This thread got me to wondering if 2020 and 2021 were really as bare as some think. I mean, it's all subjective. And it definitely depends on whether or not you are a GamePass subscriber. So here was 2020, for me. Games I had never played before, but played in 2020 either bought on Xbox or via GamePass. Not counting multiplatform stuff that didn't hit GamePass:
2020
Frostpunk
Plague Tale
Two Point Hospital
Ninja Gaiden II
Wasteland Remastered
Ori and the Will of Wisps
Wolfenstein: Youngblood
Bleeding Edge
Ace Combat 7
Minecraft Dungeons
Carrion
Battletoads
Wasteland 3
Warhammer Vermintide 2
Doom Eternal
Forza 7
Deep Rock Galactic
Call of the Sea
Gears Tactics
2021
Halo Infinite
Horizon 5
Aliens Fireteam
The Gunk
It Takes Two
My Friend Pedro
Flight Simulator
Back 4 Blood
Into the Pit
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
Forgotten City
Phoenix Point
Artful Escape
Subnautica 2
Quake
Art of Rally
Hades
Psychonauts 2
12 Minutes
Tropico 6
The Ascent
Hot Pursuit Remastered
Psychonauts
Outriders
Zombie Army 4
MLB 21
Second Extinction
Yakuza 6
Yakuza 7
Wolfenstein: Old Blood
Prey
Rage 2
Doom
Dishonored
Dishonored 2
Project Winter
Dirt 5
Falconeer
Killer Queen Black
Project Winter
Cyber Shadow
The Medium
Outside of games I actually downloaded and played, the console also released a bunch of shit that I know are good games and worth playing, but I either have no interest, or already own/played.
2020
Brutal Legend
RE7
Control (already owned)
Superhot MCD (already owned)
Surge 2
GTA V (already owned, came to GamePass, great game)
FF15
Yakuza 0
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order (already owned)
Kingdom Hearts 3
Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5/2.8
State of Decay 2 Juggernaut (I bought the game day one outside of GamePass)
Neir Automata Become as Gods (already owned)
Yakuza Kiwami
Yakuza Kiwami 2
RDR2 (already owned)
Alan Wake (already owned)
FF9 (already played)
CrossCode
FF7
Destiny 2 and some expansion shit
The entirety of the library in EA Access
2021
Alan Wake 2 (already owned)
FFXIII
Crimson Skies (still have my Xbox copy)
Maneater (already owned)
Just Cause 4
Conan
Fallout 4 and New Vegas (already own)
FFXII
PoE 2
Wreckfest (already owned)
Yakuza 3, 4, and 5
And remember that this is outside of third party multiplatform stuff I also bought that never hit the service, like Elden Ring. So as you can see, for me personally, a slow time for Xbox Game Studio titles is pretty much irrelevant, because I have PLENTY I can play in the meantime. And personally I would rather a developer take their time and release a quality game and release it right, otherwise we get stuff like Infinite, or Battlefield.
The main reason I am perfectly ok with it is because even if we assume the Activision Blizzard deal fails, which it likely won't, MS has an absolute fuck ton of studios that make high quality games. They just happened to buy these studios at terrible times. Many of them were already balls deep making games they already had deals for, and MS honored those deals. And then COVID happened and fucked everything up. I can't even imagine what GamePass will look like once all these studios start putting stuff out.