(Business Perspective) Does MS really need Xbox Hardware?

[RolStoppable]

Azzanation said:

Wanted to bump this thread off the recent rumors.

How are people feeling of MS leaving the physical and possibly soon the console hardware market? 

That would be great, because it would raise the bar for Sony. For too long Sony could bank on the consumer attitude of "at least they aren't Microsoft."

Conventional wisdom says that competition is good for the consumer, but what has it really brought for the consumer through the past two decades? Competition didn't stop online multiplayer from getting put behind a paywall, it didn't stop any of the AAA industry's money-making schemes, it didn't maintain the quality of games at launch as day one patches followed by multiple patches afterwards became regarded as a normal thing. And of course paid-for exclusivity of games is also a consequence of competition that didn't benefit consumers as a whole. It isn't too hard to name two bad things for every one good thing that happened because of competition and there is definitely no net gain for the consumer here.

Conventional wisdom says that monopolies are bad, but for one, Sony wouldn't have a monopoly anyway with Microsoft being gone; on one hand you have the PC with high-end graphics and on the other hand you have Nintendo who share a very high number of games with Sony below the AAA level (as does the PC). And two, is portable console gaming worse since Sony has exited and left it all to Nintendo? The opposite is the case.