At the end of this generation, it will be argued successfully that Microsoft has done more for the accessibility and ease of gaming than any other company before.
Nintendo has to consistently be brought to the future because of their stagnant policies. Nintendo has people in such a choke hold that they got paying for roms that zsnes was running 15 years ago. Nintendo Online is trash. Nearly everything Nintendo has introduced to gaming in a positive way was always included as a price hike and it is usually incremental in nature, outside of motion controls which was a risk. Had to buy a rumble pak, had to buy the N64 expansion pak to play Perfect Dark. They are their own entity and are set aside for this discussion.
Sony are the beneficiaries of Nintendo's stance of staying with cartridges. To their credit, they started ramping up their 1st party development to what it is right now around the PS3 era. Up until that time, they innovated with hardware. Ken Kuturagi had Sony taking more risks than they do now. Sure, they do the vr stuff but most people can't afford that so it's people like me that pay for it because I buy everything but you'll never see anything like twisted metal again or Socom again. They've basically fallen in where Nintendo landed many moons ago, an unwillingness to grow beyond what is expected from them with an aversion to projects that is ambitious but could fall so they are going to ride that formula into the ground. You will get your randoms like Dreams and Astrobot but those are far and few between now. We basically play different games in different universes with different characters that has its historical roots from Uncharted 1 as Sony continues to perfect the third person perspective game as Uncharted 1 is the genesis of where this all comes from.
Microsoft has done their fair share of good and bad in gaming.
Good: Hard Drive standard, introduced Xbox Live, forward think console design
Bad: Paying for Xbox Live, anemic 1st party support at various junctures.
The thing that it appears that most people don't get is that the reason why we get behind Microsoft or Phil Spencer is that Microsoft is the only company in gaming that can push gaming to an even higher level of elevation than it is right now. With enough time and effort, Microsoft can do everything Sony and Nintendo does while the inverse is not true. A decent amount of that goes back to the warchest but a lot of that is company DNA as well. If we were to start today, how long would it take to get the technology together to make a game like flight simulator a reality for Sony and/or Nintendo. The main parts of the tech, Microsoft did not have to outsource. They own Bing maps, they own Azure. That's just one of many examples. Microsoft is in risk taking mode now.
What do you see here? Variety is what you see.
I'll likely never play Grounded or Psychonauts but w
for most appearances, they are well made games. Take Sea of Thieves. Microsoft stuck with it the same way Sony should have stuck with Dreams to make it a success. Other quality of life items such as preloading games, playing games on devices like phones/tablets/computers, Xbox design labs for custom controllers. With Microsoft being focused, operative word is focused, on gaming, there is more than can be done because Microsoft has more available to do more.
So, all in all, Microsoft has been uneven in their 20 year history with Xbox. After the end of this generation, they should be celebrating their greatest generation and be poised to never look back because their investments this gen will pay dividends in the next.
