Six months on, Xbox Series X is a great console in need of games to showcase its power
The Xbox Series X launch window was defined by a lack of platform showcases, availability issues, and smart quality-of-life improvements.
On November 10, 2020, Microsoft released the Xbox Series X – a premium home console that leveraged a new benchmark for power and performance against a lingering sense of familiarity. In my Xbox Series X review, I said that it was “a powerful and capable machine that sets Microsoft up for the future,” explaining that “this is a system set up for evolution, iteration, and success […], a great gaming console with only a few games on the immediate horizon designed to take full advantage of it.” Six months later, progress on that front has proven to be incremental.
Perhaps that was always going to be the case. Microsoft has clearly struggled to reconcile its broader plans against the ongoing pandemic. This state of play has contributed to everything from delays of first-party exclusives like Halo Infinite to ongoing problems with the production of parts for the system itself. If you’re wondering whether you can buy an Xbox Series X six months after launch, the answer, sadly, is that you can’t. Not easily, at least.
Stock shortages during COVID-19 is a problem Microsoft shares with Sony and Nintendo – an unlikely equaliser at the beginning of a new generation for the platform holders, one that shows no sign of changing anytime soon. Ben Decker, head of gaming services at Xbox, tells me that Microsoft is happy with how the first six months have gone, even if it’s harder for folk to get their hands on the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S than the company would like. “The reception from our fans and the broader gaming community has been really positive. I think people are excited about the capabilities of the new consoles, and we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the choice we’ve created across the Xbox Series X and the Series S. We’ve been really pleased with the launch.”
“And I think it’s our best launch ever,” Decker continues. “Transparently, we wish we had some more supply, but we’re working all the time; there’s a lot of demand and people are really excited about the new consoles. In the meantime, we’re going to continue to support across all these [Xbox Series, Windows 10, Xbox Cloud Gaming] different platforms, so you will have plenty of options of where to play and we’re trying to continue to fulfil the demand for the Series X and the Series S.”
Truth be told, the Xbox Series X has faded into the background of my living room – it has quickly become my number one place to play games and consume entertainment. The console is quick, quiet, and easy to use; reaching for the Xbox Series X controller when I shuffle two feet from my desk to my couch at the end of a long day has become instinctual, second nature. Quick Resume lets me bounce easily between games I’m currently playing with little delay, thanks to the console’s capacity to hold multiple titles in a suspended state.
It’s been fun, enough so that it almost made me forget that I’m playing the exact same games six months into a new generation that I was six months before it launched, simply because there is no alternative. We’re also waiting on true Xbox Series X updates of some of the platform’s most popular games, be it Warzone, Cyberpunk 2077, or GTA Online. As a result of all of this, it feels like I’m still being teased for what might come later down the line...
JOSH WEST