I bought the newest console to play the most recent Halo. It truly sucked
The first Bethesda exclusive game was Starfield. It truly sucked
The recent focus has been towards online multiplayer and GAAS. Toxic games and toxic service models.
The ads are insane. Sometimes I'll turn the console on to a full screen ad about Diablo or Game Pass I have to acknowledge before actually using the console. Beyond that there is designated space on the home menu for 3 different banner ads.
Just my opinions as someone that's enjoyed that xbox brand since the first one, and stuck with it out of convenience and from making friends on the network there. Next "console" is a proper gaming computer
The last console other than the switch that I owned was the PS3. I loved that UI. A buddy was like "let's play some Halo" and I loved halo 1 and 2 but the rest just don't do it for me. Once he booted up his Xbox and I was driving the UI trying to launch the game I just wanted to hurl. Such a garbage UI. Littered with ads etc.
No idea what PS5 UI looks like but they're just PCs with a custom UI at this point so I'll stick with my PC.
I've grown a bit tired of the Xbox experience as well with some of what you've mentioned. I also don't play every single game that comes out, just a select few with whatever free time I do have. I want to get away from online gameing if I can, though I'm not against it my preferences are just shifting so I want to gravitate more to single player games and currently I'm considering the next Switch console (Switch 2?) and just play all the first party games Nintendo is known for, Zelda, Mario, Starfox, etc and all their retro games that'll be on the online store. I could get lost for years with that content. Really excited to possibly have that option for myself in the future. Just thought I'd share a different perspective.
I was a heavy Xbox user up until last year when they redesigned the Xbox home screen.
Instead of being able to pin multiple groups of custom apps/games wherever you want, you now only get one group pinned about halfway down the page past several rows of ads. There are generally at least 5 separate rows of ads on the homescreen at all times.
I have a series x (also had an original, 360, and one), and will 100% not be buying another console from Microsoft. The joy of using my expensive console was ruined by ads.
I need to finish Elden Ring, after which my Xbox will be used as a steaming device for videos from my PC or Kodi exclusively.
Edit - upon checking it looks like you can actually pin 2 custom groups. But there are also really 14 rows of ads, not 5, so....