I can see them releasing a very high end console, but will it even be a "console"? If it is, then how many will buy it? Wouldn't that just straight up kill Xbox as a platform (15 million sales max)?
If it's just a highend PC with an Xbox logo on it, that would be a cool device with the best library of games in the business, but it would sell even less because there is a lot of competition in the PC hardware space. They would be sacrificing too many subscriptions and software sales (the 30% cut off every 3rd party dollar sale) for a small return.
I don't l know if Microsoft cares all that much about the Xbox brand anymore. They'll sell huge amounts of software and maybe they're happy with that. Everything else they're doing is experimental/optional, they'll keep throwing things at the wall and see if anything sticks. Microsoft gaming before and after the ABK acquisition are entirely different things.
Edit: one thing people aren't paying attention to, is how Microsoft going "3rd party" may enable them to make more acquisitions like ABK. Imagine what they can do if they got EA and Take-Two. Pretend to be an innocent 3rd party publisher, then return to partial or full exclusivity to promote your platform when you're done with acquisitions. I'm not saying this is what they're doing, but anything is possible and this would be a mega smart move.
Last edited by Kyuu - 3 days ago
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