Friendly discussion... but it does seem like it now more than ever.
These points below are meaningless induvidually, but do stimulate ideas when together.

#BuildingTheList

- The increasing focus on creating windows games.
- The lack of first party variety on xbox one.
- The fact microsoft have quite the number of software development studios, however most of them are support, mobile or windows/f2p studios.
- Merging Windows and Xbox into one division headed by Phil Spencer.
- The extended support for PC gaming (4k resolution on Gow:J, so no console parity, being on oculus' stage, Spending 5/10 mins of their xbox conference to show minecraft hololens for windows 10 (not xbox))
- Buying the largest PC gaming ip, Minecraft.
- Buying the arguably best physics engine recently, Havok.
- The above two showing that they are moving to making money from the industry more as a liscensor rather than a developer
- Allowing their game studios recently to split and become independant.
- Increased focus of cloud and how cloud can process games, removing the need for dedicated hardware.
- Allowing titles like Minecraft story mode to release on competing platforms (They could potentially stop this from happening, but they don't seem interested)

Any more to add?

I mean it's not a bash at microsoft. They'll ride this gen out, make some great xbox one games and partner with studios to make great xbox one games for them, but it seems they are taking a new direction where they'll finish this gen and become a sort of 'valve company'.
They will create games with their 3 or 4 AAA focused studios, but mainly make their money consistently on liscensing their technologies to others, be it Havok, cloud services or engines.

It does tie in with the fact that many investors want to spin off xbox, so what if Satya, rather than spinning off xbox, just reforms the xbox into a brand which covers their entire gaming endeavours.

No they are just supporting both platforms.

Yes and no. But Sony's doing the same with PS Now, soooo...

I dont know man...but i really wouldnt like to see Sony and Nintendo left alone on the console industry.

Nintendo is absolutely no competition to Sony, and i dont want them to get lazy because they are going to be racing alone.

If Microsoft leave the console industry, i want a third player whatever it may be, Apple, Sega again, whoever!

No ms will try harder with the bone

it's probably worth noting that of the 4 games MS announced in 2015 half were announced for PC (halo wars 2, sea of theives) and another was hinted (gears of war 4) and honestly recore is probably coming to PC too.

This again.... Xbox has been their gaming platform since the launch of Windows 8. Next Gen they will release something that can connect to the TV and play games. But they will make more and more cross platform releases to broaden their base.

All three console makers are branching out at the moment with the likes of more windows 10 support from Ms, PS now from Sony, and smartphone games from Nintendo.

I imagine it's due to the increasingly competitive nature of the industry and the fact that they want plan b in case of a decline in their consoles sales or just to expand into new markets.

Not sure,but the struggling global sales and endless bundles does remind me if Sega and the Dreamcast ending.

nice try boy but failed