BlackTron
Member
What if Returnal sold like 500k? Oh wait, it did. Maybe it’s at a million now, haven’t seen numbers. But do you see Sony close the studio or stop doing exclusives? No. They know that exclusives is why you buy into their ecosystem. It doesn’t even matter that they haven’t released that many new 1st party games yet, people still invest because they know the games will come, eventually. Same thing with Nintendo.
The day Microsoft announce that they’re a third party publisher is the day Xbox as a platform dies, not just the hardware but Xbox as a future service and launcher and whatever plans they have for next decade+.
This generation is over but there is still time to correct things for next generation.
MS has a tough path ahead if one hand of it tries to be a third party publisher while the other is trying (when not plotting) to be a console brand by taking its resources.
This wishy-washy direction will make all their business relationships confusing. No one will really understand whether they are their partner or competition. In the end everyone realizes that they are just playing everyone as it suits them. If MS is serious about supporting a console, then Sony/Nintendo need to worry that they will make a sequel exclusive to it, after they exposed their own fanbases to that IP -thereby whoring out their fans as free advertising for MS's next exclusive game. Frankly, I don't think MS is dumb enough to do this, risking pissing off their partners to support a new console where if it bombs they need to come crawling back to an incensed Sony and Nintendo.
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