Should You Buy an Xbox in 2024?

The console war is finally over. Is it worth getting an Xbox in 2024? Xbox, one of the holy trinity of gaming consoles, has been in the news a little bit more than they like lately. And depending on where you stand on gaming, you could either be really excited or ready to throw your Xbox out the window. Now before we get to the headlines, I think it would be fair to check in on the current lineup of consoles. The Xbox Series X and S were released side by side in late 2020. At the time, the Xbox Series X, despite having pretty similar hardware to its main competitor, the PS5, barely edged it out in specs, making it technically the most powerful home gaming console ever released. Not like Sony's coming back to take that crown or anything, though. That's a lot to live up to, but Xbox had a lot to prove. Not only did Sony absolutely destroy Xbox last generation with the PS4 and Xbox One, but Sony console sales have pretty consistently beat Xbox in every generation. So it really seemed like this time around, Xbox needed a win. Unfortunately, while critics loved the hardware, the games available at launch couldn't deliver that must-have-the-newest-hardware vibe, or the I-gotta-pay-a-scalper-$800-for-this vibe. That was the vibe that I think most people had actually in 2020. The majority of Xbox launch titles couldn't really take advantage of the new hardware or were largely just upgrades from the Xbox One versions of the game. The biggest blow was the fact that Halo Infinite, which was supposed to be the big launch title, was delayed by more than a year. Yeah. One of the biggest reasons to get one console over the other has always been exclusive games. This is where Sony has had a massive advantage over Xbox for years. So it's not surprising that the lack of launch momentum, combined with the pandemic choking manufacturing, has resulted in the PS5 outselling the Xbox series over two to one at this point. So is that it? Is the console war over before it even began this generation? Well, if you only look at sales, it might look like it, but that is only half of the story. Xbox have always done their own thing. From controller designs that never seem to change to still using AA batteries to backwards compatibility being a staple for the brand. I mean, Xbox have always tried to find their unique angle in the gaming space. With the price of consoles climbing ever higher and this latest generation hitting an eye-watering $500 at launch, they figured that there would be a lot of gamers who don't necessarily need 4K 120Hz gaming that the Series X would be aiming for. So they released a more budget-friendly all-digital console, the Xbox Series S at almost half the price. Now, if you've been watching the channel for a while, you know that every time I try to do some kind of budget gaming challenge, the answer is usually just get a Series S. I mean, it's a tiny little machine that can run current-gen games for only 300 bucks and it is often on sale for much less than that. Even though it's technically capable of 4K 120, the Series S usually targets between 1080p and 1440. That isn't just marketing hype, though. I mean, a lot of people, when the Series S was first launched, would assume that it was going to hold the generation back, that it would buckle under the pressure of the latest and greatest games, but surprisingly, the Series S is the little engine that could. I think I can play 4K. I think I can play 1440p. I think I can play Forza. Ray tracing. Even on Starfield, the long-awaiting, graphically-intense Bethesda game that everybody loves, a little bit of a trend for Xbox exclusives, as you'll find, it runs at a respectable 1440p on the Series S and is locked at 30 FPS, the same frame rate as that Xbox Series X. I mean, you really can't get, in my opinion, a better gaming experience for the price. It's probably why the Series S makes up over 70% of the current-gen Xbox sales. Also, did I mention that it's all digital? Yeah, that part might come up a little later on, but we really can't talk about Xbox without talking about Game Pass. Way back in 2017, inspired by the success of Netflix and Spotify, Xbox thought, why can't we do the same thing with gaming? Understandably, Game Studios, who love to sell you a $60 title, didn't have a lot of interest in undervaluing their software, so Game Pass launched with only a handful of older games, really more so as a proof of concept. Originally released just for the Xbox diehards, the service has slowly picked up steam over the years. Other first-party titles, such as Halo and Forza, were added to the service, and it became more and more popular. To developers, Xbox justified it as a way to increase player counts, keep interest in games for longer, and importantly, incentivizing in-game purchases. Eventually, Game Pass became widely available to all players with a library of over 100 Xbox games across generations at just $10 a month. Now, let me just reiterate that. All those games are included for just $10 a month. I mean, it really was a bit of a no-brainer for gamers to jump on Game Pass. That's essentially the price of two new Xbox games a year, and instead, you get over 100 games with new titles always being added. The real icing on the cake was first-party games on launch day, something that another competitor could consider for their service. Ahem, Sony, ahem, PlayStation, ahem. If a Game Pass game isn't for you, just uninstall it and try something else. But that was not Game Pass' final form. Game Pass Ultimate arrived a little while ago, and it combined the game service for Xbox, added PC support, and included Xbox Live, making it the game subscription juggernaut that it is today for just $15 a month. Now, it's seen a slight price hike since launch, so it's now $70 per month, but by most standards, Game Pass is a success. When Halo Infinite finally made its way onto Game Pass, it had a 20 million player launch, which was, at the time, the biggest launch in Xbox Game Studios history. You gotta assume that a ton of those gamers would not have paid full price for Halo, and instead, wanted to hop in and enjoy whatever Master Cheeks is up to these days. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I just, I just couldn't, I just, it was right there. I just couldn't reach out, but reach out and touch it. Remember when I was talking about Xbox's Achilles heel being the lack of exclusive games? Well, Microsoft, in recent years, has spent a combined $80 billion to acquire game studios, such as Bethesda, Activision, Lizard, King, Mojang, and Rare. These are some of the heaviest hitters in the gaming industry, who are responsible for games such as Call of Duty, Minecraft, Fallout, Elder Scrolls. Look, here's the thing. Microsoft means business, and they are clearly not afraid of spending an enormous fortune to gain that dominance. So, Game Pass is clearly Xbox's big brain move, right? Considering that there are over 34 million Game Pass subscribers, it does seem like the logical path forward. If Xbox can't outsell Sony in terms of hardware, it would make sense to try to beat them with software, which, let's not forget, is where the actual money is. Trust me when I say, no one is getting rich selling you a $250 Xbox Series S. Xbox clearly had a vision for Game Pass, and stated all the way back in 2019, that, quote, we want to bring Game Pass to any device that somebody wants to play on. Even in 2024, it is clear that Xbox views Game Pass as the core Xbox experience. And the fact that you get entitlements when you buy a game from us on both Windows and Xbox also means you have the ability to play that game across a multitude of devices, which I think furthers the compatibility of the games that you own. So far, he has been true to his word. You can play Game Pass on Xbox and PCs, but with the addition of cloud gaming, you can also have Game Pass on Chromebooks, phones, tablets, handhelds, VR headsets, even smart TVs. What about Xbox on PlayStation? Ooh, spicy. Xbox has announced exclusives such as Sea of Thieves and Hi-Fi Rush are coming to both PlayStation and Switch, and rumors that major titles such as Halo and Gears of War will join them at some point. But wait, you might say, didn't Microsoft just spend $80 billion to acquire more exclusives? Well, yeah, but Game Pass growth, much like other subscription models, relies heavily on constantly adding new content, not just to keep gamers engaged, but also to keep the hype going. Much like the Austin Evans YouTube channel constantly delivers super high-quality content directly to your subscription feed for the low, low price of just $6.99 a month. What was that? Oh, is it free? Oh, act now, right now, immediately. What are you waiting for? Subscriptions to the Austin Evans streaming service at youtube.com slash austinevans are free. What a bargain. Bethesda Starfield was supposed to be the huge game launch that really kept the hype going for Game Pass, but it was delayed by, surprise, surprise, almost a year, leaving a 15-month content gap between exclusives early in the Series X generation. Phil Spencer has admitted that that did throw Game Pass growth off, although he didn't give us exact numbers on how bad it was. So the speculation, and I'll say it is kind of speculation, is that by plugging Xbox exclusives into other platforms, they can make up for some of that lost growth in other ways. It definitely does feel like the end of an era for Xbox exclusives, though. Even PlayStation, which is notorious for keeping exclusives to themselves, has started to cede them to other platforms like PC, although not Xbox yet. Funny how that works. If it seems like all this is leading up to Xbox being all in on Game Pass and game streaming and subscription, it's because they are. Now, does that mean that Xbox as a console is dead? Well, according to one of the biggest leaks in gaming history, I wouldn't count on it. At the end of 2023, Xbox's future roadmap laying out the next five years was leaked, complete with documents describing the next Xbox console. Codenamed Brooklyn, it is a Series X refresh similar to what we saw with the mid-cycle PS5 Slim. We'll likely be looking at more internal storage, faster Wi-Fi, and better power efficiency, and the document clearly labeled Brooklyn as quote, adorably all digital. Gross. Obviously, that raised a lot of questions about the future of physical media. A lot of people are rightly upset that their library of disks might soon be worthless, just a relic lost to Microsoft's greed, plus a lot of AI. Mercifully, though, Xbox does have an answer. In a recent interview, Phil Spencer said, quote, gaming consoles themselves have become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. This is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. That's not making me feel any better. But then he quickly added, quote, getting rid of physical, that's not a strategic thing for us. Whew, damn, Phil, you scared me there for a second. That being said, it doesn't really guarantee that physical media like disks are here to stay. Let's be real. Physical media is on its way out everywhere, besides maybe at Nintendo, and Xbox could easily change their mind at any time. It could mean that disks only come in deluxe versions of the game that cost three times as much as the base game. It could mean that the Xbox only has access to an external disk drive, who knows? In regards to the roadmap leak, Xbox has said that, quote, many of the documents are well over a year old and our plans have evolved. If that's true, and I'd certainly give them the benefit of the doubt here, I would take anything as part of this leak with a huge grain of salt, especially the AI and cloud hybrid stuff. I mean, honestly, tech in that area is advancing so fast that I wouldn't be surprised if they're not only constantly revising their plans, but also just trying to figure out how it fits into their Xbox Everywhere strategy. I mean, Microsoft are almost certainly well underway of developing the next generation of Xbox right now. That being said, I would be surprised if Brooklyn, which, based on these documents, is slated to be released at the end of 2024, undergoes any significant changes. I mean, just the design, the supply chain planning, the manufacturing alone, that has to be planned out way in advance. If they have any intention of a 2024 release, they should pretty much be ready to start making these damn things. The controller is another part of the leak that likely won't be changed much. Codenamed Sebille, this controller is the biggest change, supposedly, that they've done since the Elite controller. But unlike the Elite controller, which was a premium add-on, Sebille will replace the standard Xbox controller. Now, looking at the specs, it definitely gives the vibe that someone over at Microsoft HQ picked up a DualSense and went, oh, shit, that's what I did. Supposedly including much better haptics, better thumbsticks, and cloud features, if this controller is anything like the leak, I will say it actually might be the bigger upgrade we see in 2024. So there we have it, Xbox's master plan. It is pretty clear that Xbox's strategy moving forward will be to focus on digital services and content. Less of the focus seems like it will be on hardware and exclusivity, and it's gonna be more about being everywhere that you could possibly imagine. I mean, I would be surprised if we could play Game Pass on a frickin' Samsung fridge soon. With that all being in mind, does it make sense to even buy Xbox hardware in 2024? If you need a way to play current-gen games for pretty cheap, the Series S is still one of the best options there is, and is routinely on sale for, again, way less than that $300 MSRP. If you're holding out for the Brooklyn Xbox Series X refresh, it's probably not going to be that big of an upgrade over the normal Series X, especially now that this guy is routinely on sale now. And if you believe the leaks, it also might be one of the final ways to play that massive disc library you've been hoarding, or you wanna pick up some older generation titles for a few bucks on disc. Now, if you're worried that Xbox will ditch consoles overnight, don't be. Look, even if software is the future, and I do believe that it is, they still have a ton of incentive to keep their own hardware around. As far as Xbox going all-in on a digital future, that will probably take a while, in my opinion, certainly not this generation. But if you are looking toward the future, it might be a better move to take the money that you'd spend on that shiny new Series X and upgrade your PC. Not only would you get way more performance, but if Game Pass is going to be the core Xbox experience moving forward, you're pretty much getting the best of both worlds, and a bunch of PlayStation games. Or you can wait for the Switch, too.