Does this count as the latest "generation" of Xbox? Microsoft seems to think so, because in the face of abysmal console hardware sales where the competition is outselling you 5-to-1 the brand has undergone a hard pivot to punting Xbox not as a console, but as a service you can access on whatever device you happen to have.

Whatever this phase of the Xbox story turns out to be, for now I'm putting it in last place.

4 Xbox One: A Comedy of Errors

It's hard to think of a bigger fumble in the history of console gaming than the Xbox One. Not only was the Xbox One significantly weaker than the PlayStation 4 (its main competitor), it was riddled with unpopular decisions and features. These include an always-online requirement, not being able to easily share games, or buying or selling your games, since they'd be paired with the console in question. The Kinect would be a non-optional add-on that inflated the cost of the console, and Microsoft wanted the Xbox One to be a media center as much as a gaming console.

This allowed Sony to absolutely walk all over Microsoft, and derail millions in marketing spend with an improvised video like this one which, as of this writing, has over 20 million views and is still providing PR value to Sony.

Microsoft would walk back most if not all of these unpopular decisions, and the Xbox One X (a mid-gen upgrade) is objectively the most powerful and technically accomplished console of its generation. Sadly, the damage was already done and the Xbox One generation is a black mark on Xbox history.

3 Xbox Series S/X: The Problems With Power

The current Xbox hardware generation is a real mixed bag. Microsoft decided to split their hardware with an affordable HD-focused console in the form of the Series S, and their premium 4K console, the Series X.

Initially, this looked like a brilliant move because it came at a financially difficult time in the world, and there were shortages of premium consoles for years. I bought a Series S myself (because I wanted to give my wife access to future Bethesda games), and we enjoyed this little machine quite a bit.

Unfortunately, as the generation rolled on and current-gen exclusive games began rolling out, the little Series S started to struggle, and even though I'd been in the little guy's corner, even I had to start advising people to skip the Series S.

Having to release games for both Xbox tiers also seemed to be a challenge for some developers, leading to game delays for major titles like Baldur's Gate 3, because the Series S version couldn't be feature-complete. A huge fumble for a major GOTY winner.

But, at least that's made up for by the Series X with its (then) class-leading horsepower, right? Well, despite having more powerful hardware on paper than the PlayStation 5, Series X versions of games have repeatedly run no different, or even a little worse, than the PS5 version at launch. Series X games sometimes also have small quality of life issues, such as inexplicable stutters or frame drops or features in games not working quite correctly. Of course, most of this stuff gets worked out in a patch or two, but you only get one chance to make a first impression.

The video below should start at 1:27 and disucsses some of the reasons behind the Series X and it's failure to live up to its on-paper performance.

I think this marketing based around horsepower that didn't manifest in any meaningful way ultimately hurt the Series X image, and as I mentioned before, these consoles are taking an even bigger beating from the competition than the Xbox One did. Which is a pity, because, in isolation, these are genuinely good machines with great features, despite a distinct lack of polish.

2 Original Xbox: A Genuine Gaming Revolution

The guy who sold me my first PlayStation 2 got rid of Sony's legendary console in favor of an original Xbox. At the time I'd never even heard of "Xbox" and I had no idea what this thing was supposed to be, but little did I know that this brilliant little machine would produce some of my favorite games of all time, and be a taste of what console gaming would eventually become.

A plucky Hail-Mary project from a few rebels inside Microsoft, cobbled together from bargain bin PC parts, the OG Xbox was in a different league than its competition on a technical level. A hard drive was not optional, as it was in the PS2, so every game could take advantage of it.

It offered entry-level PC 3D acceleration, but it might as well have been a supercomputer compared to the rest of the gen. Massive open worlds in games like Morrowind? No problem. Complex RPGs like Fable with all its systems. Halo? Knights of the Old Republic? Psychonauts? Jade Empire? Riddick? This thing somehow ran a competent version of DOOM 3, a game I had to buy a graphics card for that cost more than a whole Xbox!

I only got to play these games later on PC, since I literally only knew one person who even owned an Xbox, but there's no denying that this was an amazing entrance to the console market.

1 Xbox 360: A Big Embarrassment, but an Even Bigger Success

I think quite a few people will be surprised by the Xbox 360 being at the top of this list, but frankly this was the golden age of Xbox, even if it was only the second-generation of the brand.

My biggest regret was buying a PlayStation 3 instead of an Xbox 360. My brother bought the Xbox, my friends bought the Xbox, but noooo I wanted a Blu-ray player too. Now, everyone knows that Microsoft had to recall an enormous number of Xbox 360 consoles for hardware failures early in the generation, and that's not good. But if you were lucky enough to get an Xbox 360 that didn't spawn a "Red Ring of Death" it was one hell of a console.

The games ran, well, not good exactly but noticeably better than on my PS3, and just like the OG Xbox, it had some banger exclusives that I would only get to play later on PC, or years later thanks to the brilliant backward compatibility feature of the Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles.

I'm talking Mass Effect, Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey, and, of course, Forza. Despite the PlayStation 3 catching up and passing the 360 sales-wise towards the end of the generation worldwide, the 360 is still the zenith of the Xbox story so far, which only makes it the more tragic that the Xbox One that followed it played out as it did.