Chris Plante, writing for The Verge:

In theory, the Xbox One was an improvement on everything fans loved about the Xbox 360: a more powerful Kinect, new hardware that merged the console with your cable box, and lots of talk about the cloud. Microsoft only forgot one thing: the games. During the hour-long kick-off presentation, six minutes were allotted to new game announcements.

Fans felt betrayed and poured their fury into forums and game blogs; critics dubbed the event a disaster.

Leadership tried to pivot, using subsequent press events to announce the return of beloved franchises like Halo and Killer Instinct. But the messaging remained muddied and unfocused, requiring constant backpedaling. Because of the Kinect hardware, the Xbox One cost $100 more than its closest competition, Sony’s PlayStation 4. When Microsoft finally debuted the system on November 22nd, 2013, it landed with a thud. It’s been trailing PlayStation ever since.

This is a great read.