I don't think it's hardware. It's a differentiator. Tell me why I (or whoever) should pick an Xbox over a PlayStation?

Microsoft tried to answer that question with Game Pass, seemingly going all in on that concept, paying or outright buying publishers to bring their games to Game Pass. Some people may love Game Pass, but most people I know either never subscribed to it or only tested it when it was like 1,-€ for a month or whatever.

What else differentiates it from the PS5 in a positive way? Sure, the Series X is a bit more powerful than the PS5, but it's close enough that it basically results in slightly different behavior for games with dynamic resolution scaling, with the PS5 sometimes even pulling ahead oddly enough (probably a more mature SDK, not sure).

The controller is...well, a decent controller. It doesn't do anything special like adaptive triggers, yet it costs almost the same as a DualSense, and if you count in the optional (!) battery pack, it's quite a bit more expensive even.

Playing online costs just as much as on PS5 (why do you have to pay extra to play online in 2023, anyways?).

Of the few mentionable exclusive games, most are honestly just mediocre (also in terms of critical acclaim).

What's left? Backwards compatibility for 360 games? Sure that's nice, but surely not a system seller for most people, especially when they don't already have a ton of 360 games.

I just don't see many cases where someone would prefer the Xbox Series X to a PlayStation 5, without even taking into account what platform their friends are on.

If you want to win market share, deliver a better product. With better services. With better conditions. For lower prices.

That is how it works. Crying to the public about how unfair it is because Sony has such a large installed base already because of how Microsoft fucked up the Xbox One generation (at or even before launch) is NOT how it works.