I hope not. Many Switch owners are 2 console owners because Switch doesn't get enough 3rd party support for Switch people to be 1 console owners. Xbox exclusives have the potential to sell hardware to Switch owners as their 2nd console, especially Rare games and former Rare IP's, especially a new Banjo or Perfect Dark. Making it possible to play those games on Switch via the cloud kills those possible Xbox hardware sales. 

Is it possible that MS could do it. For sure, I just hope they don't.

I'm so confused by this logic...Xbox is more than just a console, whether you buy their games via Steam or play them through Game Pass you're in the Xbox ecosystem, you play Halo Infinite on Steam you're playing an Xbox Game Studios title.

I'd also disagree that their investments are nothing on a large scale, hardware in fact actually loses a ton of money, while transactions on store and services make up for it, look at how amazing Xbox titles are doing on Steam right now, lets use Sea of Thieves for example which made $20m+ in revenue in a single month thanks to Steam, years after its Xbox release.

Gaming literally just had its biggest quarter ever too in terms of revenue, twice in a row, the Xbox ecosystem is growing a lot thanks to Steam. Yes I'd agree they'd need to sell consoles too in order to make store revenue (30% cut) but even with the shitty gen of Xbox One they still had their best revenue quarter, even if they match Xbox One sales it will be too much for most publishers to ignore completely.

I'd say they could even match Xbox One sales with Series X but do far better thanks to PC and Game Pass expansion, they don't need to be #1, they don't even need to be near #1, just as long as they sell enough which there isn't really any indication they won't be able to, Series X is coming into this gen a lot better than Xbox One did.

If WB is out as an acquisition possibility, it puts MS in an even worse position against all of this Sony hatting. There aren't many independent AAA's left that they could acquire which would be a big enough deal to counter massive Sony hats. Most of the independent AAA studios that are left, like Crytek, Remedy, Rebellion, IO, Techland, etc. aren't really big enough sellers to counteract Sony hatting timed on big AAA multiplat games. Crytek hasn't had a big seller in a generation. Remedy has never had a big seller, even Control had lackluster sales in spite of good reviews and winning awards. Rebellion never had a big seller. IO has never had a big seller, Hitman only sold 15m between the first 5 games as multiplat releases. Techland had the most success of the bunch with Dead Island and Dying Light, but they've already ruled out an acquisition once, unless MS tries again. 

Not every game has MTX yet (and hopefully never will). And it seems like that's exactly the type of games Sony is looking to moneyhat, though I can be wrong. FF16 is the most rumored one and I don't see it having any MTX stuff in it. You also seem to have missed the most important part of my post. It would be great for MS and GamePass I guess if these games will do well once they launch on the service and many people will play them. But it would definitely suck for Xbox community if these shitty practice will allow publishers to still be successful on Xbox platform by launching the game later than on PS. Because then it would become the norm which shouldn't happen. In the best case scenario, doing such deals should hurt publishers financially so they would stop doing this.

If they hatted a space game with guns, I see a few possibilities:

-Starfield
-Beyond Good & Evil 2
-Star Citizen console exclusivity
-Borderlands 4
-Mass Effect trilogy remake/remaster

Seems way too soon for Borderlands 4, and Mass Effect seems safe, so it must be one of the other 3. I really hope it's not Starfield, that would piss me off more than anything Sony has ever done in their entire 26 year history as a gaming brand. Starfield does make the most sense though, as Imran said that Sony was specifically targeting developers who were associated with MS in the past, and Bethesda's TES 3: Morrowind was an OG Xbox exclusive, with TES 4: Oblivion being a timed 360 exclusive. The only other one of the above 5 developers/brands that was associated with MS in the past was Mass Effect, but it seems safe according to Shinobi.

Say what you will about this being a crappy gen for Xbox in terms of sales and other struggles, but it's my favorite one.

It's made gaming more social and enjoyable for me and I love the console, UI and everything. Exclusive games have been awesome and Xbox still offers the best games of my favorite genres. Operation 4 of Gears 5 made sure the king of 3rd person shooters ends the gen on a highest note. 

And every night in my dreams Phil and I do this scene from Dirty Dancing. And I look hot in those jeans shorts!

Beyond Good & Evil 2, money-hat that please, we'll see it in 2026 anyway.

Shinobi basically said Mass Effect 4 is so far away that there's going to be nothing to negotiate right now, feelsbad Plus outright confirmed the collection trilogy is safe.

Far too early for Borderlands 4, remember some of this is timed content too so some of these hints could be for DLC only.

One of the insiders said months ago that Sony is targeting stuff typically associated with Xbox, I think while Starfield is a new IP, Bethesda as a studio is more associated with Xbox.

Sony can have FF and SF for all I care but Starfield would genuinely annoy me, I've been waiting for another good RPG from Bethesda since Skyrim...Although I see Starfield more as an obstacle in the way of Elder Scrolls and in comparison to Elder Scrolls, Starfield isn't even on the same level for my excitement, plus we haven't seen anything from it so far and my faith in Bethesda as a studio has plummeted lately.

But yeah, I think it is Starfield, I could see a 2021-2022 release for Starfield.

Dude, Sea of Thieves made $20m+ off Steam in one month alone, you don't think that benefits the Xbox ecosystem? Benefits Rare to expand and create more games? Secures their financial position?

They're expanding the Xbox ecosystem and receiving a ton of cash because of it, where does that cash go? to Xbox for further expansion. Success of those games on Steam could very easily mean more 1st party investment cause they have more money. Steam is being dominated by Xbox Studios lately, I can guarantee Xbox is making big $$$ off Steam.

As I've already said later in the post. XGS != Xbox ecosystem. I agree that more money these games generate would result in more XGS games overall, but you need to keep in mind, that Microsoft as a platform holder are basing their strategy around third-parties for the most part. That's the reason why even in a crappy Xbox One gen they still managed to do well even though they had almost no good first party games. Third parties saved the Xbox One from becoming a total flop. 

Shrug, you literally just said that Game Pass users can't be considered a Xbox customer and that they don't bring much to the platform so why do you care about growing Game Pass now?

But anyway Game Pass is rapidly growing even with Steam releases and with other avenues upcoming it'll only continue to grow.

I haven't mentioned specifically, but I was talking about GamePass users that only subscribe to play MS games very cheap in that context. And of course, they are not there to stay unless MS somehow manages to release a game per month which will also cater to everyone's tastes in that crowd. Almost impossible task.

They're essentially the same thing...Xbox Game Studios is in the Xbox ecosystem, Xbox isn't just a console but a division, the consoles are one avenue of said division amongst many.

Here is the flaw in your logic. XGS is essentially the same thing as Xbox ecosystem, yet Xbox consoles are just a side division. Why? I can argue about this but I think that if you open any MS financial report you would see that they always mention "the growth which for the most part is driven by increasing third-party games sales and MTX" which is of course thanks to Xbox consoles. (Doubt that many people are buying stuff from Windows Store)

Even with Xbox One's crappy generation it still makes a ton of money off 3rd parties, Series X will likely continue that.

The same as previous point

Gaming just posted their biggest ever revenue on a measly 50m sold in comparison to Sony's 112m.

Yes, the gaming has the biggest ever revenue, but it could have been even better if MS was in Sony's position. I haven't compared MS financial report with Sony's but something tells me that Sony has better results.

Microsoft would likely be fine if Series X only sold 50m as long as Game Pass subscribers grew to lets say, 40-50m - Game Pass growth isn't restricted by Xbox's console sales which is a good thing, and even 50m would bring in a lot of 3rd party revenue.

I would applaud to MS if they manage to have 40-50m GamePass subscribers in the next 5 years. Seems way too optimistic unless xCloud becomes something really huge which I doubt it will be because Apple's restrictions made a huge block for it to becoming a mainstream success.

I think they would if they could but Sony/Nintendo won't allow it as long as Microsoft stays in the hardware market (Nintendo maybe could be swayed) but its too early to dump consoles because they (which I agree with you on) make a lot in 3rd party revenue.

You really think Sony and Nintendo are blocking MS games from releasing on their platforms? Come on. They are not that childish. (Even though I'm starting to doubt that on Sony's side after Jeff Grubb's post about EA situation.) But still, if MS approached Sony to release Halo on PS5, they would surely agree. Why wouldn't they. And they also would have been covering the table and having a huge party all night, drinking champagne as it would mean the retreat of their most close competitor. If it comes down to this, I can almost guarantee that MS won't be making a new console hardware ever again.