Ideally this would be wonderful. The hardware is just a means and everything is available across all platforms. Platform holders would have to come to some sort of agreement. With the increasing development cost and time it takes to make games now, releasing on as many platforms is going to be almost necessary to see a return. 

I wouldn't be surprised if in addition to the inevitable exit from the console business (could be 5 years from now, 10, maybe a little more) that at some point Microsoft just stops with any IPs that have been created under them (Gears, Forza, etc.) and just publishes stuff like Minecraft and distributes or publishes the many devs and even some publishers they've bought up. 

Why worry about Gears, Forza, Halo, and the like when you have Minecraft, Elder Scrolls (and other Bethesda stuff), and Call of Duty? 

If they continue to support and release Xbox controllers for the foreseeable future I think I will be ok with this all. I absolutely connect stand symmetrical joystick controllers like dual shock and dual sense.

I am also not sure they will ever fully exit the games hardware industry. Even having 20 million people locked into a storefront is too lucrative to just give up for nothing.

There's plenty of asymmetric gamepads out there so you'll never have to worry about that. 8bitdo ultimate is great or for a bit more the new gulikit kk3 max looks phenomenal.

One underrated aspect of MS going Multiplatform will be the effect on PlayStation, which I see as being entirely negative. I see the PS6 launching at no less than $650, and Sony raising game prices to $90 or more.

Xbox Era and others reporting Starfield is going multiplat as well.

https://youtu.be/CQeezCdF4mk?si=1EOK-HMJPSWANgfu

The thing is, with Xbox already having games skipping their platforms, losing "console" exclusives is just a weird move. Outside of Gamepass it doesn't look like an appealing console choice. I'm finding myself in the same spot as others where it's just a hard sell, especially if they are going the all digital route in future gens. I feel like I need to reiterate that this has nothing to do with console wars but just what makes sense logically as a consumer.idk seems like they are self sabotaging their console market and then will have a nice excuse to pull out in years time due to lack of interest. Anyways, sorry to be a bummer

What hurts the most is people were right about Phil being a liar and a conman

To be honest this decision is ultimately probably being made for Phil, rather than by him. They just spent $70 billion, they were told by the government they can’t make that $70 billion purchase exclusive, and the economy is awful for tech companies right now. MS bean counters are probably saying they need to start making immediate ROI, and they don’t have another 20 years to try and rebuild the ecosystem after the disastrous 2010s. 

Tomorrow should clear everything up I guess. I imagine the rumours of MS addressing it then must be true. There's suddenly far too much noise from far too many people so quickly that I think official info has to be imminent.

They arent, they are thinking long term which by owning IPs and popular brands - they can get more profit/revenue from it by doing deals like this.