Do you want to see a dead body? I present to you Xbox. After a low launch during the COVID pandemic in 2020, the Xbox Series X quickly lost the battle against the PlayStation 5. Microsoft could not deliver enough compelling games, despite huge sales, while Sony relied on its interest from the PS4 era and a handful of desirable exclusives. With prices rising due to supply chain issues and the Trump administration’s flexible tax plan, there was little reason to get an Xbox (even the cheaper Series S). When I reviewed the Series X last year, it was clear that it didn’t live up to its potential. Anyone in their right mind would be better off buying a PlayStation 5.
Xbox didn’t enter 2025 in good shape, and it leaves the year looking for help, as The Arc Raider a player who longs for revival after being released. Microsoft has canceled the Total Black start over again Everwildtwo of the most interesting games on its weak upcoming slate. The company brought titles like Forza Horizon 5 to the PlayStation 5, leading Engadget Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham to announce that he no longer needs an Xbox.
Xbox Series X controller (Engadget)
To make matters worse this year, Microsoft has raised prices across the board, with the Xbox Series S starting at $400 and the cheapest Series X going for $600. And slow sales led Costco to stop selling Xbox consoles altogether. Microsoft didn’t even try to push systems during Black Friday – why go to the trouble of selling if no one is buying the hardware in the first place?
Even Game Pass, once known as one of the best deals in sports, has nearly doubled in price in the past year, to as much as $30 per month (or $360 per year) in the top tier. Sure, Microsoft tried to add more value to its cheaper Game Pass tiers, and eventually improved its cloud streaming platform, but the lack of exclusive titles to play has let the service down (and the Xbox as a whole). He agreed again South of Midnight was among a few highlights, but the final one will hit the PS5 and Switch 2 next year. There is no word He agreed access to other consoles at the moment, but given Microsoft’s current trajectory (and the fact that it’s a really good game), I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s available elsewhere.
There was an opportunity for Microsoft to reinvigorate the Xbox brand with the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally and Ally X portable gaming consoles, but the starting prices of $600 and $1,000 put them out of reach for many gamers. It also doesn’t help that Windows still isn’t optimized for mobile devices with touchscreens, and those systems also aren’t compatible with older Xbox titles like consoles. At least, Microsoft now has a hand to hold. But a future portable Xbox console will need to be much cheaper to compete with the likes of the Steam Deck, which starts at $400 (and often sells for much less).
And speaking of Valve, the company’s recently announced Steam Machine has also stolen a lot of potential buzz from the Xbox. The Steam Machine is essentially a gaming desktop for your TV, running SteamOS for the Steam Deck. That platform is a Linux distribution optimized to emulate Windows titles. But unlike the Xbox console, it is not closed in any way. You’re free to install anything you’d like on the Steam Machine — even Windows!
Although we haven’t seen the Steam Machine in action yet, Steam Deck’s excellent performance and compatibility with the game makes me think that its desktop sibling could be truly compelling to satisfy gamers looking for something new. And it will likely compete directly with the next Xbox, which is rumored to arrive in 2027 as a PC in a TV-ready case (say Windows Central (Jez Corden). Microsoft’s latest partnership agreement with AMD also reflects the PC-like experience – Xbox President Sarah Bond noted that the Xbox team is “working closely with the Windows team to ensure that Windows is the number one gaming platform.”
It’s worth remembering that only one generation of Xbox – the Xbox 360 – was successful enough to compete with Sony’s PlayStation. The original Xbox reportedly cost Microsoft $4 billion over four years, prompting the company to quickly jump ship and move to its successor. The Xbox 360 was truly innovative, thanks to Xbox Live and brilliant Internet integration, and it had a healthy amount of third-party support. In comparison, Sony’s PlayStation 3 was $100 to $200 more expensive than the Xbox 360 at launch, had terrible online support and developers found it difficult to program.
Xbox Series X (Devindra Hardawar of Engadget)
Unfortunately, Microsoft squandered most of its goodwill with the Xbox One. That console was initially advertised as an “always online” device with limited DRM features that limited how you could share and sell games; it was bundled with a Kinect camera that might be monitoring you; and at $499, it was $100 more than the PlayStation 4. Microsoft quickly rolled back many of its harsh DRM programs for the Xbox One, but by then the damage had been done. Sony ultimately sold more than twice as many PS4 units as the entire Xbox One family (which included the cheaper One S and the more powerful One X), according to data from Ampere Research.
Things look worse for this generation: Xbox Series S and X have reportedly sold around 33 million units since July, according to Statista figures, while Sony has confirmed that 84.2 million PS5s have been sold since November. If this trend continues (and it doesn’t look like Xbox sales will increase anytime soon), Sony could end up selling three times as many consoles this generation, compared to Microsoft. Xbox sales were so slow that the family-oriented Nex Playground managed to outsell them in November, according to data from Circana.
Given the Xbox’s inability to compete with the PlayStation 5, it’s no surprise that Microsoft might change things completely for its next system. Its collaboration with AMD could easily lead to a new handheld, and gives Microsoft a leg up in producing a compact and powerful Xbox PC. After all, why should the company continue to try to keep up with Sony’s closed PlayStation platform? Why shouldn’t Microsoft embrace its PC roots to give us a gaming desktop under our TVs? The company is already committed to bringing new Xbox games to PCs quickly, so the line between the two is already blurred.
It can be dangerous, but the transition to PC proves that there is still life in the Xbox product. And most importantly, it’s also something that Sony won’t be able to easily replicate.
