it's really a simple risk and return equation... the cost of a new IP compared to the risk of success or therefor non success is way less appealing than milking a proven IP with huge success.... cause even if you could pull a new IP investing 50 million on a dev team.... hte cost of launching it and supporting it etc is way higher with less return... especially during a launch window where they already will burn money in ad campaigns... and being able to say XXX only on XBox 1 this holliday season for major IPs content is way better than pushing an unknown IP....

really simple business logic here... but yeah I would rather get new IPs too.... but it is not hard to see why MS or any other business would chose commercial logic over unforseeable risk.....

Exactly.  While microsoft clearly has several more exclusive I.P's in development than it ever has, I want them to continue to push for more.  There is no way I will continue to support them if they end the new gen the same way they have with this one.  I really hope that they take the Sony approach in this manner, to house a stable of first party devs to rival Sony and Ninty from top to bottom.  No doubt Microsoft has a veritable pool of talent capable of producing some amazing software, but they can do more to strengthen their first party offerings by investing more of these dollars into new, fresh studios that could eventually match or even surpass what Sony has due to the massive amounts of financial backing that Sony clearly lacks.  Its going to be really interesting to see what black tusk has up their sleeves, and I have no doubt that games such as quantum break the new halo will be amazing, but they can, and should be doing more.  Only time will tell.

I can understand that but the logic isn't sound as your investment might not pay off, taking the FIFA content here, great you've bought extra FIFA content and made it exclusive to your console, which is launching in 8 less countries that this content could have made a difference in. It still means PS4 will get a boost in those countries and even then a PS4 plus FIFA bought from a shop is cheaper.

The more they spent on trying to secure these deals and the less it pays off, the more they lose regardless. While establishing a development studio which could produce games for years to come even if your console business fails is surely a better investment. And it doesn't cost 50 million to make every game, 5million can produce a quality title plus sequals with good money management. Long term over short term gain here.

I really despise this money hatting on both sides. It is a morally corrupt practice, and should be banned. There is no pros to this practice for the gamers. It is not competition, it's sabotage. Think of it like this; if Sony/MS were two restaurants. One of the restaurants pays a fork manufacturer to not sell any forks to the competition for at least a year. Now this won't stop the customers from being able to eat, nor will it make the food any worse, but it does diminish the experience. I don't mind eating with my hands if I have to, but I prefer using utensils. Or you can say one of them pays condiment manufacturers not to sell the other one steak sauce. You see what I'm saying. That is not competition.
Could you imagine if other industries practiced this technique? Imagine if Ford money hatted brakes!
Competition is putting your best out there against your rivals best. Not tripping up the other runners in the race. That's considered cheating.

Its an edge on mutliplats, which are usually equally appealing to either console.

Plus the revenue they get more or less justifies the investment

@OP:
It's the shooterbox par excellence, so a consistent part of its audience is quite young, with intense, but short attention span: by the time a timed exclusive expires, their attention is already focused on the next timed exclusive. Hence, many timed exclusives cost the same, but work better than few lifetime ones.

You guys seem to forgot one crucial detail. The ps4 is still $100 dollar cheaper. And timed exclusive is defintely not a big motivation to prefer buying one console over the other. But if I own both console then timed exclusive is more significant.

Yes, but most people wont have both in the beginning, only a minority of people.

I don't get it either cause it will eventually come to the other console, but I guess its a selling point.

Well the answer is obvious really as most have discussed, but it is not enough to sway me into a purchase. Invest in creating exclusive games and you'll have my attention. With 'timed exclusives' I just have to be patient, but I am assured it will come in time. That's not an issue. As long as competing platforms have software to occupy my time then that's fine.