The Xbox One stumbled out of the gate when it launched back in 2013. But in the decade since, it’s become a bit easier to appreciate Microsoft’s ambitions and foresight with its third console. It combined a console, streaming device, and Blu-Ray player into the original all-in-one media player. But like Marty McFly rocking out to “Johnny B Goode” in Back to the Future, people weren’t quite ready for that. Yet.
It didn’t help that the console needed to always have an internet connection and a Kinect just to work at all, though Microsoft walked back that latter requirement before release. Nor did it help that it was priced aggressively, at $100 more than Sony’s PlayStation 4. As a result, the Xbox One failed to perform as well as its predecessor, selling only 58 million units.