Xbox's PS5 Pro Pickle, or how Xbox might lose even more of its audience without a new console soon

I'm all over the place when it comes to my thoughts on Sony's PS5 Pro. I want one, but I also can't do the financial calculations to justify buying one, even though I expect I'd save a whole load of mental energy if I just bite the bullet and get on with my life. Regardless of my own actions, many people will buy a PS5 Pro, and I expect a good chunk of those people might be Xbox Series X owners looking for the most powerful console on the market. Without Xbox releasing an Xbox One X equivalent for this generation, tech-hungry Xbox fans are left with only one choice: Abandon Xbox.

I did the reverse of this back in 2017. I was 100% on PS4 as my main platform following the mistakes Xbox made with the Xbox One. The PS4 Pro was great, too, but as someone who wanted the best out there I bought an Xbox One X and never looked back. At the time Game Pass was really starting to take off and Xbox (like it had been during the Xbox 360 era) quickly became my platform of choice. I played almost everything on Xbox One X, so my digital game library swelled. I saw no reason to change this when the Xbox Series X was on paper the most powerful console, but now I do. And others will be thinking the same.

If I want the best console gaming experience until the next generation of consoles my only choice is the PS5 Pro.

While many people might not think Xbox cares about people leaving its ecosystem, it definitely does. A person invested in Xbox and buying games for Xbox consoles is far more lucrative to them than a PS5 owner buying the same games. Add on a likely monthly Game Pass sub and there's a huge reason for Xbox to keep its audience on its platforms. If I jump to PlayStation now with the PS5 Pro and build up my library there for the next three or four years or so, am I ever going back to Xbox? I'm not sure given how things are shaking out at the moment.

Sony didn't need a PS5 Pro, but in creating one it has dealt another blow to Xbox. Game Pass and console power were, in my opinion, two strong reasons to stick with Xbox even with its exclusive games coming to other platforms. In my mind Xbox is tied to having a performance edge over its rivals, largely because it has done for most of its time in the market. With that gone even Game Pass starts to look less appealing, and it'll be interesting to see how Xbox games on PlayStation look on PS5 Pro. Indiana Jones is part of my Game Pass Ultimate subscription this December, but if that game looks significantly better on PS5 Pro, well, my resolve would be tested and my sub would start to look far less essential.

This is the problem Xbox faces and I think there's only one way to stop an exodus: tell us about the next Xbox if it's coming pretty soon. There's a growing feeling that Xbox is going to go a little early with its next console, perhaps even in 2026. That might be two years away, but I think I'd wait, making do with PS5 and Series X, if I knew that's how long it was until the Xbox 6 or whatever it's called releases. I also don't think it would hurt console sales much to announce a new console two years out from release. I doubt the average person buying a console four years into its life thinks much beyond what's right in front of them and let's face it, there'll be a substantial period after 2026 when games are made across two generations - there are new PS4 and Xbox One games due in 2025, 12 years after those machines launched!

Honestly, I'd have preferred a stop-gap console from Xbox to compete with the PS5 Pro, with next-gen coming around 2028 or later, but as that's not happening I need Xbox to dangle a reason to stick with Xbox while Sony dominates the console performance sector. It can say any old nonsense and I'll likely lap it up. I'm on Team Xbox as a consumer at the moment and just need a carrot to keep things that way.