Should Xbox End their Generation Early?

[Zippy6]

Wman1996 said:

RolStoppable said:

The timing of the launch won't matter much when Microsoft has a bunch of other things to address, but if we ignore these other things for a moment, preparing for a successor rather sooner than later is the logical thing to do. That is, if there's still any ambition to sell a lot of consoles. Although looking at the big picture, the most sensible course of action for Microsoft would be to let this generation fizzle out and go full third party, because if they kept making consoles, they would also keep doing things that contradict each other. Namely that they try to push a console and platform-agnostic services concurrently; this just doesn't work, because it makes the console redundant.

This does make me think that they will drop out of the console business first. 

I'm pretty sure they'll eventually (either alongside the next Xbox or after they exit the console business) release a line of Xbox Gaming PCs that come pre-installed with the Xbox app, include an Xbox controller, and a trial for Game Pass. 

Microsoft is one of the wealthiest corporations in the world, so they could theoretically stay in the console business as long as they're wealthy (no signs of that stopping). But eventually, I think something will give. I'm pretty sure they'll want to bow out with some dignity instead of being like Sega exiting the hardware business in disgrace after all the lost money from the Saturn and Dreamcast. 

Shinobi has hinted that there are more Xbox exclusive games coming to PlayStation in the future. It will be interesting to see over the next few years what titles MS publishes on PlayStation and Nintendo consoles. If the software revenue from the 200m+ PS/Nintendo installbase becomes too enticing their hardware could take more of a backseat than it already has.

After the Activision purchase MS has more money in software than ever before but their hardware is selling the worst it has since the original Xbox. There is a point where the hardware business is no longer worth sacrificing your software sales for, but what that point is for MS I do not know. Do they pivot their business or keep trying to use their software to push hardware. We'll see.