Breaking Up With Xbox

My living room entertainment center has two towers on either side of the TV; for years, my Xbox and Playstation consoles have stood on each of these towers. I considered them equals until this last year when I routed my cable through my Xbox so that I could use the Kinect to change channels (which is fun if sometimes frustrating). After that, I was an Xbox guy who also had a Playstation. Last week, though, the battery for the Xbox One died, despite the fact that console was purchased new, only a couple of years old, and kept in a well-ventilated space. I had to rewire my cable to watch TV while I tracked down a new battery at the always- helpful Gamestop. As I thought about it, though, I realized I’d been treating my Playstation and Xbox consoles as though they were equals and that really isn’t the case anymore. My Playstation consoles have never broken down and the parts have never expired early. Meanwhile my Xbox consoles have needed two new brick batteries and a full replacement (I had a whole red-ring-of-death situation a few years back). It’s time to acknowledge the truth, Playstation is the top dog now. So this last weekend I decided I needed to break up with my Xbox.

Colorful, wacky, weird, and fun, Xbox One needs a lot more games like Sunset Overdrive.

It wasn’t hard to see this coming. Xbox has been struggling to keep up with Playstation for some time now. Exclusive titles on Xbox have been rare for years. Sunset Overdrive is an underappreciated gem and Inside is definitely worth playing (though no longer exclusive). But the big hits I was hoping for never materialized. Dead Rising 3 was an off-key, tedious experience after the fun of the first two games. Quantum Break was an uninteresting shooter that decided to produce an entire TV show within a game rather than focusing on providing a good gameplay experience. I did really enjoy the brief experience of D4, though it’s hard not to resent the lack of any followup (“chapter one” indeed). Comparing those games with the new Ni No Kuni, the latest Uncharted, and the upcoming Last Guardian is no contest at all.

Oh D4, you’re so crazy. I would’ve loved to see where your next chapters went. But those chapters live in Never Gonna Happen Heaven, alongside Halflife 3 and Left 4 Dead 3 (hey, what the hell, Valve?).

It’s easy to point out exactly when Xbox jumped the shark though: Halo 5. That game was a complete misfire in which all of the characters I wanted to see were sidelined in favor of new protagonists and (again) boring, repetitive gameplay. Years of waiting for a Halo game that really utilized the strengths of the Xbox One felt totally wasted. The split screen gameplay that I loved from each of the four previous games was jettisoned in favor of better graphics. Halo’s easy-to-acquire gameplay and split capability made it the game I played with gamers, non-gamers, significant others, nieces, and nephews. You could carry a non-gamer through tough parts or crank up the difficulty if you’re teaming up with another pro. All of that was gone in favor of more impressive graphics. How important were those graphics? Quick, think of a single level of Halo 5. Yeah, I couldn’t either.

I know I beat this game so I guess I played this part…..?

It’s not just the games, though. There’s the fact that Playstation Network is consistently more generous with its free titles than Xbox One is. There’s the fact that Playstation offers Shareplay, so if I want to just chat with a buddy while I watch them beat a level, I can do that. There’s the fact that it’s much easier to share games on Playstation than Xbox. Sure, Xbox is (finally) doing a much better job bringing their Xbox 360 library onto the Xbox One (particularly Red Dead Redemption), Playstation has been bringing back titles that I really missed (particularly Day of the Tentacle). And yeah, I still haven’t forgiven Xbox for trying to make my buy the Kinect right out of the gate, as though they couldn’t tell that peripheral was going nowhere.

This is exactly how I felt when that stupid battery died.

Thinking of all of this, I’m not sure if it’s the fact that Xbox One has always felt like a more constrictive system or if Playstation just seems to “get” me a little better. Either way, now I’m a Playstation guy who also has an Xbox One. The Xbox One is no longer in charge of the TV (sorry Cortana) and no longer my default system. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still take a look at the Scorpio when it shows up and see what titles it might offer (never hurts to look). Still, when I think of my disappointment with the games, the lack of longevity in my battery brick, and my other frustrations with the system, it will be a while before I’m willing to take a chance with the Xbox again.