Xbox One X udkom i efteråret, og høstede ganske flotte anmeldelser (deriblandt et flot nital fra Gamereactor) fra pressen. Siden udgivelsen er det dog blevet gjort klart af både forbrugerne men også at Microsoft selv, at der simpelthen mangler store, eksklusive nye spilserier, der kan skabe yderligere incitament til investering blandt forbrugerne.
Men det mener analysefirmaet IDC ikke nødvendigvis. De siger at Microsoft godt nok ikke har samme kapacitet til at producere den slags projekter som Sony og Nintendo, men de siger også, at Microsofts strategi indtil videre faktisk har fungeret. Firmaets Research Director for Gaming, Lewis Ward, har sagt følgende til GamingBolt:
"Microsoft doesn't have as big a game development studio team in house as Sony or Nintendo and doesn't have as deep a history of producing first party entertainment products and services. They have a few massive franchises like Halo and Gears of War and Minecraft and so on, but Microsoft's strategy for a long time has been to seek out indie studios and partner with big third party studios in order to obtain exclusive content. Microsoft has been more aggressive than Sony or Nintendo in terms of identifying external fits for the Xbox community that come from a PC or mobile background, and making these games work on TV sets - and potentially buying the associated studio and IP if the terms make sense. You mentioned Ryse earlier, and that of course was developed by Crytek. Microsoft got World of Tanks on Xbox years before Sony. This holiday season their big move was to tie up Bluehole's PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Since Microsoft has a smaller internal development team, they have to get more creative around getting exclusive content and I suspect this trend will continue. It's largely paid off for them."
Desuden har IDC også nogle hårde ord til overs for singleplayer-spil, da de mener at udviklingen af disse er associeret med en stor risiko for et givent studie:
"These games take a long time to make and are very expensive. As you pointed out, Microsoft tried their hand at some AAA games with strong narratives earlier this generation and kind of crapped out. Perhaps the cancelled Fable game would have scratched that itch, or perhaps the new Crackdown will be a monster - it certainly looked good at E3. At the end of the day, I kind of don't blame Microsoft for focusing on partnerships that involve multiplayer like PUBG. That's where the esports wave is going and that's where the monetization tail can last for year and years. Single player games are great but they're star is fading broadly simply because they're a riskier bet. If they flop out of the gate, it can destroy a studio."