The biggest problem here is as follows:
With so few 1party studios, there will be a lot of empty spots between launches, at least smaller games inbeetwen with good content can balance the year. The remaining studios are launching their games this year, and unless if they rehash their next game, it will be 2-3 years until next.. I suspect the other alternativ e route is that the remaining studios will start annualizing their games.

Third-party exclusives will get less and less likely if the Ps4 continues where it's heading, cuz there will be less profits in the underdog Vs the alpha-hound, it will at least be more expensive for Ms to pay for the deals.

I don't doubt Ms will aquire a better studio but having 8 useless studios wasting $ that could wiser be spent on these games.. I am sure Ms will relocate 50-100% of the devs from these studios into one or two, where they will be responsible to hire the workers they need for a project.... Problems with corporations is that they lack imagination but are pro at selling shit

the biggest problem is that shutting down studios and disbanding teams they could of had them shift from kinect to more core games and it doesn't help that 3 of those remaining studios are.

343 who only exist to make Halo games.

Turn10 who never made a game that doesn't have Forza in the title let alone a game outside of the racing genre.

The Coltion they haven't released their first game yet and they look like they only exist to make Gears Of War and nothing more just like 343.

while this could just be a cost cutting move and they just decided to focus on second party games instead it is a better worrying that this also looks like Microsoft isn't gonna focus on having a variaty of genres in their exclusve library like the other 2 first parties.

When did I say sales=quality? Please, show me! 

I talked about "strong" games. Your game can be a masterpiece, if it sells 10 games and 1 console, it has no interest in the context of a console war. But that's not the case here, we're talking about the only sure remaining first party exclusives : Halo, Forza and Gears. The annual Forza is just disappearing from the charts, Halo is weaker with each new game, and we'll see what Gears will do (but I'm not optimistic about it). The perceived quality of this games is not what it was anymore : almost nobody cares about the annual Forza and Halo 5 release was not the event it could have been. Quality wise (perceived quality at least), sales wise and diversity wise, the MS line up is falling. Closing studios is not a good move. Especially when it's getting harder and more expensive to get third party exclusives. 

The only strategy in which this is a good move is if they are planning to leave the console war...

Too many gamers treat numbers way to seriously. Companies are about profit. There not going to hold onto brands just because of a minor few. There paying to have them around just like your employer paying your salary. Would you prefer them to waste there budget on a bunch of workers that dont do a good job? Xbox has a budget from MS and a target to reach every year. The less fat you have the more you can run. Focusing on the good and not the bad is the future for any buisness. MS can hire or form other companies if they need to. They dont need to waste half there budget on 20+ studios if only 1/3 are preforming.
I feel sorry for the losses of those who worked for them. But life goes on and so does gaming.

Do you honestly think he was behind the decisions to close the studios. Closing 8 studios at one time is massive. Sure Sony has shut down a studio here or there but never on such massive scale. This signals a massive shift in direction and Phil Spencer said he was about growing 1st party studios not shrinking them. I think this was a decision not made by him.

What quality stuff?  Halo 5 was short with limited multiplayer options at launch.  Forza 6 was a copy and paste of five.  Gears looks decent, but not really anything new since the last game.  Still can't judge that one yet though, not till it actually releases and I can play it for myself.

Yea that is pretty much what MD has put out.  I am not yalking about 3rd party games they paid to have on their console.

Meanwhile Sony put out Infamous SS, Killzone Shadowfall, Bloodborne  (sony japan co dev this game), Littlebigplanet 3, Driveclub (horrible launch, but made great by good support), Until Dawn, MLB The Show, Knack, and that is not to even mention games like Uncharted 4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Last Guardian, and Ratchet and coming later down the pipeline.

Nintendo speaks for itself as far as 1st party games go.  It is all they have for crying out loud.

MS has the most pathetic line up if 1st party games out there.  Closing ANY studio instead of redirecting their efforts is a huge blow to them.  Not to mention Fable is now done, easily my fav MS IP from what they had.

I don't know who took this decision, i just see the result : studios are closed. It's the only fact we know. What i mean is does it really matter who was potentially behind it ?

But now i know what was important for you, it doesn't match with what Phil Spencer said ant that's true. May be it will be more difficult for some people to trust him. But from the beginning, and that's also true for Nintendo and Sony, it's just PR from an employee.

All we can do is wait for official announcements and release dates.

Gears 4.....yep thats its!

I had to laugh at your post and i am not even an Xbox fan. You claim Xbox has the most pathetic line up yet the line up u mentioned makes Xboxs list shine. Dont take my word for it .lets compare genres with the Review scores and see for yourself.

Knack (54) - Cobalt (67)

Infamous SS (80) - Sunset Overdrive (81)

Killzone SF (73) - Halo 5 (84)

DriveClub (71) - Forza Horizon 2 (86)

Littlebigplanet 3 (79) - Ori Blind Forest (88)

Ucharted Collection  (86) - Halo MCC (85)

The Order (63) - Ryse (60)

Street Fighter V (77) - Killer Instinct S2 (85)

Bloodborne (91) ill give you that even though Bandai made it and Xbox don't make a game in that catagory (yet) 

MLB (80) if you like Baseball and an 80 isnt anything crazy in this comparison

Until Dawn (79) again another game that its competitor doesnt make.

Lets throw in Rare's Replay (84) and Forza 6 (87) to make up the spots there missing.

Where is the superior list and the pathetic list? Iv compared the games in there respected catagories and it seems the 1st party and console exclusives dont seem to compliment Sony here.

This is coming from someone who games on everything.

Oh No!