The business has changed so much since the 80s when all these ideas were conceived. So much of what fans consider “good business” is all outdated nonsense. When all this started, the software was cheap and the r&d on the hardware was the big investment you had to pay off.

Now, the hardware is a loss leader (or at least a wash) for the first half of the generation. The big first party exclusive games are loss leaders. The only way you make money is off services, and third party game sales.

Sony is trying desperately to figure out how to make its big cinematic 3rd person action games cheaper because they are killing them. PC releases are part of the solution. But the business is still unsustainable. They made a huge bet on live service gaming at perhaps the worst possible time.

MS on the other hand has a huge “shipping games” problem. Game pass needs at least one big deal release a month to keep growing and they just don’t have it. Game pass revenue probably can’t cover buying those games in from 3rd parties every month, so they have to make their own and they haven’t been able to make hits. So, they make what they can, buy studios, and ship retail versions on any platform they can to help offset the cost.

Jeff Gerstmann’s take seemed about right to me MS isn’t only competing with Sony, they (and Sony and Nintendo) are competing with Netflix and Disney plus and every other entertainment service out there. Sony isn’t their enemy, they are a potential retail partner, just like steam.

These big single player tentpoles are an endangered species if nobody figures this out. Platform exclusivity is very bad business but it is taking the suits a few years to break out of the old culture, and the consumers even longer.