It won't be sustainable. The customers will eventually leave.

If you are an Xbox fan, I understand you aren't happy if Xbox walks, but i am just saying the obvious. Xbox isn't needed for the console market to thrive. The market is not big enough to sustain all 3 companies, 1 will eventually walk out, and another will try to take its place only to fall in the same situation many before it has. 

First generation I haven't bought Xbox and I don't miss it even a little bit. Xbox lack big hits and what titles they do release are on steam. As far as I'm concerned MS might as well go third party.

As I see it Microsoft is trying to thread the needle here to profitability and growth, but in a much quicker timeframe than rigidly sticking to an Xbox console+PC exclusivity timeline would allow for. Where if they stuck to that approach they'd likely record a loss on many of their in-pipeline games, well before they pushed xbox console numbers up to the 80~90m region they'd need to really be a prime player in the industry, rather than part of the support cast.

What they may perceive as their window of opportunity is this: be the *only* participant that brings AAA current gen games to consumers at a wide variety of price points.
Looking ahead they can have 4K gaming with a digital only Xbox series X, 1440P gaming with the digital only Xbox series S, and 1080P gaming with a future xbox streaming dongle that hits an ultra low price.

So we have a $499 console at the top end, a $249 console at the midrange, and a $99~$149 console at the low end (shipped with a controller). All digital so no dollars lost to the second-hand market, with further options for the dongle to be built-in to premium 4k televisions (potentially adding a $49 entry option for consumers with the right television, i.e. they only need to buy a controller), and an additional option of replicating the dongle (1080P) or series s (1440P) capabilities in a future handheld device.

Now that begins to look pretty compelling against Playstation. Where Playstation is relatively 'stuck' at $349~$499 price points, Xbox can hit much lower price points and thus potentially address a larger market (noting even if Sony tried the same approach, Xbox owns its own cloud infrastructure, where Sony would have to go third party, so the comparative cost advantage would remain).

Meanwhile, because getting those devices out, and finding a market for them will take time, they get to continue to fund game development by releasing on a variety of devices. Gamepass *stays off* Playstation, but full priced games get released there. So a compelling reason to buy Xbox remains. It is the best place to access Gamepass if one wants a 'console like' experience for their access (e.g. off PC).

This approach also allows Xbox to be a desirable place for third parties to publish because, with the second hand market deleted, each purchase on xbox can represent a full retail return to the publisher, without it costing them subsequent units. Literally a sale on xbox digital at full price is worth significantly more than a Playstation retail purchase (on average), meaning they can both reach a larger potential market with xbox, as well as obtain top per unit value from that market.

Now it might not all pan out of course, key will be keeping the Xbox console brand alive and not having it die in the water in 2024,25,26, but I would say there is something in this for Xbox purists.. by Xbox going third party they get to keep funding a wide range of games that we in turn get to enjoy on gamepass, cementing it as the best value buy in gaming that will continue to be denied to Playstation & Switch owners.

For anyone not adamant they need a console that can play discs, & who favours overall gaming value over playstation exclusives, or who regardless of anything else, is price sensitive, xbox would have the best positioning in the market. Playstation gets those who want physical, and those who value playstation exclusives and access to the largest range of games even if it costs them plenty for it, PC gets those similar to the aforementioned case, who don't mind added complexity and cost of keeping their PC up to date, Switch gets younger gamers, and xbox is there for everyone else. And everyone else is the bigger market, IF xbox can grab their attention and make them realise it.

Key: *don't* put gamepass on playstation or switch, *do* put full priced releases day and date (or after a short delay), & *do* move xbox to all digital and hit lower price points with options at $99~$149 in the form of streaming dongles/built into tv capabilities. Keep pushing the series s and x as low in price as they can go.

Final key, and I think this is overlooked in how much it has retarded xbox sales, *don't* increase the price of gamepass, and better yet, *roll back* its most recent price rises. Grow gamepass to 100m units via the above strategy, and then look at its pricing at that point. Allow the deletion of the secondary market, and wider distribution of full price releases to make up the difference in the meantime.

Imagine: On Xbox you get Diablo V, World of Warcraft, Starcraft 3, Call of Duty, Elder Scrolls 6, Halo Infinite 2 (etc) for $15 per month, with the 'buy in' price for access at $49, $99, $249 & $499 price points depending on the graphical fidelity you are looking for, with some additional 3rd party hits included as well, and others available at full retail..

...while on Playstation your buy-in to play those games starts at $349, and those games are only available individually for $60~$70 each (or whatever full priced games cost these days).

You go Playstation and buy a couple of those games at full price, Xbox games publishing wins.. profit from sales of multiple full price games.
You go Gamepass on PC to get the games.. Xbox wins.. a new sub.
You buy an Xbox controller and use your built in game-pass app on your tv to access gamepass.. Xbox wins.. a new sub.
You buy an Xbox dongle, handheld, series s, or series x and subscribe to gamepass.. Xbox wins.
You buy additional third party games on Xbox.. Xbox wins (30% of the sale price at very little cost).

Final piece of the puzzle.. you let Gamepass on Playstation only when Sony allows its own service and games on Xbox, thus making the whole scenario moot.

So long as Gamepass offers significant value, and is seen as a near gaming *must have* if one is interested in more than just a couple of Microsoft published games, it begins to make sense. And even if it doesn't to you, and you buy a Playstation and then go on to buy their games for it, they haven't *lost* value from the perspective of their acquisitions.

This all depends if they actually make big hits that sell systems. The games coming to ps5 6 months or a year later won't make  much of a difference now if they come the same date i could see it being a big probelm.

It is so ridiculous because ChatGTP is basically doing a strawman and deflection.

You are criticizing MS failure on the customer market. It uses examples of failed products as if they were successful and also use enterprise market. I would say the only customer example it uses of success is Windows, but that have been a market they dominate for over 30 years so it isn't something you can say they entered and won, they were already there from start (and won with a different time, philosophy and team).

Lol that's a strawman, your basically saying Surface is a failure without making any attempt to explain how can it be considered one lol except (trust me it is). and like I responded to LurkerJ his response try to tie a single YoY shrinkage to being third-grade product and completely ignore 9 years of continuous YoY growth exposing that Surface is an actual example of MS connecting properly with the consumer market up to last year. 

Besides you're completely missing the point of why chatGTP was used here. It's a response to his obvious flaming attempt which isn't worth anyone's time to respond. 

Ask yourself, in this discussion, or any discussion on this site, what is the point of directly linking Xbox hardware to being a third-grade product?

Is it :

a) because you have good intentions and want the discussion to remain constructive.

b) because you feel compelled to stick it to other users with no intention to genuinely engage with the discussion.

I don't care if Xbox walks. I own Sony and Nintendo consoles as well, but primarily I am a PC gamer.

I do care about bringing my physical library forwards.
If Microsoft cans support for physical games or cans making a successor console, then my wallet will vote in kind.

The console market has sustained 3 companies just fine since Microsoft entered the market decades ago.
Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony were all profitable during the 8th gen... 7th gen all 3 console manufacturers had healthy console sales with a relatively competitive split in marketshare.


The Console Market is trending towards 25~ billion in sales and PC market is trending towards 30~ billion.
https://www.statista.com/outlook/cmo/consumer-electronics/gaming-equipment/game-consoles/worldwide#revenue

Which means it is big enough to sustain all 3.

You keep propagating this lie, but we all know it is false.

The reason why the Xbox Series is imploding is because:

1) No GREAT exclusives.
2) Higher pricing.
3) Shit naming. - Xbox Series? Common. WiiU was a better name.
4) Removal of physical games from game stores which also impacts brand awareness.