Is a hypothetical hardware pivot surprising after Xbox’s focus on Game Pass?

“Even though I have all 3 consoles and a PC, the Xbox brand is what got me into gaming so I’ll always have a soft spot for it.

That being said, I’m not surprised in the slightest, especially after their pivot towards subscription services over the past generation. Unless Sony somehow ended up massively fumbling things console generation, there was no practical way for MS to catch up to the way Playstation has captured sales and mindshare in the public discourse.

My ideal scenario is that MS keeps making cheaper Series S style hardware and just sell them as small form factor living room PC’s that run full windows, but I see them exiting the hardware space entirely. Though I’d really prefer them [to] keep making hardware peripherals like controllers since I’ve never gotten used to the PS controller layout.” – archronos

“If Xbox wants to get out of the physical console business and get back into their more natural lane as a software company it’s fine by me if games (at least the big boppers) will be multiplatform as rumored. That means not just on PC, other consoles, something that always seems to get glossed over – “oh, it’s not exclusive, it’s on Xbox and PC!” – which is like saying you’ve got both kinds of music, country and western; it’s still exclusive to Microsoft-centric platforms, Xbox and (mostly) Windows-based computers.

If Sony doesn’t want to allow GamePass on PlayStation to try to bludgeon people into using their (IMO) grossly inferior alternative, at least being able to buy games outright on that platform is good enough for me.” – Mr. Furious