Has Microsoft done enough to revive the Xbox One?

I found out an interesting statistic the other day regarding the current-gen console war. Of the three competing systems, the PS4 had the highest number of 80+ rated Metacritic scores, sitting at 51 games. The Wii U surprisingly comes in at a close second with 45 games, and even more surprising, the Xbox One ranks third with only 26 games; that's a full 19 games behind its next nearest competitor. While conventional wisdom of the industry seems intent on deeming the Wii U irrelevant, these stats by no means reflect a terrible position for the Wii U to be in considering how much it gets labeled a system with no games. Of course, Metacritic scores certainly aren't the end-all-be-all way to judge a console, but with Microsoft trailing so far behind here, I thought all this might be a good lead in to the big question of the day: has Microsoft done enough to revive the Xbox One?

Don't worry Phil, your luck can still turn around.

We know at the time of the system's announcement, Microsoft quickly fell into some very hot water for their terrible online DRM policy, which they have obviously since removed. And with Phil Spencer taking over the Xbox Division of Microsoft, they have also made great strides in making the cost of the console more competitive with the PS4 by ditching the Kinect 2.0 requirement. Phil has generally kept it real with consumers and has been handling the Xbox Division with a level of honesty and integrity that is a huge breath of fresh air compared to where they started. But even so, where does this leave the current state of the console?

Well, the Xbox One is still relatively the same price as the PS4, but with a slightly weaker hardware set and arguably not as strong of a game library overall. That still doesn't look very convincing to consumers who might be considering Microsoft's system over Sony's. Combine that with the bitter taste that many gamers still have left in their mouths from the whole DRM debacle, and that's all the incentive players need to still go with the PS4. Simply undoing bad decisions isn't enough for the Xbox One because that only puts it on roughly the same level as the PS4 but with a bad aftertaste to it; it doesn't suddenly make the Xbox One the more attractive console. So is there anything more Microsoft can do to make themselves more competitive against Sony? I think there is.

Of course, the obvious thing they could do is get more exclusives, and not just half-baked timed exclusives that will eventually release on other consoles or PC like they've been doing, but strong first party exclusives that would offer amazing experiences you could only get on their console. However, this is a more long-term goal that would not be able to produce immediate results like they need right now. So what could Microsoft still do to seal the deal with consumers right now?

Get rid of online fees. Make multiplayer on Xbox Live free. Seriously, I'm not joking. This has been a longstanding pet peeve of mine that has soured my view of Microsoft even before all the DRM nonsense. It is my perspective that console gamers were exploited during the launch of Xbox Live for the original Xbox system. They were largely unaware that PC gaming had been providing free online multiplayer long before, and it was a perfectly sustainable model without needing to put a large chunk of content behind a pay wall. This is just straightforward ripping off the consumer, and I never excused Sony for doing it either when they changed their PlayStation Network policy with the PS4. This is all the more reason why now is the best time for Microsoft to do this, because if they could drive home the point in their marketing that they now offer free online multiplayer, they would finally have enough of an edge to legitimately say they are more pro-consumer than Sony at this point. Make no mistake about this, the last generation lasted about 7 years, so that's literally a hidden extra cost of $350 that they are just sapping out of you for no justifiable reason.

Now I've been told numerous excuses over the years for why these fees are necessary, but I'm not convinced any of them hold water. The infrastructure that Xbox Live provides is really not that much different from Steam. Steam provides a built-in friends list, voice chat, and text chat, which you can use across all your games without needing to minimize them, and you can even add non-Steam games to your library so you can utilize these features. PC games which use the very same matchmaking lobby setup as many console games still manage to provide a free online experience. "But Steam makes its money back through game sales!" they say. Yeah, so does Microsoft. They have the Xbox Live Arcade, plus a portion of every physical game sale goes to Microsoft's pocketbook too. If they're still really bleeding money for some odd reason, there's always the option to include reasonably placed ads to help fund the network without charging the consumer. There is just no reason that Xbox Live fees should exist.

There is however the important factor to consider that despite the PlayStation 3 offering free multiplayer last generation, it didn't help with the initial sales of the platform. The PS3 did very much struggle out of the gate to gain widespread market penetration during its early years. But we should consider some other key factors which might have hampered this. For one, Sony didn't really market this advantage very well. I can't recall any commercials which explicitly pointed out how their network was free but Microsoft's wasn't. Furthermore, the PS3 was priced significantly higher than the Xbox 360 at launch, with the cheapest model reaching $500, a full $100 more expensive than the Xbox 360's premium model. With the PS3 being so expensive, the price difference between their networks could be seen as negligible in the bigger picture. However, look what happened when the PS3 finally began to drop in price. The PS3 has now surpassed the Xbox 360 in lifetime global sales. But now let's consider the current situation. The Xbox One and PS4 are fairly evenly priced, and with the added bonus of free online multiplayer, that could easily be enough to make a real difference in sales this time.

Xbox Live is the one barrier that could easily sway me in favor of the Xbox One over the PS4, and I would be willing to wager that with the right marketing behind it, other consumers would agree as well. Now more than ever is the best time for Microsoft to finally reverse a longstanding bad policy that would not only set them right with me, but would also finally offer a real competitive edge over the PS4.