Although It Doesn’t Feel Like Next Gen, Xbox is Consumer Friendly. And That Counts

I’ve been having discussions on Twitter with a bunch of folks around which next generation console feels more next generation, and from an outside perspective without having touched either yet (hopefully soon readers, hopefully soon! Many have been asking!), I’ve been fairly consistent in saying that PlayStation 5 feels much more next generation than Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S. And that’s not a knock on Xbox. In fact, when you dive deeper into my reasoning, it’s ultimately the system we would recommend this holiday!

COVID has wreaked havoc on the worlds economy, and folks are feeling the pinch in their every day living. Even my wife has just returned to work over the past month, after being placed on furlough in March. It’s been a touch year, and for many, paying for those new consoles could become difficult. Whether they knew COVID was coming or not, Microsoft seemed to have planned for this financial crunch in a big way – making their next generation system as accessible as possible.

While you might not get the same next generation experience when powering up your Xbox next week – can you really tell the difference between the Xbox One X UI and the Series X / Series S UI? – you can purchase those consoles knowing all your controllers carry forward. Many of your headsets carry forward. Your media remote carries forward. Dozens of your favourite games from the Xbox One all the way back to the original Xbox, carry forward. Slap on GamePass – which you might still have a subscription for right now – and Xbox is actually the more desirable system on launch day this generation.

Xbox has embraced accessibility. It’s why they offered up a cheaper, digital Xbox Series S, which based on comments I’ve heard from friends, is actually WAY more popular than I thought it would be. Internally, these systems are next gen giants, but if you can look past the missing surface flare – which doesn’t really matter once you start playing your favourite games – you are in for a fantastic experience on November 10th.