movie and game collector at that time, XBox did everything wrong.

I don't know. I did buy a Series X after skipping XBox One. But gamepass day 1 had me play the games on PC instead in bursts of signing up to gamepass. Best deal ever, 3 months of PC gamepass for $1 over the holiday season. Just not a good deal for Series X which has become my least played console of all time. 

I agree with Rol, XBox wasn't doomed forever, but day 1 gamepass on PC sealed the console business' fate. That and all the mismanagement. I bought the Series X to play Halo Infinite in co-op on TV with my wife (like we played previous Halo games together) Spencer never delivered on that. That really was the final nail for me. I had bought it for Forza 8 and Starfield as well but lost interest in them after Halo Infinite disappointments.

Mattrick set up the pass, Spencer scored the goal, sealing the console business' fate.

Crackdown 3 sucks and fable 3 was a disappointment. Metro 2033 was hardly a green game on metacritic during the 7th generation when journalists were more forgiving. Alan awake was a boring game.

Only good games you listed was splinter cell conviction and Witcher 2. Still pales in comparison to what PS3 offered and proving my point 360 second half was disappointing.

Also, I have to wait four years for Microsoft to fix their console and to buy it again? What a joke.

that is the problem, the second half of the 360 was when microsoft got the reputation for only churning out samey gear halo and forza games with nothing else to offer. gear of war judgement, and halo 4? these weren't even well-recieved games by the fanbases... much less than mentioning the reception fable III and crackdown 2 got. and after 2010 especially they just had nothing to offer. Don was a death nell for xbox first party output and his decision included shutting down ensemble studios when they had never released an unsuccessful game.

There was a huge gap compared to both the variety and acclaim playstation first party was getting at the same time.

Exactly. Microsoft got way too comfortable. Phil Spencer did a lot for Xbox I thought. BC, Game Pass, acquiring first party studios, etc.

This year alone MS first party is publishing Doom, South of midnight, COD, Oblivion remake, Avowed, Ninja Gaiden 2 remake, Ninja Gaiden 4, Outer worlds 2. 

Way better than Xbox one generation and the last half of xbox 360 generation. I know people argue they aren't exclusive, but I don't care as long as it is on game pass day 1.

I truly can't decide right now.
Don and Xbox had some really strong years but the Xbox One unveiling was beyond catastrophic. And even Phil shares a little blame for that too.
However, some of what happened at the end of Don's leadership can never be fixed.
Phil had some strong stuff early on, but Xbox has had so many issues for several years now at least.

I don't buy the whole ''Xbox one meant Xbox had no chance in the future against Playstation''. A console gaming company can turn around failures. I mean the Wii U was a bigger bomb from a sales perspective than anything Xbox has ever had, and yet they could turn it around with the Switch and sell incredible. It was totally in Xbox and Phil Spencer's power to be competitive against the PS5, whatever happened during the Xbox one era. They fact that they continued to decline from Xbox one was not inevitable.

Its close but probably Mattrick. He doomed the Xbox One before it even launched.

I mean the vocal component of a fanbase that complains about things online is a tiny share of the overall audience; Halo 4 was the third highest selling retail video game of 2012. And a number of the listed games came after 2010.

Taste is subjective; many people liked games like Alan Wake, Fable 3, and Metro. It's just not accurate to say there was nothing outside of Halo/Gears/Forza.

RROD was a misstep, but for most of the 360's life it was solved.

Those were the main AAA games from Microsoft.360 back half sucked full of disappointment and shovelware.