Soapbox: Four Years On, I'm Already Nostalgic For The Early Xbox Series X|S Era

Image: Xbox (Unboxing The Xbox Series X)

This Sunday, November 10th, marks exactly four years since the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S officially went on sale for the first time in 2020. It's scary to think it's been that long - I was covering the launch extensively here at Pure Xbox at the time, and thinking back, I have to admit I'm already feeling nostalgic about those early years.

It all started with the lead-up, which officially began at The Game Awards 2019 when Microsoft revealed the Xbox Series X out of nowhere. Over the following year, more and more details began to trickle out about the console and what it was capable of, and we were treated to snippets of gameplay for the likes of Yakuza: Like a Dragon, DIRT 5, Watch Dogs: Legion and a whole bunch of first-party titles that looked to take advantage of the Series X hardware at launch.

There was so much excitement in the air that Hookshot Media even decided to bring back Pure Xbox after a multi-year hiatus (!), and ultimately it felt like Microsoft was going to deliver a system that would get off to a very strong start, unlike the Xbox One's botched launch in 2013. In my opinion, that's exactly what happened, alongside the Xbox Series S which remained a secret until very late in the year - it was revealed in September and launched in December.