The impression I'm getting is that Microsoft is no longer willing to throw money at console gaming the way they have before. This would mean that software developers under the Microsoft Studios umbrella are going to have to produce a profit more often than not. My guess is that Lionhead, as an example, was deeply in the red for their last few projects and Microsoft had enough. Be profitable or be dissolved.
Sony, on the other hand, seems content with taking modest losses on many of their games if the end result is strong sales for their hardware, which in turn boosts returns on all software. This is great for the consumer but it's probably a lot harder to justify for a company like Microsoft where a portion of their investors don't even want them involved with gaming. It's not their primary focus and it never will be, not the way it is for Sony. They want to monetize gaming, certainly, which is probably where they're going with Windows 10, but they're operating from a different perspective than the other hardware manufacturers. Microsoft would drop Xbox tomorrow if they could take some of the PC pie away from Steam.
The end result might mean that Sony and Nintendo have a less determined opponent in the console space, assuming Microsoft is turning their guns on Valve. On the other hand, as I've said elsewhere, this might mean that Microsoft simply starts buying up more exclusives rather than developing their own. It might just be a shift in the way they fight as much as anything else.
