Diversify their portfolio. Too much Gears, Halo, Forza this gen. Obviously, these franchises are big for the Xbox brand, but the popularity of these franchises are declining. Give them time to breathe.

Take more risks with new IP's. Give developers more freedom and additional funding/resources. Didn't Black Tusk want to start working on a new IP but were forced to do Gears instead? Don't interfere with development. MS wanting Scalebound to have a MP component is absolutely ridiculous. MS having a weak catalog of IP's is unacceptable three gens, about to be four gens, in the console business. 

Don't push for MP games when many third parties provide the best experience for it anyway. 

Alternatively, they should just sell their assets and franchises to Sony and retire from the console business altogether.

As Azzanation has already mentioned, Bleeding edge was in development way before MS bought them. This was Ninja Theory's passion project they've been working on. Do you think MS should have cancelled BE and told Ninja Theory to focus on single player games instead? Wouldn't that be the opposite of letting devs have creative freedom? 

MS wouldn't buy up these developers like Compulsion Games, Ninja Theory, Obisidian, Double Fine, and InXile who's main focus have always been single player games, and then tell them to make online focused games, Gaas, and so forth. Maybe you don't believe Phil, but lets look at Netflix. One reason Netflix is so popular is because they release a wide variety of original content which targets many different audiences. If Netflix only released what was considered "popular", they wouldn't be seeing nearly the success they have now. MS is going to let Inxile make the games they want because if they don't, Game Pass will never be the "Netflix of gaming."

Lets's look at several games that are single player or have a single player campaign which will be on Game Pass. Gears 5, The Outer Worlds, Pschonauts 2, Ori 2, Wasteland 3, Age of Empires 4, Age of Empires 2 Remastered, Halo Infinite, MS Flight Simulator, Battletoads, and Gears Tactics. Btw, all these games are either published by MS or from a MS developer. 

Why do you keep mentioning what happened in the past when we talk about the future? MS obviously released multiplayer games on Game Pass because they already released these games.

How has this anything to do with what their plans are with Game Pass? What they released right now wasn't really made with Game Pass in mind, do you understand that?

And sure, they will also release multiplayer games in the future, but they don't buy almost only devs specialized in single player games just for multiplayer content. If that was their plan, they would buy totally different devs.

And don't mention Bleeding Edge, you know how long Ninja Theory works on that, it's their wish to work on it and MS gives them the freedom to do so.

Xbox has a lot of single player games. People believe that "cinematic story driven games" are the only single player games.
Sea of thieves is the only gaas from microsoft and the catalog is more varied, but needs more releases per year
Microsoft has to develop sequels of its new ips, with greater budget, time and polish.
Games like Sunset Overdrive , Recore and Quantum Break could be great series if they improve their flaws.
It's funny how everyone hates corporate monopolies, but they just want every Nintendo and Xbox game on PlayStation.

Sorry for my bad english.

Alternatively, Sony could just sell their assets and franchises to Microsoft and retire from the console business altogether.

Why do this thread keep popping up like Microsoft hasnt been doing anything. Microsoft in order to better compete next gen needed more studios. They shouldnt get rid of their current IP, they need to reinvest like what they are doing with the next Halo. Microsoft need Halo, gear and Forza but what they needed was other studios to make other games to supplement what they have already.

They also have a superior subscription model which is still unmatched in the industry.

While exclusivity will always have a place, crossplay, play anywhere and subscrition model is the future. Microsoft is doing everything right at the moment and if they keep this momentum they could gain lots of ground next generation.

It actually could. Microsoft never really said they're doing away with Single player games necessarily, it's just that they want to focus on multiplayer games specifically. Now Multiplayer service games aren't the only things they should release. But there's nothing wrong with them being the killer app or selling point. With more studios under their belt, Microsoft could provide a very diverse library.

Yes, you could make every game a blockbuster, but I don't think that's actually a good strategy. It stifles creativity and after a while all your games look and play very similar because of it. Case in point, just look at how homogenized so many of Sony's recent first party games have been.

Now I do agree that Microsoft needs to have more patience with their developers and give them the budget needed to make the game they want. But I don't think mandating them to spend as much money as possible to make their games needlessly big is good idea.

Xbox is a brand of Gaming platforms run by Microsoft. It doesn't have to be a console anymore, it can be a service on PC, or a streaming platform you can access from your phone. The goal isn't to get people to buy a console per-se, but buy and ecosystem, and make sure they're locked into it fairly with compelling exclusives, and great services. If I buy an Xbox exclusive, I should only be able to play it on an Xbox Console, xCloud, or the Xbox on PC platform. As for the competing platforms thing, Companies kick around ideas that they never follow through on all the time. I think the most we'll see come out of that is maybe the Halo Trillogy and xCloud coming to Switch, and that's it.

I feel like we're still in 2015 or 2016 when I read this thread? Haven't people at a gaming website been following gaming news? Haven't they seen that they tripled their 1st party studio count to diversify their line up and produce more than Halo, Gears and Forza, not that I agree with the statement saying that's what they only had. Haven't they looked at the studios and saw that the majority of them are a single player focused studios? Haven't they noticed that those studios are known for RPG, Action, RTS, platformer, story driven games? Haven't they noticed Halo is taking 5 years to develop, Motorsport is taking an extra year and other developers is taking their time as well?

I agree that GamePass will push them to find GAAS games. I also think it will push them to diversify the line up. It will push them to get single player, multiplayer, MMO and other type of games. It will push them to get games from US, Europe and Japan. It will push them to keep pumping game to keep the subscriptions coming. Why only look at what you think is the bad side?

They are doing it the right way. Instead of pushing devs to produce game in a crazy schedule, they got more devs so they can take their time. They are allowing them to do whatever thing they would like to do. They are allowing them to grow and higher more people.

I am not complaining. Nutz n Bolts was a solid spin off and Battletoads looks fresh. Cannot wait to play it. Be very nostalgic.

I still want a Banjo Threeie and a Prefect Dark 2 title aswell.