A Look Back at the Hardware, Releases, and Surprises of Microsoft’s 2016

A New Message and More Freedom

The Xbox message hasn’t changed all that much from 2015, though it has gotten stronger. When Phil Spencer took over as the head of Xbox at Microsoft, he made sure to put the focus on games and providing freedom of choice to the players. That message was further bolstered by their showing at E3 2016.

While a lot of the time was spent on upcoming titles, which has become the MO over the past couple of years, a good deal of it was spent on choice. The ability to stream games to more devices, apps on mobile and PC to make managing your gaming easier, console features that make building communities and finding people to play with much easier, and Play Anywhere, which makes your digital games on Xbox One available on PC (Windows 10), and vise versa.

Play Anywhere sounded like a crazy idea at the start. Microsoft was taking the best games on its struggling console and making them available elsewhere. On the other hand, though, it allows fans to enjoy their games however and wherever they see fit. While Sony and Nintendo were busy pushing new hardware to provide better ways to experience their games, Microsoft was providing means through what you may already own.

The ‘play what you want where you want’ ideology further expands with the growing backwards compatibility library. While the ability to play 360 games on the Xbox One started off relatively small, with just a handful of titles at launch, it has grown to a list of over 200 games. The team has been pushing to bring loved and/or forgotten games to a modern home, and the initiative continues to impress.

Of course, this isn’t to say that Microsoft completely focused on just messaging and didn’t bring any new hardware to the table. Part of freedom is choosing what you purchase, as well.

Two New Consoles

It wasn’t just Sony and Nintendo showing off new hardware this year. Microsoft took a bite of time out of their E3 2016 conference to introduce a the Xbox One S. This is a smaller version of the One console, featuring has HDR support for better colors and sharper contrast, as well as support for 4K physical media. The release helped usher in a Microsoft sales lead for a few months during the late Summer and into the Fall, until its streak was halted in November.

Coming down another pipeline, the long rumored Project Scorpio was confirmed, though it won’t be available until around this time next year. It is set up to be the most powerful home gaming console ever created, capable of true 4K gaming and offering VR capability right out of the box. We haven’t heard anything about it in quite some time, but the prospect of a Microsoft mega-console is certainly intriguing.

Incoming VR compatibility will allow the Xbox it to join the fray alongside PC and the PS4, although details on what exactly (and when) we can expect are still up in the air. It’s no surprise that Microsoft has decided to wait and watch the competition before diving headfirst into virtual reality, as the field has no shortage of experimentation for both players and developers. 

Custom Controllers

This isn’t exactly new hardware, but it was a very smart move on Microsoft’s part. Custom controllers are a huge market, and what avid gamer doesn’t want something with their own color scheme or insignia on it? Actually, let’s raise the bar — why not have our names laser inscribed onto our favorite controllers? The folks over at the Xbox division must have had the same thought, because at E3 they unveiled the Xbox Design Lab.

Fans can now personalize their own controllers officially through Xbox. Pricing is competitive enough to edge into third party customs, and you don’t have to worry about any warranty being voided, because nobody is opening the controller and changing components on you. It’s produced in house, a 100% official controller designed by you.

This all may seem like a small addition to the Microsoft family, but it’s a new way for the company to offer its fans more options while keeping everything close to home. 

New Games

While the company was killing it in the message and hardware department, game releases saw some really high points, as well as some noticeable lows. Things didn’t really pick up for Microsoft and the Xbox One until late in the year when Forza Horizon 3 released (which ended up being the highest rated Xbox exclusive of the year), followed by the well-received Gears of War 4. The other major exclusives of the year, Quantum Break and ReCore, didn’t fare as well with players. To be fair, Quantum Break was a solid experience on the actual console, but it was unfortunately riddled with issues on the PC, which cost it dearly when it came to reviews.

Much like Sony did back in 2015, Microsoft relied on a solid third-party lineup that included some intelligent timed exclusivity. Inside was easily one of the best indie experiences of the year, and Dead Rising 4 has proven to be a fun, zombie-slaying romp. Major multiplatform titles such as Battlefield 1, Overwatch, Dark Souls III, and Final Fantasy XV helped to fill in a lot of the holes in the lineup, as a number of exclusives — including Crackdown 3 and Scalebound — were delayed to 2017.

One thing we’re still interested in seeing is the effect of Play Anywhere on exclusives moving forward. While it was announced in June, the first major first-party title to be available on PC was Forza Horizon 3. Every Xbox exclusive is supposed to follow suit going forward, and to some eyes it seems Microsoft may be shooting itself in the foot by allowing the company’s biggest games to release on more powerful hardware at the same time as on the Xbox One. However, it seems to be working in the company’s favor. Sales of the console continue to rise, and Microsoft profits from the software sales on either platform. It’s also helping developers reach a larger audience. What effects this will have on the console space in the long run remains to be seen. 

Growing Strong With a Lot Riding on the Future

All in all, Microsoft had a very good year when it comes to gaming. The Xbox One continues to build on the momentum that Phil Spencer helped generate when he took over. The “player first” attitude is definitely carrying more of the load than games, but it’s great to see the company start to develop even more ways for fans to enjoy their content.

Play Anywhere is transforming the Xbox brand by releasing the console chains from Microsoft’s largest exclusive games. PC is the largest platform around, and capitalizing on that arena while still improving within the home console space is a bold choice, one that comes with a bit of risk in the hardware department. It’s clear that they aren’t strictly trying to just sell you a box anymore, they’re inviting you into an experience. One that includes solid hardware, a growing library of classic titles, and new ways to connect.

Where the company really needs to step it up is with the game offerings. The year closed off strong, but it was looking pretty rough for a while there. There are huge titles in the pipeline for next year, impressive projects that should make waves in the first half of 2017. Microsoft will need something grand to show off the capabilities of Project Scorpio, though, if they want to incentivize players to pick one up.

As long as developers can provide the software to back everything else up, Microsoft has the perfect foundation to have a standout year in 2017.