For real. Just rip the band-aid off now.
Sick of the speculation and rumors popping up. Just give me the facts. 
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Good to have a voice of reason like Tom among all the rumor mongers and clout chasers just saying anything.
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No.
Personally I can’t ever see it happening but if they owned Steam and Windows they basically have PC gaming on lock forever (which is larger and more future safe than console anyway).
Also they would still be able to release a consumer friendly PC (with SteamOS or equivalent) which would act like a console.
They either cancel all their plans or stick by their case-by-case mantra.
Because it’s a business plan update it’s likely the latter.
Maybe I’m a downer, but it’s almost impossible to explain why going multiplatform “for just few games” is a good thing and means they stop releasing all games on all platforms.
Every game will have a fat asterisks
But if they for example confirm Starfield, and perhaps Gears too, people aren’t dumb, they will assume 100% everything is fair game, I will too. They just need to be completely transparent. If the plan is to go full mp, just say so, let us know what we can expect. They can’t just only say HFR and Sea of Thieves, not with all these rumors that much bigger names are being considered. But consider doesn’t mean it will happen, so they might not even mention those.
They must realize now they can’t give us half assed answers, they have seen the reactions. Then again, if they do cancel all these plans, I am sure it still won’t be enough for some and will always doubt Xbox and remember this whole situation and expect it will happen eventually anyway.
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They gave us half assed answers for years. We had people on this thread posting quotes that games are exclusive and that PlayStation use the 30% cut to harm Xbox. And then we have quotes that says case by case for each game.
@peter42O I’m pinning you because of the slow mode.
It’s just confusing
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To add to my previous reply (I can’t edit because of slow mode).
In the very unlikely situation that did happen it would be hilarious to see God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon etc on ‘Xbox’ which it technically would be.
It would turn this current scenario completely on it’s head.
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Wasn’t the case by case basis during the Bethesda acquisition was going on and was from Tim Stuart? Because he said we want the games to either be the best or first or some crap like that?
Phil at the round table with Bethesda said this is about giving Xbox great exclusives and to where Game Pass exists which unless it changes doesn’t include Sony or Nintendo.
Case by case is worse to me that just going full console multi-platform because it then becomes a guessing game with every single game announcement.
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Yeahhhhhh…
True.
Let’s hope we get a relatively clear answer though. This case by case basis stuff is old news now, they need to have something we can work with. Whatever their plan is, I bet it’s hard for them to know what the consequences will be in terms of third party support, that is something we’ll have to see what happens and I won’t blame them for not giving information on that. But please, please no vague bullshit.
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IF!
I just don’t get why any of us would stick with Xbox if they’re releasing everything everywhere. Makes more sense to jump ship and go with PC or PlayStation, then you’ll have access to everything. It’s good that more people would have access to the Xbox library but it’s not exactly going both ways, so you may as well choose the service/console that gives you everything.
The only thing that xbox would have is Game Pass, but as PlayStation takes more market share will 3rd party publishers still be keen on releasing games on GP?
Guess it’s a waiting game until next week 
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It’s all messaging, which sadly Microsoft is notoriously bad at.
If Microsoft came out next week and said that going forward, they would clearly state which games were exclusive, timed-exclusive, and multiplatform, that would be enough for me.
I truly think they need to create two publishing labels: Xbox Studios and Microsoft Studios or whatever they choose. Heck, bring back the ‘Only on Xbox’ label for all I care.
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Well they did last generation when PS4 had a 60m lead, why would that not be now with only 20m? As we saw with FF 16 (and Forespoken)…releasing on PS5 only was so disasterous decimating their companies value, that the new head of Square was apologising to Xbox fans and Phil within 3 weeks of its launching, saying more games would come to Xbox.
That’s 100% the case with every third party publisher today (non- indie) which explains why Sony hasn’t announced any major timed exclusives in years.
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Wouldn’t surprise me if they went with a dockable handheld system with steam/Xbox integrated, so they can boast a huge pc library with Xbox games and gamepass(and Sony games)
That way they wouldn’t be a direct competitor to Sony anymore.
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Inside the bubble. The mainstream doesn’t even know about that stuff. Most casuals don’t even know about 1st party vs. 3rd.
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A casual will Google: “will XY game coming to PlayStation” and one of the first thing the see is an IGN article with a sentence “like a lot of other Xbox games it’s highly possible that XY game is coming to PlayStation”.
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True. I’m just spitballing really. Just trying to prepare myself after spending an ungodly amount of time and money into the xbox ecosystem for the past 16 years. Suppose if it’s all true, I’ll just embrace the change… Change can be good… Right?!? 
I think you’re highly overestimating thw number of people who base their purchase decision based on that.
Are those the same people who see a marketing ad and assume the game is exclusive to that system?
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Maybe. But I think a lot of people will inform themselves first before the make a decision especially when they can’t find certain games in retail stores.
Not many for sure, but many people who simply don’t care that much, make their decission based on what they heard, and word of mouth is going to be that MS games will be on PS5-6, this is what will hurt them the most.
This would be the smartest move i think, both handheld and maybe standard one like the steam box