We don't know what the arrangement will be. 

Maybe an Xbox first approach with higher budgets bolstered by higher revenue. 

But you'll never get a $500 box that has it all as long as exclusivity is part of the game and as long as those boxes require exclusivity play as part of their success strategy. The only way to get a box that truly does it all is to work on a future where Exclusivity play is considered as the silly thing it already is, a value-destructive tool for IPs.

Think about it this way Spiderman 2 has sold close to 7m and is considered a huge success. But would it be considered a huge success still if Ms released Indiana Jones on PC, Xbox, Playstation, and Switch and reached 20m in sales? How long would it be until Playstation Shareholder demands better handling of their IPS to reach the same level of ROI MS shareholders are seeing from a nonexclusive strategy? Of course, those numbers are only a thought experiment to highlight my points but as I would very much like to see the end of exclusivity altogether these rumors if true are a necessary step toward that.

In other words, I would very much like the console to be a convenient box I place under my TV to play games and then a box I'm being forcibly required to buy to play game X.

Yeah, you are probably right. I do wonder about plaform parity though. How does this for example work with a Playstation Pro? Best experience on the competitors platform?

Xbox hardware sales won't increase but the community playing Xbox games will. I mean, I don't own an Xbox console anymore and I'm still an Xbox user who's in the Xbox ecosystem so why should the Xbox ecosystem shrink when more people can play Xbox games? 

Sometimes I have the feeling it personally hurts you guys if more people can play the same games. You lose a console you need for your games, you don't lose the games. 

Should be pretty obvious that Gamepass is MS's main focus. That is where MS sees an healthy Xbox ecosystem even if millions won't buy an Xbox anymore because they get Gamepass through other ways or because they won't subscribe to Gamepass.

If you're talking about the Xbox brand, then fine. But even if Xbox and MS have chosen to abandon their userbase, this thread as a community of Xbox owners/gamers should at least be trying to give a clear and calm picture of our situation, rather than just letting it become a wild west for Doomers and invaders who only come here for petty mockery.

There's from what I can see, two Mods in this thread today, Pi-Guy and Machia, the latter is a common poster in Empire and long term Xbox fan, in addition to that, I stated earlier last week that I'm considering making G2TheUnit a co-owner of the thread if possible and see him as my future successor/already defacto in charge when I'm not around so it's not like I completely abandoned you guys.

I've already said, I wanted to take more breaks this year, at least from Gaming, for the past 5+ years I've been posting non-stop in this thread, every single day, updating it with news, all for your benefits and because I wanted to discuss gaming news with you guys, but I realise now I've been long talking about games more than I actually play them. Sometimes I'd waste hours having debates about shit I really don't care about, I don't think it's my job to handhold every user in this thread or try to bullshit them out of feeling a certain way.

For the past 2+ years I've been non-stop keeping up to date with the Russia/Ukraine situation which is more important than this thread as well but I'm getting drained and have been coming close to abandoning this thread completely over the past few months. Or at least, abandoning trying to find news for the thread, and I'm not talking about today but often has the reaction to certain things been eyerolling dooming, clickbait trash and negativity bait.

Now we come on to today, the reason I took a break recently was because of layoffs, not because of the current news, but because it was just constant negativity about the industry I love and one of my few escapes which I find pure joy in, now I can usually deal with the hyperbolic dooming and shitty attitude of gamers but the layoffs have just been depressing and I wanted break(s), I just want to have fun playing a game and then talking about a game.

What guidance am I meant to give you? Lol. I genuinely don't know what you want from me. I understand why people are upset about the current news but as for me, I'll likely keep buying the console as long as they keep making them, Game Pass exists and the IPs are timed exclusive and then I'll eventually switch to PC, I know many will not like that response, what more am I meant to say? Try to shove it down your throats that it's how everyone should feel? Lol.

I've always doubted my tenure versus Jaywood's as well, I've always partly wondered why Jaywood was so good at garnering activity to the thread compared to ours where sometimes I will end up posting 10+ comments in a row with zero responses and truth be told, that did frustrate me and I felt at times why was I bothering, am I just being used as a news bot, I want to actually talk gaming with people, then the negativity news comes and the thread gets 100+ comments.

I have no say over Xbox's business, I don't know ultimately if this will be the right or wrong decision, I've a feeling they will make more profit from this move in the long term but it may come at the cost of Xbox hardware but I've been preparing myself for that eventuality for years now, I do still expect another console for next gen but maybe not one after, ultimately, I care most about the games themselves and will go where they go (followed by Game Pass) and have cared less and less about dedicated console hardware overtime.

Nevertheless I felt guilty about abandoning the thread, I've always felt guilty about considering taking breaks, because I felt like the thread would need me, to keep the peace, to keep spirits up, to post the news, but shit I've been doing this for years and if I don't take a break then you'll definitely lose me permanently and that's exactly why I've positioned G2 as a co-owner, partly because I would feel guilt about taking a break.

We still know so little about Xbox's future plans, what titles will be multiplatform, how long they'll be exclusive, what their future hardware plans are, etc. Personally, I'd love if they made a sort of "mini-PC" box which runs a stripped back Windows OS focused solely on Gaming, finally combining the Xbox Store and Windows Store as one, making it easier for developers to port to and support, allowing me to buy a "PC" like device without having to educate myself on a bunch of PC specs, tech, etc. Microsoft does it for me and maybe even opening it up to Steam Store.

The thread is discussing the current Xbox news. I'm not seeing petty mockery nor anything that could warrant moderation. The news may be hard to take for some but the discussion of it is valid and I've not seen poor conduct. Don't really know what you're complaining about with regards this thread TBH.

This. Nintendo themselves have shifted towards Switch development except for a few straggler 2nd tier games or remakes. No way MS develops for Switch 1. Switch 2 will be natively beyond PS4 or close, but with dlss 2.1 or 2.5 developing for it will be much easier than the typical generational gap Nintendo consoles have.

What 'news' exactly? So far everything is just rumour-mongering, rampant speculation and everyone abandoning ship. I haven't actually seen anything tangible yet.

I really wouldnt mind playing these games on Playstation. Fine with me. Most of my friends are on Playstation so playing together would be cool. But how is Gamepass a main focus if this change of strategy happens? As far as I know, subscribers are stagnating and not enough. I fail to see how this will draw in more subscribers.

Would like to hear your opinion.