They say "select" games, which no doubt falls in line with their current strategy. Indie games and live services games will move more in the multiplatform direction, whereas massive single player games have more value remaining exclusive due to them driving console purchases more than the live service games do.

Microsoft is taking a hybrid approach because they've identified there are more profits doing that than there are doing one or the other (exclusives for all games or multiplatform for all games). It's a new approach for the industry and they think it will work.

They already are the largest 3rd party publisher since they brought the biggest 3rd party publisher in ABK.

Not if they make those exclusive to xbox/game pass.

Microsoft has never changed their approach since day 1 (the Visicalc times I still remember). They have one goal, and one goal only: Destroy the competition and get the monopoly. There is an interview somewhere on YouTube where Steve Jobs calls it out very precisely: "Microsoft does not innovate, they destroy". This was true when the interview was taken and it is true still today.

Also, the idea that MS will bring their first party software to Playstation is somewhat peculiar. Bringing their software day one to PC has already reduced the incentive of people to buy XBoxes, and bringing their first party software to PS5 would essentially kill that incentive almost entirely. Sure there are people who simply hate Playstation and will continue to buy XBoxes. But those nerds will not be enugh in numbers for a sustainable product.

As for Gamepass being profitable, certainly not on XBox. This holiday season has shown, even throwing XBoxes at customers for bargain prices didn't move the needle a jota. Losing $200 (or even more) on every box sold requires over a year of gamepass at full price to even recoup the hardware losses (and it seems from those many threads about "Get Gamepass cheap" nobody pays full gamepass prices, anyways.)

I'm also wondering about this Natella guy on top of the MS food chain. The XBox group is an almost irrelevant part of Microsoft. Why is he constantly babbling about XBox in the news? He has a megacorporation to run, not a game console...

Microsoft has a history of buying studios and then letting them die, so we will have to see what will remain standing of their recent shopping spree in the long run. But that's a strategy in itself, it's not only what you can provide, but what you can take off the board to force certain outcomes.

CoD has 10 years on PS and is also releasing on Switch as well.

Every publisher has a history of closing studios.

Lets not let sensationalism get in the way of facts here.

1) Sony closed BigBig Studios, Evolution Studios, Guerrilla Cambridge, Incognito Entertainment, Zipper Interactive, Psygnosis/SCE Liverpool and are gutting Bungie right now.

2) Nintendo closed Sora, Nintendo of America Special Products, Tokyo R&D products, lots of mess surrounding their EAD divisions which got rolled into other divisions, consolidated or closed down.

3) EA with Bullfrog, Westwood, Maxis, Black Box Games, Mythic Entertainment, Visceral Games, Pandemic Studios.

4) Microsoft with Lionhead, Ensemble Studios, FASA studios, Digital Anvil.

5) Activision Blizzard with Sierra Enterainment, Red Octane, Bizarre Creations, Radical Entertainment.

Microsoft is a stupidly successful company who makes certain choices based around return on investment, there is a reason why they are currently valued at 2.93 Trillion and is valued at approximately 16x the value of Sony -and- Nintendo combined.

The point being, studios closing and opening is a normal industry eb-and-flow that coincides with consumer demand/expectation... And ultimately profit.

I was absolutely devastated with Ensemble studios closed as they were primarily a PC developer, which should never have happened... But worlds edge and relic entertainment have done amazingly well with handling the franchise.
Developers close, they go elsewhere and start new studios, adding new investment into the industry.

For example... Digital Anvil closed and so did my hopes of a Freelancer sequel, another PC title... Thankfully the developers of those titles ended up scattering across the industry... Christ Roberts went onto found Cloud Imperium Games and of course StarCitizen.. Where Digital Anvil programmer Paul Isaac started working on the Halo games or Tony Bratten who went onto do Super Meat Boy.

The talent from those studios don't just disappear, they go elsewhere, sometimes to the competition where they actually make a positive difference.

How It started:

What I was told:

How it's going now:

This thread aged like fine milk