If it feels like a long time since the disastrous reveal of the Xbox One, it’s because it really has been. Some nine years have passed since those tumultuous months leading up to the launch of Microsoft’s troubled console, when the mantra of was followed up by some half-hearted concessions to games, and the slow pull into focus of a then novel and unsavoury approach to game ownership that were met with an understandably fiery response.
For most of those nine years it felt like Microsoft was making amends for those short but oh-so-damaging months; the official response to the outcry that met its grim stance on ownership was swift, but the overarching change in direction that seemed necessary at the time was always going to take so much longer.
The assured stewardship of Phil Spencer, the powerhouse that is the Series X, the more diminutive but just as appealing Series S and the success story that is Game Pass combined made it feel like Microsoft turned a corner, but a weekend of spotty service suggests elements of old issues still need to be resolved.
Xbox One – Console Reveal Trailer – Eurogamer Watch on YouTube
Game Pass always felt like a trojan horse of sorts for the approach to ownership that drew so much fire back then, though the service has been so generous (and Microsoft’s servers so stable) that no-one seemed to mind so much. Microsoft killed game ownership and everyone’s smiling! It’s hard to be angry when faced with such fine value, when picking up big first party titles on the day of release and when absolutely inundated with new things to play – just as it’s easy to lose sight of what might have been lost along the way.