Great Time To Be An Xbox Player

The weird thing about Xbox right now is that if you ignored gaming news and just... played games, you'd probably think we're in one of the best stretches in years.

Yes, the layoffs sucked. Studio closures are disappointing. Price increases aren't fun. None of that should be dismissed.

But if you stepped away from Reddit, Twitter, YouTube thumbnails, and doom-posting, what would your actual experience as an Xbox player be?

You'd have Game Pass packed with incredible games, a backlog that's impossible to finish, and one of the strongest upcoming release calendars we've seen in a long time.

Just look at what's either released recently or coming soon:

• Grand Theft Auto VI
• Fable
• Hades II
• Pragmata
• Forza Horizon 6
• 007 First Light
• Resident Evil 9
• Gears of War: E-Day
• Tomb Raider
• Assassin's Creed Black Flag
• Halo Campaign Evolved
• Exodus
• Crimson Desert
• The Blood of Dawnwalker
• Light No Fire
• Slay the Spire 2
• No Rest for the Wicked
• Enter the Gungeon 2
• Witchbrook
• Expanse Osiris Reborn
• Star Wars Zero Company
• Castlevania: Belmonte Curse
• Control Resonant
• Metro 2039
• Final Fantasy 7 Revelation
• Clockwork Revolution
• Persona 6

That's RPGs. Shooters. Racing games. Strategy. Roguelikes. Open-world adventures. Action games. Co-op games. Indie darlings. Massive AAA blockbusters. And theres a ridiculoua amount that I didnt even list. Games-as-a-service continue getting huge updates every month.

And then there's GTA VI, which has a real chance to be the biggest entertainment launch of the decade.

Meanwhile, Game Pass already includes multiple Game of the Year winners and nominees, first-party releases on day one, and enough quality games that most people couldn't realistically finish them all.

That's why the online discourse feels so disconnected from actually playing games.

If you only read gaming forums, you'd think the hobby is collapsing.

If you actually turn on your Xbox, you realize there's more to play than you have time for.

It's okay to criticize Microsoft's business decisions. It's okay to be frustrated with layoffs or strategy changes.

But it's also okay to admit that, as players, we're eating incredibly well.

Sometimes this community spends so much time talking about the business of games that we forget to enjoy the games themselves.

TL;DR: The industry has plenty of problems, but from a player's perspective, Xbox has an absurd amount of great games available now and coming over the next year. If you ignored the headlines and just played, you'd probably think this is a fantastic time to be a gamer.