wow, didn't expect this thread to blow up as much as it did. so here's my take.
MS lost a lot of money on the original xbox. over the 360 era MS made money but last i checked only enough to basically make the entire xbox venture about a break even. that's not a lot of return on a 10+ year investment.
now xbone isn't doing too well. despite the massive launch, xbox is about 10 weeks away from going negative GenOverGen in europe. it's loosing ground quite quickly in the US as well and will probably be negative before the end of the year.
so from pure investment perspective, why take losses? as 360 users cut and run to ps4 those xbl subscriptions will dry up and those profits from this gen will evaporate. gaming has been a hard market lately and with amazon (and probably apple) entering the fray it's not going to get any easier.
i don't think MS has a lot to gain from xbox even if it were profitable. the profits are miniscule compared to MS's other ventures and it does nothing to advocate MS's core offerings.
i dunno, i don't think MS needs to sell off xbox but i'd hardly blame them if they did. i mean, would anyone in their right mind suggest sony should make a follow up to vita?! i wouldn't,.. even as a relatively happy vita owner i think sony should kill off the psp line. it just doesn't make sense to invest in it anymore.
