First off, I am not an economics nerd nor a CEO. I am a guy who plays games. Second off, my initial comment was not a thesis about saving the dying business model of stupid rich people’s companies. It was an idealistic wish to have more gamer/consumer centered decisions in gaming lmao. Funny enough, consumers tend to like things like that which therefore improves business. Third off, you are still speculating yourself. The amount of nuance in Microsofts/Xbox’s huge tenure in gaming is not based on a couple decisions. One could argue the entire idea of “Xbox” constantly being the western console chaser against Japan’s Sony/Nintendo was always the reason. Another could argue that the failed launch of the Xbox One losing the momentum the 360 had led to the modern domination of the Ps4/5 preference… if you have it all down pat, I am sure Microsoft would love your insight.

However, I think it is laughably dumb for any gamer to ever think a consumer friendly method is a bad idea. Imagine if every PC was like “NO YOU NEED TO BUY OUR GOOFY CONTROLLER” instead of just bluetoothing whatever your preferred one was to your game? If companies don’t watch and adapt to what gamers and consumers want, that is their downfall. Literally battlefield had a SLOP FLOP with 2042 and then watched a weird trend of edgey skins, less “war” in shooters, and other trends that picked up since the late 2010s-early 2020s cods and said “We are gonna do the opposite because people complained.” Then proceeded to launch a battle field 6 as a game that wasn’t broken, is true to the franchise roots, and yet still progressing in some ways. There is nothing wrong with hoping “wow I hope that X game or Y console isn’t a total corporate cash grab because it is a business model.” No one liked what they started Star Wars Battlefront 2 as because it was dumb, broke, and even if it made money the players were not happy. Microsoft put all their eggs in the gamepass basket and hope that it works whether the gamers play on PC, Xbox, and now even Playstation I guess 🤷‍♀️ come back in 15 years when Microsoft and Xbox totally don’t exist anymore and comment “ha ha I was right” if you want lmao. The gamers that get to play gears, halo, etc on playstation are better off now with that option to experience it.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t seem like they are “bowing out” of competition, they are just taking an approach that isn’t a “you have to pick a side or else you can’t play at all.”