It's a strange time to be an Xbox fan.

After two or more years of self-defeating decisions, Xbox is at a cross roads. Phil Spencer's tenure has ended, with new CEO Asha Sharma taking the reins.

On paper, Xbox's gaming ecosystem is more vibrant and interesting than ever.

There's a lot of fun things on the horizon right now. Things like the fact Xbox has a new logo, she's brought back regular Xbox Series X|S console updates, and announced a project name for its upcoming Xbox "Helix" next-gen console. Microsoft has also been teasing a fresh batch of backward compatible Xbox games too. It's all exciting stuff, but today I just want to talk about being a regular old Xbox gamer, and not necessarily someone who is plugged into predicting Xbox's future.

Xbox has more IP than ever, marrying Blizzard titles, Call of Duty, DOOM, Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, and many more within its ecosystem. And while the roll out has certainly been bumpy in many ways, gradually Xbox ecosystem users are starting to see some real fruits of that labor.

Fallout 4 picked up Xbox Play Anywhere support late last year, and Elder Scrolls Online picked it up this week too. It makes both games ideal for the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds, which launched last year. The Xbox Ally has totally transformed how I play and engage with Xbox content, and undoubtedly extended my playtime across tons of games. I can't tell you how much I love the Xbox Ally X, and while it is pricy, if you end up using it as much as I have I definitely think it's more than worth it.

Many of this year's upcoming Xbox games also sport Xbox Play Anywhere. The uptake from third-parties has been incredibly encouraging. The recently announced Stranger Than Heaven, 007: First Light is slated for Xbox Play Anywhere too, as well as the next Metro game. I was disappointed Microsoft couldn't land Resident Evil 9 and Pragmata, despite Capcom's sporadic support of Xbox Play Anywhere, but we are getting it with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth from Square Enix, among others.

The fact Microsoft has been retroactively updating some games like Fallout 4 and Elder Scrolls Online has been great too, and for those that aren't available, Xbox Cloud Gaming has been surprisingly capable too. I don't have great internet where I am, but any single player game feels great to play on Xbox Cloud Gaming now, and all Microsoft first-party titles are supported. Now that Xbox Game Pass Ultimate got a price revision, the 1440p streaming quality is also more accessible than it was previously.

Then there's the games. I often see this common negative sentiment about Xbox's ability to deliver games, but it's ridiculous in 2026 in my view. This year, Microsoft will release Fable, Gears: E-Day, Halo Campaign Evolved, and Forza Horizon 6 — all of which are likely to be pretty great.

Beyond that, we've had Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, which has been truly amazing. I don't care if this is an unpopular opinion too: Overwatch is better than ever. I've sank hundreds of hours into World of Warcraft: Midnight already, despite some rough edges. Fallout 76, Elder Scrolls Online, and other Microsoft games are getting big updates this year. We have Blizzcon to look forward to in September, as well as the Xbox Showcase in June. Even smaller games like Kiln and Keeper have been fun to play with.

Most of these games are available day one in Xbox Game Pass, too, which thanks to the price drop you can once again say represents the "best deal in gaming," Call of Duty or not.

Indeed, this is all first party too. I mentioned third-party bangers like Resident Evil 9, Crimson Desert, and Pragmata, but there's so much to play on Xbox right now. Despite claims that "Xbox is dead" big publishers are still showing up on the platform with the same regularity as they always did. ID@Xbox has had some amazing games show up too, including Replaced, Saint Slayer: Spear of Sacriledge, Super Meat Boy 3D, Reanimal, Dread Delusion, Absolum, Vampire Crawlers, and tons more. I frankly can't keep up.

The Xbox OS is more polished than ever, we have more games to play than ever, in more ways to access your content than ever.

It's Schrödinger's Xbox: If Xbox can fix doubts about its long term viability, there would be little to complain about right now.

When you look around mainstream gaming forums, YouTube channels, and comments sections, negative sentiment around Xbox as a brand seems as strong as it ever was. People actively hate Xbox, but perhaps it's more accurate to say they actively hate Microsoft.

Microsoft is a big proponent of artificial intelligence, which has the potential to literally destroy humanity — if it's indeed going to end up as "smart" as the techbros claim. If it isn't going to be as smart and capable as claimed, then Microsoft could end up being partially responsible for creating the biggest financial bubble in history, and will own the following economic crisis.

Negative sentiment towards Microsoft is at least partially earned. Whether it's the privacy-shy features in Windows 11, the on-going degredation of quality across its entire product line while also posting record profits, or price gouging customers with last year's Xbox Game Pass price hike and attempted $80 game price rout ... I'd say Microsoft has a lot to prove here.

But at the same time, social media has produced an era of digitized, binary thinking. Everything is either good or bad, virtuous or evil, alive or dead. The truth is more likely somewhere in the middle, whether it's AI, gaming, or otherwise. We'd all do well to remind ourselves of that sometimes, myself included.

Xbox has made some terrible decisions over the past few years, owing at least in part to Microsoft's greed. But it has been dealing with some historic challenges, along with the rest of the gaming industry on top.

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When you zoom out, there's a ton at Xbox that needs to be addressed. But when you zoom in ... The day to day experience on Xbox still represents a world-class consumer ecosystem. Too many of us are eager to take Xbox for granted, myself included.

Long may Xbox live.

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Jez Corden is the Executive Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem — while being powered by tea. Follow on X.com/JezCorden and tune in to the XB2 Podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!