Well you get more passes the more games you release. Especially ones with high impact. It's silly to be awfully specific about the last couple years when the issue with Xbox people often present is one that has been happening for the better part of a decade or longer. Even more so when you look at the launch of Xbox Series lacking any big games, going a year before FH5 and Halo Infinite, followed by another year of no big releases, and the only big game they have an actual date for right now isn't coming until May. With no idea how Redfall will eventually shake out, but right now the community at large is just rather meh on what has been seen so far.
Xbox One leaned on Halo, Gears, and Forza quite hard and so far this gen that's been pretty much the same. In this last 10 years Sony has pushed out The Last of Us, Bloodborne, Horizon, Spider-Man, Death Stranding, Days Gone, and Ghost of Tsushima as far as big new IP go. Were they all massive successes? No. But they were all new IP with large budgets catering to core crowds. Most of them did have a significant impact. This was on top of still pushing out great, if not fantastic, entries of Uncharted, God of War, Gran Turismo, and Ratchet & Clank. God of War was even a dramatic formula change.
As far as what Sony has pushed out specifically this generation in regards to new IP, both Miles Morales and Forbidden West were new entries in big budget franchises that only had one entry previously. We know a third entry for both are planned for release this year, one of which is a VR game. Death Stranding is getting a second entry and The Last of Us is getting its third which is a multiplayer title. Franchises sitting on 2 or 3 entries feel very different from those at 5 to 10. Especially when it's just a few of them that have pretty much been the extent of your major offerings for a long time.
Now all that being said, these smaller games they push out are really neat and a great way to fill in the gaps of larger releases. Are they going to sell consoles or subs? Most likely not. But what they do is give options to those already on the platform and help make more people content with their purchase. And you never know which new game has the kind of success that explodes into a big new franchise. My favorite Xbox period was when they experimented. When they did Kameo and Viva Pinata and Crackdown between Halo and Gears and Forza. I think all of these companies are at their best when they take risks and try different things. Xbox is no exception.
My personal feelings on each of these games would be that I'm not into Grounded or Pentiment. The aesthetics alone put me off completely. I was really digging how Bleeding Edge was looking but it ultimately fell flat. I loved that art style though and I hope Ninja Theory goes back to it in a later game. I'm going to look more into Hi-Fi Rush. The art and animation look really good. Just seems to have really good production values overall. Tango seems to be struggling to find a hit with their big budget horror games so maybe this could be a better avenue for them. At least one that they try more often between their bigger games.
Keep these kind of games coming, I say. What they've dropped so far might not be up my alley so much but that's fine. I still like seeing them push small passion projects out to see what happens and tickle as many fancies as possible. If they keep releasing these experimental smaller games and manage to get their major production pipelines sorted out, the best days of Xbox will be back.
