Console gaming has never been easy for Microsoft. It was laughed at for trying to buy Nintendo; laughed at for the OG Xbox's bulky size and massive controller; battled hardware issues of its own making thanks to the Xbox 360's Red Ring of Death; fought from underneath to reverse so many of the Xbox One's initially terrible policies; and so on and so forth. When Phil Spencer took over as the head of Microsoft Game Studios in 2014, however, there was a conscious drive to make Xbox gaming better. To show that Microsoft actually cared and was willing to invest in its product, both for its present and future consumers.
This can be reflected in various positive ventures like backwards compatibility (which is free as long as someone owns the game); Xbox Play Anywhere which allows for playing the same game on Xbox One and Series X/S as PC; and of course, Xbox Game Pass, currently at over 25 million subscribers and growing. Even initiatives like better gaming integration with Windows 11, the Xbox Adaptive controller, and cloud gaming which lets you stream Xbox Series X/S titles to an Xbox One, deserve to be praised. It's incredible to think that this is the same company that had Don Mattrick at the gaming helm, telling people to play on an Xbox 360 if they couldn't always be online with an Xbox One back in 2013.
