Nice! A lot higher number than I thought it was going to be!

AGE OF MYTHOLOGY HYPE!!!!

Rumor is the Sea of Thieves port to PS5 will be announced today on the Sony State of Play, smh. Bad enough they are giving away Xbox exclusives to start with, even worse that they are advertising said ports on a direct competitor's showcase event. It's like signaling to PS5 owners "no need to buy a cheap Series S in a sale to play our exclusives, if you wait long enough we will bring our games to you here on PS5". 

Tbf nobody should be buying a series s, let alone PS5 owners.

2024 = The Year of Age of Empires!

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition: We’ll reveal a brand-new campaign-focused expansion and an extended look at exclusive gameplay

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition: After giving our players a new way to play for free in 2023, we are excited to reveal a new DLC with new civilizations.  

Age of Empires IV: Coming off our best-selling expansion ever with The Sultans Ascend, we will share updates on an upcoming brand-new season and a new in-game reward. 

Age of Empires Mobile: TiMi Studios, the award-winning developer, will share a first-time look at gameplay and give us a behind the scenes look into their studio. The team will share their passion for Age of Empires and their vision to bring the franchise to new and existing fans alike.  

Age of Mythology: Retold: The team will take us behind the curtain in the studio to show how they are developing this beloved game for a new, modern experience. Fans can expect a unique unveiling of a few mythological creatures that you won’t want to miss. 

True, but in Sea of Thieves case, the game is about to be 6 years old and it's probably safe to say it's reached practically its max number of players with the current available player base. 

At the same time, this is where Xbox REALLY needs to come out and clarify their business strategy going forward, because even if Sea of Thieves does end up being a rarity of an Xbox exclusive going multiplat, it'll always cast doubt in players minds as to whether they should wait because a certain Xbox exclusive did end up coming to PS.

Looking forward to this for sure.

I'll be stunned if that ends up being true. 

Does feel like the market has moved on to Series X.

Xbox fiscal resport shows they made 7.11 Billion from Gaming.
For comparison, Sony made just under 9 Billion last year from Gaming.

So Microsofts strategy, focusing less on hardware sales and instead letting people play "anywhere", seems to be working pretty well.

Well, Xbox didn't have the multiplat strategy 6 years ago, so if that does end up happening, or Hi-Fi Rush, (which is the other one people heard about), I think their approach will be as they said before. A case by case basis. Some games get ported over. Others wont.
I would guess around 1-2 years after they launch on Xbox.

That said. I heard about what games will appear in today's State of Play, but Sea of Thieves wasn't one of them.

Interesting that you see it that way.  I on the other hand think it's the smartest move MS could have done.  If you are going to put your service game on every platform and especially if you want a big crowd to see your service game on a particular platform, having it presented on their platform is the way to go.

Not sure why anyone is crying about MS putting Sea of Thieves on PS5.  It just seems silly to limit any service game to just one platform especially the amount of investment that usually has to go into putting out constant content.  Even so so service games bring in a nice chunk of money that are on every platform.  If you see Sea of Thieves as something that make PS5 players decide not to get a series S than it might be how you view the market.  No one who has a PS5 is looking at Sea of Thieves as a game that they will get a series S for.    MS need a multiple years of great AAA games to budge any PS5 gamer and its not going to be some service game that does it.