I do think it will be very bad for the industry but I'll be on PC if Xbox ever exits hardware, Lol.

Like if people think Sony ain't going to take advantage of this out of the kindness of their hearts, they're crazy, Lol.

I don't think Xbox will exit hardware for at least another 10 years or so, by then I'll be 37, but they'll effectively be no competition at all to Sony with this move, they're no longer competing with Sony on the hardware front.

Maybe the next Xbox is some sort of mini-PC with a proper, singular/unified store, maybe a custom Windows OS for Gaming only?

Maybe they switch to Nvidia, Lol. Maybe they switch to ARM. Idk but I feel a major change coming to hardware rather than traditional releases.

Didn't expect such a hard pivot from Microsoft.

I'm in disbelief hearing games like Halo and Starfield are getting ported to PlayStation.

It doesn't matter what they do with their hardware at this point if they are headed towards 3rd party, the already small userbase that they have will eventually dwindle down to an unsustainable number that will eventually lead to the closure of Xbox Marketplace and kill off GamePass as we know it since the vast majority of subs are on Console.

Really don't get the doom and gloom. I'm a Nintendo guy mainly. Had a 360 but didn't play much on it. Never got a One, but I play my Series X all the time due to Gamepass. I initially just played via cloud gaming on my TV, but wanted quicker load and better performance so I got a Series X.

Even if literally *every* MS owned ip came to PS5 on launch day (which absolutely no one is predicting), I would still rather play on Xbox because I don't really care for any Playstation games. Plus I can't stand Playstation controllers, drive me nuts.

I don't know man, where this is this much smoke, there is bound to be fire. Sources reporting on this so far:

• Jez (seemed more sure of this than any leak I have ever seen from him, he stated "It's happening, no amount of hopium or copium from fans will stop it" or something to that effect)
• Tom Warren
• Rand al Thor
• The Indiana Jones details leaker
• Xbox Era

Evidence backing the claim:

• A datamine of an upcoming HiFi Rush update showing platform specific t-shirts, including a Nintendo and Playstation t-shirt for each platform

The full extent of their multiplatform plans we don't know, but it's a safe bet that some games at least will no longer be Xbox exclusive.

I think if nothing was happening, Xbox would have already sent out a PR statement shooting down the rumors when they first started with the Indiana Jones leaker before the Developer Direct, or last week when the HiFi and SoT multiplat rumors started appearing from new sources separate from the Indiana Jones leaker. The fanbase is absolutely melting down, and Xbox is quiet, too quiet. It's not like when they tried to double Gold pricing and were forced to reverse course like one day later due to the extreme backlash, it's been all quiet now at Xbox for over a week, without so much as an Aaron Greenburg tweet telling people not to worry. This tells me something is happening involving multiplat releases, and that no matter the backlash, they are intent on going through with this decision. 

That I don't think a single journalist or "insider" has come out saying this isn't true and isn't happening also speaks volumes. Shinobi also made hints about this back in December. As you say there is far far too much smoke here. It all coming to a head now in the last few hours... Something official is happening and soon.

For HiFi Rush, I would think that it is a possible thing (and it makes sense if you ask me).

For Indiana Jones, let's not forget that they have a deal with Dinsey, and maybe they are the one forcing their hand

For Starfield, I have doubts that it is real.

For Halo, no freaking way :) This is simply BS.

Also, for some of those games (the AAA: Starfield, Indiana Jones), remember that they started the dev. for multiplatform, most likely, so finding some stuff in the resources related to another platform makes sense.

As far as the people "reporting" on them, I mean if one of them come up with that, the others will just use it to get some credibility point if by any chance anything is real at the end, so I don't know...

Maybe, it is real :) Maybe not. For now, I'm in the "this is BS" camp! I may be totally wrong but at the same time, it does not bother me too much if let's say Starfield is coming to Play Station 5, 1 year after Xbox or some shit like that. More money in those studio's pocket to come out with more games.

For me, if Xbox comes out with a new hardware each generation, I just buy it, I really like the ecosystem, and I doubt Microsoft will stop that (at least for the next generation).

If they go "fully third party" with no hardware then there's no reason why Sony would reject a 1st party only Game Pass, Xbox would be treated the same as EA or Ubisoft, yet another publisher with yet another subscription service so I think the concern of the death of Game Pass is a bit extreme. We know Valve is happy to accept Game Pass on Steam but are waiting for Microsoft, if they could get Game Pass on Steam that would help.

Game Pass is available via xCloud - TVs, Browsers, etc. We're talking about Service/Cloud loving Microsoft here.

They'll always be some sort of "Xbox Marketplace" as long as Windows Store exists, I could see them further trying to unify the two, they've already said they want to do a Universal Xbox Store but Xbox/PC Stores are still technically separate things.

Well.. Put yourself in those "insider" shoes tho. If they have no clue if this is true or not, the best is not to say, "It is not true" but just play along so if it is not true, everybody was wrong (but at least you were not the only one), if it is true, "oh but I knew it and said it, see I was right, my credibility as insider is going up" :) (I mean, I assume that 99% of those insiders are fraud too so maybe that's why I see it like that :D).

The Sea of Thieves thing at the show, was someone reliable, but from what I recall they didn't say it was happening there. They just wondered if it were happening.

We currently have like 6 or 7 very reliable people who are saying it's happening, and that it's a pretty big multiplatform push. Pretty much the only way that I would be more sure about it is if Jason Schreier or Phil Spencer came out to talk about it.

These aren't 6 random insiders on Reddit/Discord. A few of them are journalists with very reliable track records. Maybe almost as good as Schreier's.

What I would say though is that I don't think it's the end of Xbox if/when it did come out to be true.