This generation is lost for MS - PS4 was all that gamers wanted, a capable FHD box for a low price.

Let's see what comes next - VR? 4K? MS has to wait it out.

It was always about outselling the competition. Their wording ALWAYS was reflecting that as was every time they boasted about it when they outsold the competition. They've just recided to not announce numbers anymore as they kept falling very far behind.

It's kind of naive to believe they aren't in it for the win. Of course they are, they just made the wrong decisions.

Of course they did.

I'd take the Sony route and throw money at top-tier developers to make exclusive games. Honestly, I think that's all they're missing... well, that and Fable anyway. Also, other than Itagaki's Ninja Gaiden and DOA, they've never had true Japanese support, and still managed to stand toe-to-toe with the PS3.

Xbox Live, GWG, the sales and deals, achievement tracking, outstanding customer support... Xbox does so many things right, I hope they learn from their mistakes with the XB1's launch and come out the gate swinging next time.

I don't get why anyone would think Minecraft was a bad move. Do you know how much money MS has? Microsoft has so much money, that they were willing to pay that much for Minecraft because they believed the profit generated from it annually, would outweigh the amount of interest the money they used for Minecraft would accrue annually sitting in a bank account. Just a stupid amount of money. And Minecraft was a good acquisition. There aren't only vidya games but books, toys, clothing, all kinds of shit.

If the Minecraft deal we're taking away from other gaming prospects, ok, maybe. But good luck proving that. And even then.... it's fucking Minecraft.

Opening new studios is pretty much going to be everyone's answer here because it's the most obvious solution and MS's biggest issue right now.

First thing: This generation is lost. Xbox One will NOT outsell PS4 and probably will sell less than Nintendo Switch in lifetime. Understanding this is crucial.

So, now, we can begin thinking in the future.

In the short term, we have to:
- Invest every money possible in FIRST PARTY STUDIOS. Nobody expects good exclusives for XOne anymore, so we ensure that towards the end of this "generation" and the beginning of the next (2019-2020) that we'll have good new AAA exclusives to show for Xbox One X and the NeXtBox.
- Stop spending money with timed exclusives. This just makes the company looks bad and don't win the consumers back.
- Planning a new Xbox for like 2020. Full BC with XOne. And keep XOne X forward compatible, like a cheaper version of it (I mean, the games from the first 3 years of this NewBox have to work on XOne X). Killing generations isn't bad, we can use that to have always the cheaper box and the most powerful one (XOne X cheaper then PS5 and NextXbox more powerful and expensive). That's the way to offer the best value, that X360 had and XOne didn't because of the kinect.

In the long term, we have to:
- Create more company's mascot. Nintendo has plenty of it, that are here since forever. Sony invest in new ones in every generation. We need more than Master Chief. We need something that people look and think THAT IS XBOX. That's more than just producing exclusives. It's about giving a face, a persona to the company. People need that more than ever nowadays.
- Buy exclusives. Don't matter how much we invest in first party studios, they will probably be responsible for a limited number of IPs and we need diversity. Pay for third parties for making a good exclusive game is cheaper and more effective than buying the whole studio and shows that the company is not just Halo, Gears and Forza.
- Good marketing for the next Xbox. Seriously, more than anything else, what killed the Xbox One was the bad PR in the presentation. Always online? No used games? More expensive than PS4 with less powerful? That was dumb.

What I WOULDN'T do:
- Give up the strategy of unifying PC and Xbox. As much as I hate it, PC gamers are different than Console Gamers. As much as Nintendo Gamers are different than the rest. We have to make people that WANT a console to buy OUR console. People who like to play in PC don't need a PS4 and just buy one for one or two exclusive games. And that is irrelevant in revenues. Unifying PC and Xbox makes more easy to grant exclusives, because the developers has a little more freedom and more audience with two platforms. Even Sony have some console exclusives that launches in PCs (of course their own IPs don't launch in PC, but Windows is from Microsoft too, so is not a big deal have some, or even all, games launching in PC and Xbox).
- Invest in the japanese market. Seriously, japanese don't buy even the PS4. They have TWO major hardware makers (Sony and Nintendo) from their country, why would they buy from an american one? I know there's a market for japanese-style games in the western world, but it's a niche. We have to be leader in American and we have to grant a good share of Europe. That's the point for staying relevant.

I think Microsoft would benefit much from that. But Nintendo not so much.

I totally agree with you. Xbox is a very good platform in almost everything. They just fucked up in games and marketing (and with marketing, I'm saying everything from the launch: price tag, PR, etc).

They probably do. But:

1. What consumers say they want is not necessaire what they REALLY want and even less what they will buy. Consumers usually don't know what they really want until they see it. Or was anyone in 2008 saying "FUCK, I really need a giant iPhone who does not make calls". But BAM in 2010 everyone were buying an iPad.
2. Also, consumers desires changes a lot and usually demands much time and money to make. So, when you finally accomplish that, they want something entirely different.

so.. How did it improve the xbox division?