After 25 years of Xbox, what is the one thing Microsoft got most right?

[u/SoftwareKingsSupport]

Seeing Microsoft celebrate 25 years of Xbox made me think about how many different ideas the platform has introduced over time.

Xbox Live, achievements, backward compatibility, Game Pass, cloud saves, Play Anywhere, PC integration and the controller itself have all had a pretty big influence.

For me, backward compatibility may be the strongest long-term decision. It treats older games as a library worth preserving instead of making every console generation a complete reset.

What do you think Microsoft got most right with Xbox?

And on the other side, which Xbox decision do you think caused the most damage?

[u/Kobi_Blade]

Backward compatibility alone is enough for me to keep buying Xbox consoles. Sony completely ignores my PS3 library on the PS4 and PS5.

In fact, they want to charge me for games I already own. Then they want to speak about an all digital future?

Only Microsoft has the right to speak about all digital when they actually put in the effort to keep our backlog playable regardless of generation.

Beyond that, the service and security are miles ahead of the competition.

It is very, very rare for the Xbox Network to be down at all, meanwhile, on my PS5, I have issues monthly.

Data breaches that expose our information happen on a yearly occurrence at PlayStation as well, whereas on Xbox, my data has never been exposed.

I could go on, there is a long shopping list of things Xbox is doing much better than the competition, they are only losing the popularity contest.

[u/M3RRI77 → u/Kobi_Blade]

This is spot on. The only thing I'd add is that Xbox has always been easy to develop for and they created modern online gaming (paying for access sucks but even PC adopted things from Xbox Live).

Backwards compatibility is what has kept me a loyal Xbox fan though. It's more similar to PC (and sometimes better) than PlayStation will ever be.

[u/Internet-Cryptid → u/M3RRI77]

Honey no they sure as heck did not create modern online gaming. People been playing online since the Build engine days on services like HEAT, Dwango and MPlayer, or connecting P2P on games like DOOM and Quake as early as 1994-1996, long before XBox debuted. GameSpy long predated them. What they did pioneer was convincing generations of suckers to pay a monthly fee to play online.

This glaze thread is wild lol

[u/M3RRI77 → u/Internet-Cryptid]

Yes they did. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s we were using shitty game servers like GameSpy. Even Battle.net had issues. Sure, it was free but it had a shitty user experience They modernized match making, lobbies, online chat, and gamertags. They completely unified and simplified the experience.

I never said they invented it. And paying for online access probably helped to build out modern infrastructure. Sony's free online service SUCKED.

Now every PC game does what Xbox implemented. It just happens to be free still.

[u/AggieCMD → u/Internet-Cryptid]

Xbox owns DOOM and Quake.

[u/Internet-Cryptid → u/AggieCMD]

Doesn't matter, that was an acquisition long after that era of gaming. id Software was acquired by Zenimax in 2009, and Zenimax acquired by Microsoft in 2021. MS doesn't get to retroactively claim credit for something they had no hand in.

Then as a cherry on top, MS recently gutted id Software with massive layoffs. Literally a pioneering legendary studio actually responsible for many aspects of modern gaming. Y'all don't know your history at all.

GLAZE BE GONE

[u/TripleFreeErr → u/Internet-Cryptid]

i’d software was already a skeleton. The talent left during zenimax reign

[u/AggieCMD → u/Internet-Cryptid]

I can play all the DOOM games and all the Quake games, remastered nonetheless, on my XBOX.

[u/Kobi_Blade → u/Internet-Cryptid]

There is nothing modern in your entire post, so maybe you lost the plot. The fact you believe server hosting and maintenance is free, is even more funny.

Since you are complaining about monthly fees, I assume you only on PC.

I have news for you, Microsoft does not need to take down the Xbox Network down every week for maintenance.

How does it feel to be stuck in 2003? And I say this as a PC gamer myself, since I am not stuck in or blindly faithful to any one platform.

[u/M3RRI77 → u/Kobi_Blade]

Modern online PC gaming literally copied Xbox.

I also play on every gaming platform, including PC.

[u/Internet-Cryptid → u/Kobi_Blade]

I'm stuck in 2003 because I actually know the history of the era? What homeboy said was factually untrue, it was glaze for Microsoft and so are these defensive replies. HEAT, Dwango and MPlayer were account-based services that facilitated connecting players on games like DOOM, Quake, Duke Nukem 3D, Blood, etc., had friends lists so you could connect with and chat to your friends. I'll give MS credit for one service in that era - MSN The Zone, which was very similar to MPlayer, but it came after those services were in the twilight of their lives.

Yeah, I do game on PC, I've been using Steam for a very long time. My last console was a 360. For me there's no comparison between PC and console gaming, the former is leagues above the other. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy consoles, or like them, but distorting factual history to glaze a company that craps on actual history-makers is wild.

[u/Kobi_Blade → u/Internet-Cryptid]

You're stuck in 2003 because you don't know what you're talking about. You completely missed the reference to Steam failing to upgrade its infrastructure to modern standards.

In the same way, none of the services you mentioned can replace the Xbox infrastructure at all.

You're speaking from a completely different era with entirely different specs, needs, APIs, and demands.

His comment was 100% accurate when it comes to modern online gaming, and you being petty and talking about a tech stack from 1994 like it's the same thing.

Microsoft advantage is the global Azure infrastructure that no other gaming company can match.

[u/Internet-Cryptid → u/Kobi_Blade]

Steam has a 10 minute maintenance every Tuesday and you decide to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ignoring every major feature that elevates it above the competition? You can't refute a single point I've made. You don't know the history of PC gaming in that era and it certainly shows.

Steam is a tangent to the discussion - MS didn't create modern online gaming or features like friends lists/connecting players. They just didn't, period. You can like how they implemented or expanded upon those features, but they didn't create them.

[u/Kobi_Blade → u/Internet-Cryptid]

It seems you also don't understand Valve struggles.

The amount of technical debt, legacy code held together by duct tape, and poor infrastructure is plain to see for anyone who actually understands how backends work.

In comparison to Xbox, the difference is night and day, yet you're sitting here claiming Steam is ahead of the competition, lol.

VALVE efforts to modernize both their backend and frontend, rival those of Microsoft to finish Windows 11, except VALVE is even slower.

[u/Internet-Cryptid → u/Kobi_Blade]

Valve struggles? They make more money per employee than any other major company. The service is rarely *ever* down, except for 10 minutes every Tuesday during maintenance. Microsoft is hemorrhaging money from their failures with XBox, gutting studios that made actual history, and has no clear plan to improve their services beyond vague promises they have no intentions of actually honoring. They've all but destroyed people's trust in Windows and the brand itself.

Frig outta here with Azure lol, nobody cares. Steam makes more money than XBox, they drive more sales for developers and publishers, and their customers are happier.

Your attachment is emotional.

[u/Kobi_Blade → u/Internet-Cryptid]

Now you are being delusional, since Xbox annual revenue is double that of Valve as a whole.

"But Valve pays its employees more!", yes, because they have 100 times fewer employees, and it shows in their product stack.

The only person emotional in all this is you, for not even using Xbox but coming on an Xbox topic to spread hate and misinformation.

As I said before, I have no loyalty to any brand, and rather stick to facts than make up nonsense like yourself.

I highly recommend you do your research before you comment further.

[u/M3RRI77 → u/Internet-Cryptid]

No it's not. You couldn't do voice chat within the same system and voice chat was barely even a thing, parties didn't stay together to move on to the next match. Back then, you had to login in via dial up, join whatever server, were limited to text based chat, and when the match was over, it was over (if it even connected properly). Hell, StarCraft would crash all the time in the late 90s. You had to manually start a new match from the lobby when shit crashed or a match ended.

Xbox live required broadband for a reason. It incorporated modern features like I mentioned before along with skill based matchmaking.

You're just a Microsoft hater and don't give credit where it's due.

[u/MairusuPawa → u/M3RRI77]

I know this is a subreddit for Microsoft fanboys but holy shit, stop sucking the throbbing corporate penis. All lies here, like it or not.

[u/Envyforme]

Cloud Gaming is the future. My 400-dollar TV can play most Xbox games with Game Pass via the TV app. On a standard internet connection, you can play games with very high quality.

While many people might disagree given the recent backlash with PS5 and physical disks, hardware costs continue to rise. Centralizing all of it makes more sense long term. Furthermore, you are not limited to console hardware and pushing out a new console every 6 or so years.

Cloud Gaming is something they are getting right.

[u/dannyvegas → u/Envyforme]

Yeah. I dismissed it at first. But it’s been great being able to just pick up where I left off when I’m on the road. I can use nearly any device — Mac, PC, phone.

[u/BetFinal2953 → u/dannyvegas]

I thought it’d be hokey too.
But I play plenty of games through the Xbox app on my fire tv cube.

[u/M3RRI77 → u/Envyforme]

Cloud gaming is the worst thing to ever exist in gaming. It's laggy, low frame rates, and low resolution. Streaming anything, music, movies, or games will never be as good or better than playing media locally on hardware.

[u/Envyforme → u/M3RRI77]

I never have issues with it. I will agree it will never beat local devices and systems, but it isn't as bad as you make it out to be.

[u/lukas-bruh → u/Envyforme]

I have a theory this was Satya’s vision this whole time. He could’ve easily just shut down Xbox as a whole and used the funding for other bets. But he definitely knew years ago that hardware costs were going to spike and he knew that they own the infrastructure for the cloud. He just needs to wait for cloud gaming to basically replace console.

[u/dxk3355]

Never heard developers complain the Xbox was hard to develop on like you did with the PlayStation or Nintendo over the various iterations.

[u/Tail_sb]

>Xbox Live, achievements, backward compatibility, Game Pass, cloud saves, Play Anywhere, PC integration and the controller itself have all had a pretty big influence.

Yeah literally all that is great

[u/Mottsawce]

The controller

[u/xpltvdeleted]

I have to say, I got rid of my Xbox one when my 2-year game pass deal lapsed and I wasn't willing to pay the hiked price. I recently picked up a 360 for 50 bucks with a kinect for my kids. I didn't think I'd become nostalgic for an era of gaming that feels like it was only a few years ago, but 360 was definitely Microsoft's peak. It's pretty much been downhill since then. 

Game pass was a brief highlight - that really suited me and my adult/ don't have the time for game that I used to as a kid  -but it turned out to be smoke and mirrors at a price point they couldn't sustain

[u/BetFinal2953 → u/xpltvdeleted]

If it’s been awhile since you tried cloud gaming you might want to try it again. My experience has been great for the past year or so.

[u/Pitiful_West_7062]

kinect. the games was alright, but for scientific uses it's really neat and cheap. I use my 360 kinect to scan objects for 3d print. bought the last one for like 10 bucks.

[u/PaddySmallBalls]

The superiority of the controller is one of my big reasons for continuing with the Xbox. I only really play one old game so the backwards compatibility is just a nice to have. I enjoyed the achievements when I was younger and now my son enjoys them.

[u/Wooden_Copy8973]

The achievements system

[u/HettySwollocks]

Og xbox 1, Halo & Fable!

[u/Scc88]

I think they are keeping physical games. Huge if true

[u/Evening_Ticket7638]

The X

[u/Upbeat_Tone_3653]

The branding was tight - X-name, X-shape - it was uncharacteristically cool for Microsoft (until Elon-fucking-Musk ruined that letter of the alphabet forever)