Eh, I'm torn. I do think that exclusives are SUPER important to marketing and to making brands important so I know how significant it is for consoles to have exclusive content (Seriously, anyone who cries about how exclusives are anti-consumer are just entitled fools who don't understand the first thing about economics), but I can't get an Xbox OneX series XYZ this generation unless my financial situation changes and Microsoft has been doing so poorly this last decade (including the entirety of this current generation) that I will not put my faith in them again until they've already proven their mettle.

At this point I'd rather spend 500 bucks on a graphics card and just get Elder Scrolls VI on PC. I can live without the other franchises.

Oh wow. You're confusion is both understandable and hilarious.

I was just pointing out that Bethesda going from releasing on 4 platforms to releasing on 2 platforms is going to be significantly less money.

I can definitely see how you thought it was goalpost moving. That's fine. I guess I just assumed that you would understand that Sony having 100 million consoles sold means they have 100 million people buying 3rd party games for their system, which in turn generates a ton of profit. It's true that there's 100 million+ steam users, but when somebody buys 3rd party game off Steam MS doesn't see any of that platform royalty money. Valve does. Sony can recover from a lack of Xbox/PC customers, because at 100 million PS4s sold they make insane amounts of money on 3rd party royalty fees. MS won't be able to do that, because they'll only get that sort of 3rd party royalty income from Xbox, which will be lucky to sell 60 million units lifetime. And they couldn't do that this gen, because Xbox struggled to sell 50 million units lifetime this gen.



I hope that clears things up!

Edit: P.S. How many copies has Fallout 4 sold on PC? How many copies has Fallout 4 sold on PC + Xbox + PS4? Somebody please, run the numbers, because I would seriously like to know.

Ha! Okay, I take back the overlap argument there.

Who are those PS users asking for ports? I'll be Switch/PC next gen.

What are the total sales of an Xbox console exclusive on Steam + Xbox + Windows Store? Has Xbox ever even released that information? As braggadocious as Phil Spencer is I really am left wondering why he hasn't announced these epic amazing sales totals.

We know that Nintendo and Sony games sell 10-15+ million. We know Witcher 3 has done 20+ million. Where's the "Forza sold 20+ million on Xbox + PC combined!" announcement? I mean, if Xbox is working with double the customers of PS4, why haven't their 1st party offerings sold double that of PS4 exclusives?

Fully agree with OP, Microsoft were so out of the game this gen I never considered owning one, now im thinking " shit have I made a mistake preordering PS5?" Great job by Microsoft. Nothing wrong with a bit off healty competion.

Well only time will tell. MS still need to show real games. Looking at this video, looks like currently MS will release the same titels again. Nothing new
https://youtu.be/TNpwz3E-_-4

They bought zenimax, which means you're getting exclusives that were already expected to come as multiplats. Now microsoft has an excuse to keep making less exclusives compared to sony and nintendo, which was a major concern this gen. Now let's see what they make that is great besides the usual gears, halo and forza games.

Well all the Bethesda exclusive deniers are essentially asking for a PS5 port. If they had a PC capable they wouldn’t care. Otherwise MS was frequently bragging about their games this summer dominating the steam charts, even older games like Sea of Thieves and Halo MCC. Steam has a high userbase for upfront purchases in addition to their console base. 

Hey there was a time where 360 exclusives vastly outsold Ps3 exclusives. It wasn’t even close. Point being marketshare dictates sales legs. Xbox One lost and thus their game sales legs were shorter. New gen, fresh start, Series S/X can maybe get that higher base back and thus more legs once again. 

I don’t see how having 23 teams to Sony’s 14 is an excuse to make less games then before. Their studios are a quick google search away. The idea is to make more to keep GP growing and users staying subbed. 

Quality over quantity? 

Production over diversification? 

Historical precedent vs untested companies? 

I mean, we know Insomniac and Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog and Santa Monica are capable of pure gold. Do we know if 'the initiative' is? 

Who are these exclusive deniers, asking for a PS5 port again?

Their bragging was in the form of the Texas Sharpshooter fallacy. I would imagine that they don't announce lifetime total sales, because those sales totals are low. Instead they brag about how their game "dominated the steam charts" for a couple months. You can dominate some sales charts for a relatively short time and still have less lifetime total sales than your competition.

Does anybody know the actual sales totals of various PC games? I think a lot of people are just vastly overestimating how large the PC market's share of individual games sales is. Sure, in total it's absolutely massive, when you add up all the sales of every PC game ever. But on a game by game basis? How many copies has Fallout 4 sold on PC vs PS4, or Xbox? How many copies of the PC version of Fallout 4 were sold at a massive discount, 2-3 years after launch?

I admit, I'm shit at sales data ever since vgchartz stopped tracking game sales. But I have a hunch that the revenue from all PS4 sales of Fallout 4 vastly outnumbers the revenue from all sales of Fallout 4 on PC + Xbox. But again, that's just a hunch. I'm waiting for somebody to come in and prove my hunch right or wrong.