I don't know which is worse, Sony's announcement of the PS3 in 2006 or Microsoft's announcement of the Xbox One in 2013. Granted I still loved the PS3, but the Xbox One was in fairly rough shape until the release of the One X.
XBO. PS3 in the end still managed to get near PS1 sales numbers, and it finished incredibly strong with games like Echochrome 2, TLOU, Uncharted 3, GT6, Puppeteer etc. They won back favoritism they had lost in the 2006 - 2010 period and then some.
Xbox One actually started stronger than people remember (it had more AAA exclusives at the start than PS4, for example, between games like Ryse and Dead Rising 4), but began to peter out around 2015 and by 2016 virtually all its main momentum was gone. It also finished quite weakly IMHO; GamePass was a nice feature to offer, but the heart of a system, new high-quality game exclusives, was at its worst for Xbox. Multiple high-profile projects getting cancelled along with hyped 1P releases turning out to be duds (Crackdown 3, ReCore etc.) did it no favors with more passionate gamers.
While it had an occasional good game like a Forza or Gears 5 come along, they were just too infrequent and weren't enough to really turn around perception for the brand.
Again though - you clearly have no idea what actually happened, and this is the second time I've had to direct you to actually read what I've written.
The Xbox One unveiling was NOT AT E3. It was it's own standalone event a month before E3. That was the infamous "TV TV TV TV" and "Always online" event.
E3 was quite literally just "GAMES GAMES GAMES!".
I can only assume you are, as always, arguing in bad faith here.
True, their E3 was about games. The issue was that most of those were either multiplat games like COD (which had a dubious showing centered around a dog) or the usual expected games like Forza Motorsport. There wasn't anything from that E3 which was a riveting new IP that was also exclusive, aside from Ryse (showing off the KI revival was a nice touch on top of that though).
Sony's E3 that year had a pretty good showing of games itself; combined with the better specifications and pricing, and Microsoft's out-of-position pricing right before that, and it's easy to see why people might look at Xbox's 2013 E3 as being overall mediocre even if some people are remembering it worst than it actually was.
Phil and xbox team dropped the ball for first two years, without Bethesda they got nothing for 2022. not a single game from XGS this year so far.
It's just a bit crazy to me that not only was STALKER 2 delayed until end of year (and now due to very real-world conflicts unfortunately unfolding, could compound upon that delay), but Crossfire X turned out to be such a dud, and that aside from Tunic I don't think there's any console or non-GamePass ecosystem exclusive until this Fall (if Redfall has been delayed to October, that would be the case).
More so than that, it's pretty disappointing that they have no smaller showcase events spread out throughout the year to provide consistent updates on the 1P games that are in development, some of which have been shown since 2019. There's no reason to not have done some type of showcase for Everwild at this point, to at least give fans confidence the game is in good shape beyond a few words from an insider leak.
It outsold the original Xbox too. It is the second best selling Xbox console and did quite well against many Nintendo home systems minus Wii and Switch. Calling the X1 a failure is simple hyperbole.
In terms of raw sales numbers, no, XBO was not a failure. But it's not just about raw unit sales numbers; it's also about division revenue, net profits, brand power and mindshare.
In those four areas, XBO could be argued a failure. They lost the UK market they were solidifying with the 360, and lost a metric ton of 3P royalties due to lowering 3P sales rates on their platform. The console's brand power weakened in its two biggest markets (US and especially UK), and both PlayStation and (a bit later on) Nintendo ate up the vast majority of positive mindshare through that generation, with Xbox being relegated mostly to negative mindshare related to memes making fun of the brand from 2016 up until late 2019 (when general mindshare started to trend positively again for the brand following the Series X reveal at the TGAs).
So yes, overall unit sales numbers are still important and always will be to some degree, but they aren't the most important things in determining if a console and its ecosystem are healthy. And it's the fact the XBO dropped the ball in the other, more important areas, why it actually could be argued a failure as a platform/console in general, in spite of the scattershot good things that came about from it. To compare it to previous Xbox consoles:
>OG Xbox (General Success)
-Raw Sales: No
-Division Revenue: No
-Net Profits: No
-Brand Power: Yes
-Positive Mindshare: Yes
**Established the brand and garnered a lot of positive mindshare for the brand that would carry over to 360. Innovated with hardware design
and online gaming, also carrying over to 360
>Xbox 360 (General Success)
-Raw Sales: Yes
-Division Revenue: Yes
-Net Profits: Yes/No (RROD ate into a big chunk of profits)
-Brand Power: Yes
-Positive Mindshare: Yes
**Took OG Xbox's innovations and solidified them, expanded upon them, and polished them. Aggressive push for quality content thanks to smartly engineered architecture and bettering 3P relationships. Capitalized on its main strengths. Arguably lost some momentum due to RROD and Kinect, but not enough to sully the very strong 2005 - 2010 period.
>Xbox One (General Failure)
-Raw Sales: Yes
-Division Revenue: Yes?
-Net Profits: No
-Brand Power: No
-Positive Mindshare: No
**Did not naturally capitalize on most of 360's improvements or advantages. Very bad early communication. Bad pricing for weaker-performant hardware compared to competition. Comparatively less efficient architecture & design. Massive reduction in sales & brand power within one of its two key markets (UK). Complete negation of all goodwill and growth in Japan and Asian markets from the 360. Declining 1P effort in AAA space in latter half of the generation.