The success of Xbox Series X/S has been an absolutely staggering turnaround for Microsoft's fortunes in the console market, putting the company back on something approaching an even footing with Sony despite the (largely self-inflicted) drubbing it suffered in the previous generation.
Nonetheless, when we discuss Microsoft's success in this generation there's always an elephant in the room, and every now and then, the elephant gets a little restless and a little harder to ignore. The Xbox Series consoles have fantastic hardware. Moreover, the company has gone back to its winning playbook from the Xbox 360 era with a brilliant services ecosystem. For all that, though, its software line-up remains weak – incredibly so, in fact, for a console that's approaching its second anniversary.
In the normal course of things, a console which failed to deliver a solid line-up of exclusive titles by its second birthday would be dead in the water, but we're not dealing with the normal course of things. Microsoft is maintaining consumer goodwill and enthusiasm on the back of a promise: that the games are coming, and while it may take a while, it'll be worth the wait.