Agree with all of this

Microsoft schedule should be:

- E3 2018: Focus on games for X and S.
- Holidays 2018: Drop the price of X to $399 and offer the S for $189 and a game.
- March 2019: Announce that developing for the S won't be mandatory anymore in about six months. Drop the price to $199.
- E3 2019: Focus on games for X. Ignore the S like it's dead while still release 1st and 2nd party games on it.
- Holidays 2019: Drop the price of X to $349 and offer the S for $149 and a game.
- March 2020: Announce the new Xbox and drop the price of X to $300 and S to $149.
- E3 2020: Focus on games for new box and X. Announce the new console is releasing this holidays.
- Holidays 2020: Release the new console. Offer the X for $249 and a game. Offer the S for $129 and a game.

* Release the console with Forza Motorsport 8, smaller Rare game, Perfect Dark and few third party exclusives.
* Continue releasing the less demanding games on the S in 2021.
* Next box price will depend on what Sony ask for PS5. It shouldn't be more. Microsoft needs to be aggressive with pricing the consoles and depend on the money generated from Gold and Gamepass if they want to be competitive.

Microsoft should be the first to try selling a disc-less console. In the near future, companies will be able to live with taking a big loss on hardware because of the money they generate from the digital market. Digital copies of games, Gold/plus, Gamepass/Now, all of these generate billions each year. I can see a $399 console even if the console itself cost the company ~$500.
They should do a test this holiday and release a $79 disc-less Xbox One S. They would take a hit initially but they will recover fast. The gamer either will buy single player games and they get 30% from each game or the gamer will spend time playing COD, PUBG or any other multiplayer game and they need to spend $60/year on Gold for that.
If it ended up being successful, the can start next gen with two versions: $399/$199 or $499/$299.

- They offered the S for $189 last year. Why not $50 less in three years time?

- X360 was way more successful and they were able to live with higher price.

- As I said in the previous post, the money they generate from the digital store/services is a lot more this time around and it is going to get much bigger by 2020.

MS focusing on games will be like some 41 indie console timed exclusive shit.
I do think that Satya put a top on their budget after the failed Titanfall, Ryse, Dead Rising 3, Quantum Break and Sunset Overdrive deals.

So finally a roadmap:

Ya, it's incredibly obnoxious when they come out at E3 talking about how they got X amount of exclusives, and then it's like 95% indie games. Newsflash MS....nobody is buying consoles to play indie games. Sure, they're nice to have. Some of them are real gems. But they're ancillary. Stop treating them like they're a main attraction.

Honestly, when they turn up with as much indie content as they did last year, they almost needn't even bother showing up. Putting on a show just for the sake of putting on a show, when you really got nothing is pointless. It's akin to playing a round of poker, except everyone can see each others hand, and you're out there trying to bluff your way to victory with a pair of 2s.

Gears 4, halo 5, and Forza Horizon 3 looked/played fantastic. I can not wait to see what the next iterations look like on the x. Basically all games announced going forward will be built not ported for the x. Should start seeing a large difference between Xbox s/x versions of games.

I do see Microsoft expanding. Slower than I’d like but they may be taking the correct route. 343 has been growing steadily. As of late 2016 they had 450 staff. Probably not all devs but still. They are currently hiring for 15 positions. The coalition is also rabidly growing and hiring various positions. Rare has doubled in size over the last year and is hiring 13. Ideally we want them to each have 2 teams putting a game out every 3 years.

The other goal is to make new studios or acquire some. We obviously haven’t heard of either but news could be kept under wraps till e3 if it’s happening. I’ll post below a couple studios I think would be good fits. Some are already owned by another publisher but it’s possible for Microsoft to buy them from their owner.

- playground, undead labs, moon studios are all making exclusives but could part ways in the future. It would be smart for Microsoft to go after them especially playground and moon.

- splash damage. Rumored to be working on gears spinoff.

- certain Affinity. 120+ devs with a lot of industry vets including the man behind halo’s multiplayer. They have worked with ms in the past a lot. Think they could make a good aaa game given the chance.

- obsidian. Let’s face it we need a rpg studio bad.

- creative assembly. Did halo wars 2 and alien isolation shows they can make a damn good game. Would need to be acquired from Sega.

- respawn. Never going to happen but they are some of the best in the business

There are a ton of other devs that could be acquired this is just a few. I hope to see ms get at least 1 studio of this size/talent by e3.