I'll never understand why people ignore certain types of games...
No one would dispute that Sony are ahead of MS in terms of studios or exclusive output. That wasn't really the point though, it was that MS passed on this to churn out more of the same when that's not really true.
MS has had 4 years of barely doing anything on the 360 to build up their games studios and get a good thing going for the X1. Instead of doing that, they just sat around, doing absolutely nothing to improve the situation, instead they just churned out more Gears, more Halo, more Forzas. That's my issue with them. Yea, they have a game or two every now and then that they throw, but that's not nearly enough. They need to really get their head in the game. They don't have the benefit of having almost every multiplat better on their system, they don't have the benefit of a better online network, and they don't have the benefit of a strong first party to back up on. That's what happens when they rely on third party exclusives over building their own catalog.
I'm almost certain that after this year it'll just be the 360 all over again, but again, I hope I'm proven wrong. And heck, even this year isn't that great, QB looks amazing, SO looks promising but two games isn't enough.
About it?
They just released Ryse, Powerstar Golf, Crimson Dragon (I'll let Lococycle go), they have D4, Sunset Overdrive, Quantum Break, Project Spark coming.
They focused their efforts on Kinect for 360 and made new IPs for that platform, just because they didn't make new IPs you want to play (or I to be fair) doesn't mean they didn't make them and invest. In this time they also seemingly turned their attention towards Xbox One which is where we are seeing the investment come off.
You've also said "the usual cycle", but what does that actually mean? At the end of the Xbox lifecycle (focusing just on 2004 and 2005), they released Fable, Forza, Jade Empire, Phantom Dust, Sudeki as new IPs - 2 of which are still very relevant, one is rotting in EAs vault of unused IPs, Sudeki presumably the same in Phil Spencer's office and Phantom Dust which seems like it be brought back. These games as well as the sequels they made: Halo 2, Blinx 2, Rallisport Challenge 2, Conker BFD.
I dont deny that MS have a lot to prove long term with regards to new IP but I don't think its as bad as people make it out to be.
I've agreed before that MS had a stronger launch lineup, the issue is going forward. I'm just very skeptical of them after what they did on the 360. The 360 had a great first couple of years and then... look at what happened.
Most of those games you mentioned were also not from first party studios. I want MS to focus on that, and beef them up. Get them up and have them actually compete with Nintendo and Sony. What I mean by usual cycle, the yearly Forza/Halo/Gears/Fable games. It's either a Halo/Forza year, or a Gears/Forza year with Fable sprinkled around. I think MS should give their first party more independence and let them really evolve instead of just tying them down with the same games over and over. Black Tusk, a promising concept, is now a Gears factory (and yes, MS can say that they're working on other games, but again, I'll believe it when I see it).
Now, that's all my personal opinion, I realize that for some people more Forza/Halo/Gears is plenty. But it just doesn't cut it for me. I really want to play QB, but I'm not buying a console for one game, especially not for $499 and weaker than the competition. Make it $349 and then I'll bite. Again, at least that's my opinion. MS hasn't earned themselves the benefit of the doubt.
