It's not impossible. Microsoft just chooses not to for the most part, because there is no need. I don't think a handful of games is going to make or break any of the platform holders. Sony doesn't have a monopoly on sales. 70:30 isn't even close to being a monopoly. If these big 3rd party games are still coming to Xbox then the publishers must be happy with the sales. If Sony wants to waste their money then let them, but it has been shown the highest spender doesn't always get the highest profit.

If you want to talk what is basically a monopoly, then look at Japan with Nintendo.

It is impossible. No major third party is going to trade 70% of their sales of their big IP's for money. That will damage the IP's popularity beyond what money can buy.

I'm not concerned with country markets. In that case Sony would have a monopoly in many countries. I'm talking worldwide.

A 70% hold on all software sales.....that's a massive monopoly. That's more than Amazon in eCommerce US, that's more than Windows on OS, that's more than Apple on app store purchases.

Adding PC would probably bring it down to 40-50% which is more acceptable. Still big, that's Amazon in US level big.

58% PS5
28% PS4
13% Xbox
1% PC

86% PS for Tales of Arise

Sales splits will continue to favor Playstation as its likely many Xbox gamers will wait for games to show up on GP.
Im sure third parties will also continue to make games for Xbox since that will allow MS to eventually pay them to put in on GP.
Im not an Xbox fan or owner and I dont prefer a future dominated by services like GP but gamepass is definitely a threat to Sony. The contract that Sony made with Capcom about not allowing RE8 to release on GP for at least one year is proof of this,
However, gamepass and the acquisition of Bethesda has made Sony become more competitive which I love.

Also, if we're talking about a true monopoly then look no further than Switch.

I dont think gamepass is as competitive as you make it sound. Especially since it has been assosiated with mediocrity. Devs that know their games will sale big wont put their games on the service. It would be to big of a loss. 

That doesn't make sense. Gamepass is 18M out of 50M XB1, and not every game appears on it, so why would the entire XB userbase wait for Gamepass.

The point is, these software splits have become even more lopsided for Playstation. What was once 60:40 is now 70:30 pushing 80:20. The UK is the the second most competitive market for Xbox. If its 70:30 in the UK, its 85:15 in the EU and its 99:1 in Asia.

Most of the revenue and exclusives come from having the most third party sales and the face its getting worse for Xbox is not a good sign.

Gamepass is not picking up the slack. We have no revenue numbers and Playstation's revenue is dominating Xbox's revenue just as it was before, so Gamepass has not made any ground there.

Playstation makes like $10B more than Nintendo. Not sure what monopoly you see Nintendo have. Nintendo sells the most software by far but thats not a monopoly. A monopoly is calculated on total market share.

That 65:35 is from here

PS5 and Resident Evil Village dominate May | UK Monthly Charts | GamesIndustry.biz

"Pretty much makes it impossible for MS to get big third party exclusives and very easy for Sony to."

I disagree. MS just got the entirety of Bethesda. They got other formerly third-party franchises (Hellblade, Outer Worlds, Starfield which was at one point multiplat) exclusive.

These statements are mutually contradictory:

1) MS can't get an IP from a third-party to be timed exclusive

2) MS can get a third-party IP to be permanently exclusive, and get the dev/publisher along with it.

We do have revenue numbers for Xbox, and Xbox is healthier than ever.

“We exceeded $2 billion in revenue from third-party titles this quarter for the first time [in Xbox history]", Satya Nadella

3rd-party sales are very healthy on Xbox; they are not decreasing on Xbox, despite what the shrinking physical game market may seem to indicate. Every year, GameStop and Game closes hundreds of stores, and the ones that remain shift to gaming apparel... physical game sales do not tell the whole story...

So yeah, Xbox is doing better than ever, 3rd-party revenue is better than ever. I don't know why some people seem so concerned for Xbox, as if Xbox didn't just acquire Bethesda last year. MS just got control of Elder Srolls, Fallout, Starfield, Doom, Redfall, etc, why are we concerned about MS getting exclusives lol? MS's got more exclusives than ever before.

Acquisition is not what I include in third party. Once someone is acquired they are 1st party. MS cannot buy every single publisher. Third party exclusives (different from publishing titles) are big.

You'll notice Playstation has multiple with multiple pubs. I can't think of a single one for Xbox. While you are right that MS can buy studios to counter act this, this is a losing battle as the biggest pubs with the biggest IPs will not be bought out, so your competition can easily secure deals with them at your expense.

Revenue up a lot due to Bethesda acquisition. Also third party sales can be down by while revenue is up due to how pervasive MTX are nowadays.

The sales data explicitly show how Xbox has gone from 50:50, even 60:40 in their advantage during the 360 days, to 70:30 or 80:20 against them. That's a 30-40% swing. A massive decline.

BTW gameindustry includes digital data so no its not just physical.

In comparison, MS estimates PS's third party revenue to be $8.6B. Almost 4.5 times bigger.

wow