The fact that MS very well went through Nov. 2023, the 3rd year the console is on the market, historically one of the strongest sales years for a console during its lifetime, and potentially sold lost than 1m units WW, is a fact that really crystalizes some of the stories i've been hearing these last few weeks from colleagues.
Get ready to start playing some MS-published games on PS/Switch 2 on day 1.
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They are not gonna close studios nor do layoffs (yet). They are simply going to expand where they are publishing games on. I now know of several projects that are being developed and ported to PS/Switch 2. I was taken aback when I started hearing this talk - I didn't expect MS to entertain this strategy at least until they hit 2027, but with console sales this dire, they need to do something.
One of the parts folks aren't understanding is that growth in services (GP) is directly tied to console sales. Every month, there are a number of users who leave GP, called a churn rate. GP has the highest churn rates for entertainment subscription services. This means that the entire business model is predicated on Xbox selling consoles to users who ultimately sub to GP, more so than the number of users who leave their GP subs behind. This is why you've seen Phil and many observers comment that GP sub service has 'stalled' in the console space. All the growth, which is honestly not at all significant, is happening in the PC space.
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This is precisely what, based on what I am hearing, I expect to happen. They can keep their line of consoles around as their GamePass hub, maintain their userbase there, work with pubs to ensure they continue supporting the platform, then look for growth in Sony and Nintendo's ecosystems.
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All of them. I know of several high-profile Bethesda titles whose port work started up a few months ago. I also have some knowledge on ABK in general, and not a single project that was in dev, or that has gotten an initial approval to have an exploratory milestone achieved, has had a single discussion on exclusivity. I also now know of several titles that fall squarely under XGS, titles that have yet to be announced, that now are doing PS/Xbox/Switch 2 development.
The console wars are basically over. The public just doesn't know it yet.