Well Indiana Jones is a 1st party game!  But we still have four months for step one of my prediction to happen!

I wasn't happy that Pemalite was rather mean to my video post and made some untrue assumptions about my post intentions, so to please him, here's where I was going to take that locked thread, but now in text only form.

Microsoft has ruined Xbox, the business decision to push Game Pass above all else is a disaster that is playing out in front of us all.

Starfield not pushing the needle in hardware sales and Gamepass simply doesn't generate the revenue to fund the running and development costs of the Many, many Microsoft Game studios.  I did layout the maths in the video I created, but I'm not linking it again as I don't want to be branded as self promoting.

We saw in the FTC leak the costs of bringing 3rd party games to the service.  We know that games like COD are costing around a billion dollars to get out the door now.  So with all the costs of development and maintenance outweighing what the service is actually bring in, at some point something has to give.

Xbox sales are slowing down, Game Pass is not bringing in new users to the Xbox Console eco system, Starfield actually saw two thirds of its sales from PC users.  So what's actually happening here?  Xbox players are migrating to either PC or leaving the system altogether and going to PlayStation.

In a world where the primary Game Pass platform is PC, Microsoft has a problem.  PC gaming is too entrenched in Steam for Microsoft to realistically find more than 50 million users, and with Xbox console sales stalling Microsoft has to do something.

That something is to become the biggest 3rd party in the industry.  I think Game Pass will continue on as Microsoft's PC subscription service, although all Microsoft studio's titles will see releases on Steam, PlayStation and Nintendo. 

I also think we are looking at the last Xbox generation in the Series X|S consoles.  With Game Pass failing to push Microsoft out of 3rd place, they will refocus their efforts into becoming the biggest powerhouse 3rd party publisher in the industry because this makes the most business sense.

I believe the timeline will look something like this:

• 2024: Starfield is announced for PlayStation 5
• 2026: Xbox Game Pass is re-branded to Microsoft Game Pass
• 2027: Microsoft announce that there will be no new Xbox consoles

Well, the last step isn't happening so this whole thread has been a giant nothing burger.

GG only777, you were right. I respect that.

Do you want to have a signature bet on that?

They already announced they will have another console after the Series S and X a while back so yeah again this whole thread has been a giant nothing burger.  Also, Microsoft became the largest 3rd party publisher when the Activision Blizzard deal got approved. 

They already announced they will have another console after the Series S and X a while back so yeah again this whole thread has been a giant nothing burger.  Also, Microsoft became the largest 3rd party publisher when the Activision Blizzard deal got approved.