We Need to Talk About Xbox...

TL;DR

Don't buy an Xbox in 2026 — the hardware is overpriced, Game Pass has gotten expensive, and Microsoft's entire future depends on an unfinished next-gen bet.

Key Points

• 1.Xbox One X (~$125 used) is the only current Xbox worth buying — best-in-industry backwards compatibility covering original Xbox, 360, and One titles, with 4K upscaling on older games
• 2.Series S ($400 new) and Series X ($600–$650) are hard sells after two 2025 price hikes; the PS5 with disc drive costs $550 and is more powerful with a longer lifespan
• 3.Game Pass Ultimate jumped to $30/month ($360/year) after the Activision acquisition — more than double Sony's top PlayStation Plus tier at $160/year, effectively ending the "golden age" of Game Pass
• 4.Phil Spencer and Sarah Bond are both out — dual leadership exits signal Microsoft's dissatisfaction after billions spent acquiring studios (Activision alone cost $69B) with underwhelming Series console sales and stalling Game Pass growth
• 5.The ROG Xbox Ally X revealed the next-gen Xbox concept — Windows underneath with an Xbox full-screen interface on top — but sleep mode failures and software instability show the execution is still far from ready
• 6.Next-gen Xbox is targeting 2027, confirmed by AMD on their earnings call, but two obstacles remain: Windows isn't console-ready yet, and expensive RAM costs could force a compromise on specs