Microsoft Has The Best Console Ever And Now Is The Time To Prove It

This week’s deep dive into the Xbox Series X has proven what a lot of us already know: this console is going to be a beast. Edging out the PS5 in terms of raw power and with the potential of things like machine learning on top, this could well be the greatest generation for Xbox fans. But don’t take my word for it, it’s Microsoft that has to prove themselves.

But that’s where all this falls down, because thus far they haven’t managed it.

The Best Console Ever

Microsoft unveiled more about their console at Hot Chips yesterday, revealing just what they’ve done to push their latest and greatest into the stratosphere.

Developers were the target for the talk and so it’s pretty hard to translate. In layman’s terms: this thing is going to blow your socks off. Incredible peak raytracing support, further details on Velocity Architecture and support for 8k video. An audio chip likely to rival Sony’s implementation. There’s too much to go through and it’s too complicated for me to boil down, but for more details check out Tom’s Hardware.

In terms of sheer possibilities, this thing is the best console ever. The PS5 has world-class developers backing it, the kind of developers who could create a masterpiece on a cigarette packet tied to a potato, but Xbox Series X has the edge in hardware. By how much? Only time will tell.

So what do you do with the best console ever? I don’t know – and it doesn’t seem Microsoft does either.

Games, Games, Games

With every new generation of consoles, there comes with it a new set of youngsters who’ve never been excited about new hardware before, only to end up disappointed.

They start saving their pocket money for their new console, only to find it’s three times more expensive than the insiders predicted. They somehow manage to buy it and find they’ve finished everything worth playing by the weekend.

And this launch seems particularly anemic, especially with Halo being delayed. The best you’re likely to get on either console is Miles Morales, and we don’t really know what it is yet. There is every chance it’ll be over in 10 hours and platted in 15 – a brave choice for a console’s only full launch title.

It’s better than what Microsoft currently have.

This isn’t a criticism. That’s really important. I’ve been here before. The launch will be underwhelming, but what comes after that is worth it. In one generation we got Knack and The Last of Us Part II. One hardware. We’re at the Knack part of the journey for now, but in a few years we’ll start getting glimpses at things that are much better.

At least, that’s what we presume. For Sony, people are willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Fairly or unfairly, since at least the first Uncharted, people have given Sony the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes that means you get a masterpiece, sometimes that means you get something else entirely, but you never get something outright bad.

People trust an 80-rated game from Sony. An 85-rated game from Microsoft has to work a lot harder. That isn’t fair, but it’s a bed of their own making.

Flying High

These last 12 months have been fantastic for Microsoft games. Anybody who tells you different is actually AI controlled by four PlayStations strapped together.

Gears 5 scored 84 on Metacritic, the utterly charming Ori and the Will of the Wisps scored 90 and Microsoft Flight Simulator, just this week, scored 93. That’s without mentioning Gears Tactics (81), Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition (84) and Minecraft Dungeons (middling 70s as an average).

What’s better, all those games were available in Gamepass. You subscribe, you download them at no extra cost.

Xbox Games Studios has put out no shortage of things to play, but unfortunately only one of those appeals to what I’d call the ‘casual’ hardcore gamer. The kind of guy who spends 50 hours a week playing games, but only if they’re third person action games. He scoffs at Call of Duty, but wouldn’t be caught dead playing Ori. Maybe, just maybe, he’ll check out Gears on his 2013 gaming PC that runs it at three frames a second and 720p, but he’ll blame Microsoft for that anyway.

Unfortunately, these guys are the loudest and proudest on internet forums. They confidently declare Microsoft hasn’t released a game since Gears 5, and all those exactly like them froth at the mouth and dance around like the monkeys from 2001.

They’re the people who Microsoft have to impress, and I don’t think they realise that. I say have to impress, but that’s not entirely accurate. Microsoft could choose to keep knocking out incredible games like Flight Simulator and Ori, but when the Games Awards roll around, there won’t be much competition for The Last of Us.

Is that fair? To compare such wildly different experiences seems foolish. But that’s what fanboys do: mock what they can’t have.

What’s next for the best console ever?

There is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to see incredible things on the Xbox Series X, but it’s not me that Microsoft need to impress. I’ll buy both consoles by default.

They need to show that they understand what our ‘casual’ hardcore guys want. They need to show they understand why Naughty Dog are so well respected and that they can match that potential.

Because that’s how you prove you’ve got the best console ever. It’s not just about hardware, which they’ve got locked down. Nobody looks back at the Super Nintendo and romanticises its general-purpose RAM. They remember Mario All-Stars and A Link to the Past. They still wake up in a cold sweat thinking about Bart’s Nightmare.

The first year of any console is rough. We’ve seen it time and time again. But Sony have nothing to prove. Microsoft needed to shout about its future from the rooftops, and it hasn’t. That could end up being a massive mistake.