Microsoft is generating positive buzz and slowly, delicately preparing players for the 2020 console cycle, which will surely feature at least one constantly connected Xbox. It's bolstering its game-development capabilities too: Microsoft Studios bought seven companies this year alone, adding
Fallout New Vegas house Obsidian Entertainment,
Wasteland 2studio inXile Entertainment,
Hellblade developer Ninja Theory and other big names. Meanwhile, Microsoft is preparing developers to work in a streaming ecosystem with a public beta for its
Project xCloud service launching in 2019. Compare all of this with Sony, a company that has backed away from
courting independent developers, refused to implement cross-console play and just recently
pulled out of E3 2019 entirely.
It took about five years, two mid-generation console releases and a brand-new gamepad to get us here, but Xbox is back. Microsoft is finally in control of the video game conversation once again, and in 2019, its runway is clear. Xbox is about to blast off.