(Business Perspective) Does MS really need Xbox Hardware?

[Machiavellian]

DonFerrari said:

I don't need Xbox personally, but you are wrong on X1 or Series burning money from MS. They may not have high profits (MS doesn't show the numbers), but the HW itself hardly is losing more than 1 or 2 games worth of profit, so considering the 10+ average it console sells and the subscriptions the HW itself is advantageous to MS.
Regarding needing MS to keep Sony in check I don't believe in it, PS2 dominated the market with easyness and still had price, quantity and quality while PS4 had a much stronger competitor in X1 and didn't cut prices besides once and in PS5 situation is similar regarding sales and besides the price increases due to inflation/exchange ratio there is no interest from either MS or Sony to cut prices at the moment.

Think about the PS3 and the message Sony put out during that time.  You would work 3 jobs to get this device.  You are mistaken if you believe that if Sony totally dominated the market that they would make the same decisions in the absence of MS.  I doubt we would have seen PS services anywhere near what they are today compared to MS pushing internet and Games with GOLD.  There are a lot of things Sony has done in response to MS compared to what they traditionally do. Even the PS4 is a direct result of how well the XBox 360 performed because building an extremely complex hardware device that makes it difficult for most developers to extract all the power out of the machine was never a good business decision.

So yes, the PS4 and PS5 are direct results of Sony pushing the advantages they have to make sure to keep ahead of MS and while you personally as a PS gamer believe MS has no impact on Sony direction, history show different.