Feel so bad for this guy. This was so me last generation, this brought back deja vu. Went through 11 defective launch 360's. The most frustrating thing is their lack of empowerment to fix the issue. Microsoft puts all the emphasis on the customer to suffer and do all the work its a shame.

My favorite conversations with them: after the 5th broke they had outsourced their call center to India and apparently didn't send any records over so when I called about that one they would not expedite any shipping of the coffin or the return as it was my first broken one regardless of arguing. When my 7th died and x box racing wheel was DOA I got called by tier 3 from the Microsoft campus. I was assured in the future I could work directly with them in the future, simply ask for them and it would be notated on my account, no number could be provided for direct contact though (which should have raised flags in my head). For console 8 I call and they claim that tier 3 doesn't exist (even though I had worked with them 3 months before). My final console sadly stopped reading my game disc's and was not RROD, so my extended warranty ran out by that time and only a RROD issue was covered by their 3 year extra extended warranty they offered for their poor manufacturing. Throughout it all I asked for a second gen console each and every time that had reduced failure rates and was told no because that's not what I had purchased, and I said I should be entitled to one that simply works for all the hassles, but of course not. That one I actually had to buy a brand new one (or have wasted about a grand on games and accessories). The final straw was for my 10th x box live anniversary they sent me $0.25 worth of live points which would mean I would need to spend more money to take advantage of the "gift." I called and went on their chat support to tell them to keep their quarter and see if they would do anything as a last chance to retain me as a Customer since I was an original x box purchaser and live supporter since day 1 and they could only apologize.

Suffice it to say I am now a day one Sony PS4 owner. Sad to hear they haven't learned how to treat customers and their product is still broken garbage that causes more intense times of frustration and anger that was more memorable than the fun times it actually worked.

Speak with your wallet and don't support bad customer service and broken products, only then might they actually change or they go out of the console business.

Nope I still have the first (Launch Console) with me, all boxed up and waiting on UPS to pick it up tomorrow.

When you report a faulty console you have to put a £300 deposit down and Microsoft send you a 'New' replacement, you then switch the consoles and return your old console in the box with a pre paid UPS sticker included.

I know I am not the only person with these launch issues, 2 of my friends are having the very same problems with the drive not reading discs. They are still waiting on their replacement consoles so at this time do not know if they got sent faulty ones...

I don't see them removing PC from the equation. Considering MS has a heavy enough investment in the PC market, it would be foolish to abandon them. I could see them taking away games from PlayStation or ensuring they are timed exclusives at the very least. Say what you will but if Call of Duty ends up becoming a timed exclusive to Xbox machines, that would hurt PlayStation, don't pretend like those games don't sell millions.

Their lifeline of solely the Xbox consoles is dry. Good-Great games on a 1st party scale can't be made at a loss so willingly - sent to the Xbox to only sell limited copies.
They invested billions scooping up studios and need to start making returns.
Sucks that nearly every company is publicly traded and have to be so shareholder biased but that's how it is.
Their words are strong but it'll take time to see what their actions accomplish. Lowering the cost of Game Pass and taking CoD off of it was a good clear start.

More like, allot of their base just played game pass. So now they need to encourage them to start buying again.

What exactly is the long term goal with exclusives though?

Because for the most part, the hardware side of things has never been the most profitable, even sometimes being subsidized for a period before breaking even. And that’s before the hardware component nightmare we currently live in.

The whole point of exclusives was to get more people to buy your console in order to have a bigger install base, which meant even bigger software sales.

But if their ports to PS5 are selling (for the most part it seems) quite well, then other than negating the cut Sony takes there, unless you are REALLY increasing your software sales on your own console, it probably doesn’t make that much of a difference?

Honestly I don’t even understand Sony’s decision to scale back on it for PC unless they weren’t even recouping the port expenses. They released ports when the hardware sales never really dropped, and now that all consoles will undoubtedly take a noticeable drop in sales due to the ridiculous prices, that’s when they decide they don’t want to sell to a larger install base to more easily recoup dev costs… it’s just weird

Unfortunately, the studios they buy wither under their leadership.

Microsoft still has a name with Xbox the issue is the casual games are not looking at the console because its not the same console their friends have. Look at that poll on how many users upgraded from xbox 365 to one and then the X. Part of Microsoft's downfall was thinking that the Wii was the market they had to be in when really it was the core market. If you get the core gamers you then get the market to. As I posted a few minuets ago on another post Microsoft putting exclusives on PS this gen could bold well if they hit next gen with all our games are staying exclusive from this new gen. They will then get gamers wanting Halo, Forza Gears but this is also where Microsoft fell over with the xbox one and X in terms of they did not have may quality 1st party games affter they fell into the Gears, Forza and Halo cycle. If they can get some old IPs back to bring back the old core gamers as well as fresh ips to bring in new gamers things could improve next gen. But as I said in my last post its all if buts and maybes at the moment. No one knows if the next home consoles will be to expensive that people move to pc as we are now seeing or look at the stem deck as a cheepier alternitive.

"Only issue is they've already opened Pandora's box."

That's very optimistic. It's not the only issue, far from it. There is a serious rupture between Microsoft generally and the public caused by their weird Game Pass price fluctuations, taking down physical game space in stores, and being the first to go nuts on hardware price hikes that they themselves played a big part in.

They're also charging beyond a premium for Helix which is just vile at a time when the economy is in shambles.

The company itself is really not doing itself any favors with the approach they're taking Windows. Even France is looking to ditch Windows in favor of Linux.

But the most offensive thing is this AI push. They're doubling, tripling, and quadrupling down on the very technology they're using to replace a considerable proportion of their workforce... And the slap in the face is how they bake copilot into everything when nobody likes it—they couldn't even make Bing stick, so why on earth are they trying so hard? You know it's bad when people would rather use ChatGPT than Copilot which is killing their OS. But aside from their snatching up of farmland to build data centers (and reduce the agriculture capacity of whichever country allows them to build them), they made an AI-generated gamer gurl that loves AI the head of Xbox.

Even if we grant them the full benefit of the doubt, it hardly matters what Xbox wants to do if Nadella says no, and that includes exclusive games. Microsoft's relationship with Xbox is the opposite of Sony's relationship with PlayStation—Microsoft pulls the reins of Xbox, but Sony damn near went under for the PS3.

“If they go back to exclusive games it at least shows that they are finally getting it.”

Great strategy, especially after Forza selling 5 million on PlayStation and sea of thieves selling at least another million (2 million) for example. In March 2026, Xbox consoles sales ratio vs PS was 10:1.

In addition to that, with Gamepass, which unequivocally cuts out chunks of sales (Cannibalizing revenue from 1st month sales especially).

I’m sure going exclusive again after releasing everything on Ps5 is going to work out great for business.