Microsoft is in quite a different situation. It came to this generation as the underdog, and its execution around the hardware, launch and service offering for Xbox Series X isn't just "solid," it's been outright spectacular. The backwards compatibility support is astoundingly good, which seems like a slightly odd place to focus so much effort until you see how well it combines with Game Pass' offering of an enormous library of back catalogue titles -- a combination of technology and service that's entirely unrivalled by any other platform. The jaw-dropping impressiveness of that offering, however, can't quite cover for the company's problem: as of right now, it's set to come out from its own supply-constrained period with an actual software line-up -- in terms of first-party and exclusive games -- that's far, far weaker than Sony's. That's a problem big enough to overshadow everything else Microsoft has achieved with Xbox in the past year; no matter what your service offering is, I don't think the logic of "games sell consoles" has changed a single bit since the 1980s.
