I agree, I think they have made a good choice for once. This is all about the future, tieing all of these things together will only help them and gaming in general.

Well aren't you all doom and gloom

Last Xbox console? This is the first I'm hearing of such a possibility!

MS are doing really rather well right now and whilst Windows 10 will feature more gaming integration, there will always be a demand for consoles because not everyone can afford a gaming PC; or are interested enough to do so. So yeah, there will be another gen at least after this.

I think thit will be more like a steam box. Windows 10 will be the focus.

And I hope it is a tactic that ensures both deeper games like The Witcher or Batman, and lighter games like Candy crush.

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft makes a deal with Sony or Nintendo to design the OS for their next gen console. That's basically why they're still making consoles. They want Windows in the living room. They don't need their own hardware to do that though.

In fact that's what Microsoft originally wanted before they entered the hardware market. They went to both Sony and Nintendo to make a deal where they would design the OS for the PS2/Gamecube but both companies turned them down. Microsoft even tried to buy Nintendo for this very purpose. Nintendo may still be stubborn about it but I think Sony would be more open to the idea.

Last XBox? No, but unless something major changes at Microsoft it's going to wind down in another generation or two.

The problem is that, while XBox brand isn't actively loosing money, it's also not making anywhere near as much money as Office or Windows. There are better projects Microsoft can invest its money in and the investors know this. Without someone like Don Mattrick keeping the division together it will slowly get its talent absorbed by Microsoft's more influential divisions. There's easily enough juice for another console, perhaps two, which is plenty of time to turn the brand around, but that doesn't look particularly likely.

Compare to Sony, where Playstation is the only thing making money in a very large corporation. Microsoft has a good reason to slowly get out of the console business, Sony has a good reason to double down on it.

Nope, all three will make another console for sure.

Microsoft has wanted to do that since the 90s. However, neither of them want Windows on their machine's, so I don't think this'll happen.