Yeah I reckon my first priority would be securing actual exclusives instead of everything also being on PC, followed by aggressively pursuing third party exclusives, building up a first party catalogue similar to Sony's but with more variety, and competitive pricing even it means taking a loss per unit. (They're MS, they can take it) 

I read a lot of nonsense in this thread... now I will give mine.

I think MS should keep doing what its doing. Make an effort to increase the quality of their big IPs which is happening. Gears 5 showed that, Halo Infinite is looking great, Forza is highly praised and successful, but I am still waiting for Fable.

Make more big budget story driven adventure games given those are quite popular. Seems they have the talent to do that.

I would like to see a low end and high end console for the 9th gen. It would help their userbase if they can get the cheapest hardware on the market. Not win the gen, just help boost sales.

While some keep arguing Xbox needs actual exclusives, not shared with PC. I think thats neglecting many gamers only use PC or console. Therefore software revenue goes down by ignoring PC. Some games seem to thrive more on PC like Sea of Thieves and naturally AoE. The shared audience of PC and Xbox consoles is more revenue without directly supporting competing hardware. They can also take more risks if they can rely on PC revenue which is happening and why some IPs are returning.

Gamepass is fantastic, I imagine it has also increased engagment of 1st party games significantly.

I feel MS is making good and obvious decisions. I think many on this forum actually want less competition but I assure you Playstation wouldnt be as good without Xbox. That goes both ways.

I think the focus on Gamepass is the right move. If they're able to make money on it at the current price, I think it will be a great success. It's an excellent deal for the gamer.

Of course, if they need to charge more for it, that could very much change things.

I dont think a price increase should be necessary.

A service like Netflix probably needs to increase the price regularly because they spend a fortune creating content, I thought I heard its not even profitting. But they need to keep adding content to increase subscriptions and compete.

Gamepass doesent need to do that. Xbox software still relies heavily on actual sales. Gamepass is more like an extra revenue stream. If more people opt to subscribe to Gamepass then revenue would increase as well.

Unless MS plans a vast increase of games added, which I doubt, that might justify a price increase. Instead I imagine it will be about three AAA games a year along with smaller stuff.

For me the sole reason I haven't bought a X1 is the lack of exclusives. I just see no reason in owning one if the titles can be played elsewhere. The 360 lured me in with it's exclusives, and though it wasn't my main console, it had enough exclusive content for me to justify a purchase. Obviously if the nextbox follows the same route as the X1 i'll skip it again. Same goes for Sony aswell, If they start putting everything on PC then I'll just switch to PC and probably end up pirating 80% of the titles and buying the few I liked. I don't see any point in consoles without exclusive incentives when the games can be played on superior hardware personally. 

I think you're the type of person MS is not concerned about.

Supporting PC gives them as access to a significantly larger userbase than consoles have alone. And again, there is many users around the world who only use console or PC. Software revenue can go up significantly even if it may sacrifice some console sales.

However, there isn't concrete evidence that supporting PC has a significant impact on console sales. Look at the most active games on Xbox given MS actually shares that information, virtually all of the content on that list is content shared by PC and Xbox. Why are people playing those same games on Xbox when they can get a better experience on PC? Maybe because a vast majority of console gamers aren't interested in buying a gaming PC. Nor can you buy a PC that plays high end games as well as a console for the same price (sometimes $150-200).

You said you rather play Xbox games on a PC, which is fine. As long as you're playing their games somewhere MS has suggested they're happy. But if you're gonna just pirate everything, you just don't matter. We're seeing MS games succeeding on PC with no real evidence of hurting Xbox. It may just be the opposite, Xbox and PC sales combined is increasing their software revenue.

What hurt Xbox the most this gen was poor decisions made at launch. Price was too high due to Kinect, some of their exclusive software wasn't ambitious or notable enough and frankly they should have had more studios years ago. Sharing games with PC is talked about a lot but not nearly as significant as other factors I mentioned. The proof of that is best selling console games are multiplat, PC included.

I have two answers, a selfish answer and a strategic answer.  

My selfish answer is make games that I have been wanting and no one else is making.  A good example is what Nintendo did with Breath of the Wild.  I was very disappointed with the Zelda series for about 25 years, and I would have gone to any system that gave me that old school Zelda feel.  Appropriately, Nintendo was the one to get Zelda back to it's roots.  But now Zelda is off the table for Microsoft, because Nintendo did it first.  I had been wanting a game like Spider-Man 2 also, and Sony did that.  Now that type of game is off the table.   

However, two franchises that have left a hole are Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy Tactics.  They should hire some devs passionate about these franchises and give them a significant budget and let them make a game of a similar feel.  They don't even need the franchise name, they just need to make it clear that the game "feels" like these franchises.  I am really enjoying Wargroove right now, because Advance Wars hasn't been made in a long while.  It looks enough like Advance Wars that it doesn't need the name.  Really Microsoft could even hire Sakaguchi and Uematsu and give them like a $20m budget and see what they make.  Even if they the first game only sells a couple of million they should stick with making these kinds of games, because they might have to iterate until they get a major hit.  That is basically what Nintendo is doing with the Xenoblade Chronicles series.  They are trying to get old Final Fantasy fans.  Microsoft should try to beat them to the punch.

Now my strategic answer.  Microsoft's ultimate goal is to build up and defend the PC platform as much as possible.  They released the Xbox series of consoles to prevent the Playstation from becoming a PC in the living room.  They are releasing Gamepass and XCloud to defend from companies like Apple and Google from entering gaming.  Their console strategy is part of their larger PC strategy.  

What Microsoft needs to do is to actually become the PC in the living room.  They need to bundle a stripped down version of Windows in every Xbox, and think of consoles as a third way for people to experience Windows.  This should not be an "in your face" thing though.  Instead it should have a traditional XBox interface with an option to go to Windows.  (Also the console needs to look like a console and not a PC tower.)  Then they need to partner with one or more PC gaming platforms like Steam, Epic and/or GOG.  (I'll just use GOG from now on to keep it simple.) 

Then, they need to have "one-way" exclusive games.  For example, if a person wants Halo, then they need to own an XBox and buy it for XBox.  However once they own it, then they can also play it on the PC platform of their choice (GOG, Steam, etc...).  They can then play the game on XBox or PC, but they can only buy it if they own an XBox.  Also a person can get to their PC platform of choice from XBox in the living room.  This basically turns every XBox into a Steambox or GOG-box too.  Also it should be very easy to use either a normal controller or PC & mouse from XBox and encourage all third party games to have both control options.  Basically this would mean XBox players would have all XBox games with the option of having all PC games too including their whole PC game library.

Other things Microsoft needs to do:
1. Win back North America.  To do this they need to make Halo and Gears revolutionary and amazing games.  They need to make a Halo game so good that FPS fans say, "Why am I even playing Call of Duty anymore?"

2.  Focus on expanding into Eastern Europe.  That is what Sony is doing right now.  Cut Sony off at the knees.  If they partner with GOG and CD project Red they should be able to do it.

3.  Also expand into India.  Everyone focuses on China.  Why?  India has over a billion people, isn't Communist, English is their official language and their only real taste of gaming is PC gaming.  It's a perfect territory for Microsoft.

4.  Make a Banjo Kazooie game.  Nintendo is giving them free advertising, so that is money left on the table if they don't do it.  And while they're at it, try to get Master Chief in Smash Bros.

5.  Get an exclusivity deal on Witcher 4 from CD projekt Red.  Also, hire the Sonic Mania guys to make an exclusive 2D platformer.

6.  Put as many Apple Arcade games on Gamepass/Xcloud as possible.  If these games stay Apple exclusive, they give Apple an opportunity to grow.  They need to nip that in the bud.

7.  Make the system backward compatible all the way back to the O.G. XBox.  Rerelease popular old games like Master Chief Collection and Knights of the Old Republic.  Then if they buy then on XBox make then available for free on their PC platform of choice (Steam, etc...).

8.  Most importantly, make their system slightly less powerful than PS5 and $50-$100 cheaper.  It will run all of the same third party games but it will be a cheaper system.  Chasing the title of "most powerful system" is like chasing a white whale.  Far more people care about price than power.

And really, they would be smart to take both of my strategies into account.  Make games that other companies have neglected, and bring the PC into the living room.  There are actually a lot of opportunities for Microsoft to both win customers and grow the PC platform if they know how to take advantage of them.

Only Lost Odyssey made a minor impact and to be honest RPGs isn't really a console seller, especially if they are generic RPGs. But, Microsoft has already targeted exclusive RPG has their future plan with the purchase of two new studios that can make JRPG. There is also the rumored reboot of Fable.  

Obsidian, Inexile & Playground games future should really address Xbox one lack of RPG & JRPG.  

Focus on having awesome kick ass games on the Xbox platform, exclusive or not, I mean, most people don't even know what an exclusive game even is, nor do they care, they just want something good to play for cheap.

Make sure people know that they can play these games on Xbox for less money, if that means a less powerful console, so be it.

Basic online play for free, add bonuses with gold suscription, such as gamepass, game sharing, cross game chat, cross platform online gaming etc. Focus on social streaming, apparently, for some reason I don't understand, watching some idiot playing games is far more popular than playing games in itself. Why not make a profit from it?

Stop the Series X, Series S hardware tier BS. One Xbox, simple, functional and elegant. Non gaming people get very confused by this. If you give them simplicity and convenience, they'll buy what you're selling.

Guess you're right, I'm not the type of person MS is targeting. Thankfully I'm not missing much.