Microsoft is grossly underestimating how much gamers want (and need!) "shiny new things" to make them interested in a new machine. The most recent Xbox Inside display was awkward, and lame. Showing a bunch of cutscenes and current-gen games that will be "optimized for the Series X" while hyping that as "next generation gameplay", is not only misleading, but simply not sexy. And a new console needs to be sexy to sell!
Microsoft is completely contradicting itself with its marketing and confusing its core audience. On one hand, they are promoting the Xbox Series X as the most powerful console for the next generation, and on the other, they are compromising the potential of that hardware by committing to cross-gen games for the beginning of the new console life-cycle that will not fully tap into the hardware's power.
Consumers who want the "most powerful console" don't particularly care about "great value", which is what Microsoft seems to be desperately trying to push as their main PR agenda (with cross-gen games, but also Game Pass and other features).
While "value" is great and necessary to capture the more casual consumers, a dedicated gaming console still needs its core audience to buy-in from the get got. Unfortunately, I feel like Microsoft is once again trying to aim too large, while neglecting what really sells a new generation console: something that you can't get in your current one! And either you like it or not, showcasing games with next-gen graphics is paramount to sell the value of a new console, which never comes cheap. Sure, I buy Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox One and then can play it for free on the Series X with optimized graphics, but is that worth the $500 that the new console will probably cost? For many gamers, the answer will be a “probably not”. And with at least one year waiting for first-party exclusives while the PS5 will be available with its own next-gen exclusive games, Microsoft might be once again setting itself up to eat some dust...
