-
I think MS has just fallen behind in the exclusives stakes in the last 10 years. They always had Halo, Forza etc to launch with and even those weren't ready in time for this generation. Also with the blurring of generation lines it also blurs the exclusives line, the brand new Forza 5 doesn't feel as special when it's also available on a 10 year old console. So in my opinion they've gone heavy on purchasing developers because they can and because they need something to differentiate themselves from Playstation. PS has always sold more and seems to be the default choice in every country apart from the US.
There's always the talk of them focusing more on game streaming but it's not a viable option around the world yet.
Sumo-
I think you're also forgetting about the convinence factor of gamepass.
Sony simply can't compete with that.
-
They're moving away from exclusives to lock in players.
Game Pass, particularly in the Ultimate tier, is so convenient.
With the addition of Cloud and, to me, more importantly, the addition of touch (and thus removing the need to pair an actual pad to the phone, iPad, etc) makes it so much more worth of its cost.
Also you don't need an app, you can play via Cloud via your browser (done to allow playing on Apple devices).I'm currently abroad and yesterday I played Death's Door, Hitman and Unpacking from my gf's sofa and my phone (Hitman on the iPad).
Sony can't compete with that. They didn't innovate and I only play a couple of exclusives on the PS5 (and also because I truly love the PS5 Dualsense!!), but the majority of my time is spent on Game Pass (Xbox Series X or phone or iPad) and Switch.
I might have missed your point, added my 2c after a mention of Game Pass and shifted the topic a bit :)
spenceey
anidel
I wonder if it's a sign Microsoft are looking to move away from providing the physical devices? I'm sure I've already seen interviews where MS execs are hinting at this.
If the money being made is really in the distribution of games, skimming the micro-transactions & taking subscription cash, maybe they don't need the faff of manufacturing consoles & they'll just leave that to Sony (MS are already making money off all the PC gamers)?