Wouldn't come with Game Pass though, or my Xbox profile (achievements), or day one exclusives, or my digital library, the last one is a bit of a minor issue for me, as I only have like 5 games installed at all times, I rarely replay anything, but it would be an issue for others. Depends on a number of factors how profitable it would be but it won't need to be a massive success, as long as it profits either through sale price or digital transactions.

Even 10-20m of people locked into an ecosystem making digital transactions is a lot of money, 100% from 1st party and 30% from third party.

It can't only be their games though, it would either need access to Steam or it would need to be linked to Xbox Store.

What are you apologising for?

I'm just saying I'M done.

Honestly not sure if I changed the argument or not, anyway thursday is the real deal....

I am done aswell, need to cook and check some game deals.

ATM I'm playing Persona 3 Reload. Plan on doing another run of P5R and another run on Cyberpunk 2077 once I'm done with Person 3.

Thursday doesnt really matter? It won't magically bring my friends back to Xbox and Xbox won't suddenly care about customers in Europe.

They did a solid job in convincing me not to further invest in their ecosystem these last couple of years. I was just too dense to see it, and kept believing in unicorns and rainbows.

Anything they'll say this Thursday I'll take with a grain of salt. So many empty promises.

I’m sorry. 

I'll reiterate once again, this thread is primarily about Xbox which now includes Xbox Game Studios, Zenimax/Bethesda Softworks and now Activision-Blizzard, I've never cared about where people play their Xbox IP, so whether folk play Xbox IP on Xbox, PC, or even Switch/PlayStation, I hope this thread would be welcoming, at the end of the day, it's all about the games and it's the community that makes this thread great. You want to swap to PC? Or PS? Or Switch? That's fine. As is it for folk to stay on Xbox. Hopefully, at least, we can go back to talking about actual videogames one day instead of constant business talk, Lol.

For me, I remain a big fan of the IP inside of Xbox Game Studios (Halo, Gears, Forza Horizon, Fable, etc.), I'm excited by a lot of upcoming titles, I also remain a big fan of Zenimax and their IP (things like Elder Scrolls, Doom, Wolfenstein, etc.). The vast majority of my gaming is done on Xbox, the remaining part is Switch exclusives, Lol. I'm a fan because of the teams making the games, a piece of hardware comes last, especially Xbox/PlayStation hardware which is far more boring than Nintendo hardware.

I'll likely stick with Xbox hardware as long as they keep making it, at the very least, I see no reason I should swap in the current generation as I already have an Xbox Series X and absolutely nothing is changing for me in the short term aside from PlayStation/Nintendo users getting old ports. I prefer the Xbox OS and Controller over Nintendo/PS, my Achievement history is on Xbox, my library is with Xbox, I can't get Game Pass anywhere else and I'm too impatient to wait for timed exclusivity to end so for me the options are really only Xbox or PC.

This Xbox still has all my games, will have all the future games I'm looking forward, it still has my profile and achievements, it still has Game Pass, those things are honestly enough for me for the time being, I could have made the switch to PC at any-point once they started doing day one for PC as well but as long as Xbox hardware keeps releasing at prices more affordable and convenient and yes, even a bit lazier than PC, I will likely stick to Xbox hardware, we'll see, I first have to see what their future hardware plans are.

The only thing which would get me to consider PS5/Switch fulltime is if either one had Game Pass in its full form and all exclusives came to those consoles day one, otherwise it's Xbox or PC and one thing which would make me swap to PC is if Xbox hardware either ceased to exist, somehow became more expensive/less convenient than PC or their were 3rd party titles which I actually cared about which were skipping Xbox, then I'd likely get say, Yakuza, on Steam instead. I think for the latter, there are ways Xbox can mitigate that beyond simply "sell 30m+ hardware"

Empire is a great community and I hope it continues to be one.

Ryuu pretty much answered most of what you stated.  Most gamers have absolutely no clue about development and thus just throw out all kinds of weird theories, worrying about things that doesn't even come into play.  As stated, I only care about the games I know not the hypothetical situations that have no meaning to me.  I do not care if MS spend what ever money to port whatever game to whatever system it has no meaning to me.  I do not live my life waiting or caring about such things because there is so much other things I do with my life and time that such matters will never effect my mindset.

What mistakes is Phil actually making.  Your ideal of success and MS probably is totally different.  That is the situation, there are barely any moves I have seen from Phil that I would say are mistakes but they all probably do not line up with what you think MS should do.  That is why you do not work for MS, run a billion dollar division because as far as the MS gaming goes, MS is well into the black.  MS isn't just about consoles and thus they do not have to put all their eggs in that one basket.

From my perspective, there is a lot that goes on that you just have no clue about.  You believe that MS should do this or that but that is the couch quarterback making calls with total ignorance believing they know the situation. MS may never be a console powerhouse or close the gap on Sony but then again they do not have to because the business of gaming is way bigger than the console market.

Let me help you here, nothing MS is going to say on Thursday will have any real meaning one way or the other.  You either like what is coming to the Xbox within the next few years from what they have announced or you do not.  Thursday podcast is not going to change anyone minds to stay, leave or purchase an Xbox.  What sells any console is their AAA exclusive games, whether first, second or 3rd party.  Those dynamics isn't going to change no matter how many games from MS goes multi.  From the looks of it, there is no need to even watch it because if all that they will report is Hi Fi Rush and Pentiment then its all a nothing burger.  No one is buying an Xbox for those games and no one will be buying an Xbox in the future for AA and service games.  MS big hitters still have to hit hard as they always needed to.

Some dude on ResetEra is hinting that Pentiment will be announced for Switch this upcoming Direct (Thursday). Curiously the same dude is claiming that a new Spyro is in development for Xbox and Switch...But not PlayStation? Lol.