This isn't anti Xbox, but I've been saying this and I've been stating the exact same thing is going to happen with Playstation, and Microsoft nor anyone else is actively grasping why it's happening. I've been saying ever since Microsoft went third party with PC releases and then when Playstation did the same thing I've said the same thing and six months to a year ago stated that PS5 is going to be where Xbox is now within less than a decade. Well, where Xbox is now is that they're basically closing up shop and that's going to happen with Playstation as well.

As soon as Microsoft decided that all their games were going to be on PC, they were done. At that time Microsoft spoke positively about how accepting the PC market was to their games and that sales were great. During that generation though, the Xbox One ended at around 58 million console sales, down from the 80 million on the Xbox 360. People exited the Xbox going to either the Playstation or the PC. PS4 only sold around 20-30 million more than the PS3 did though, that's seven years of the consoles life, and that's seven years of human existence, people reaching the age of 18 seven times over. With the age of people increasing the number should significantly increase but the number on consoles are staying relatively the same, meaning that some people might be going to console while many of those owners are shifting over to PC.

Microsoft tried to shift this over to Game Pass, trying for a Netflix subscription by paying a certain amount of money to developers to include their games on the console. They were getting a lot of positivity but not making a lot of money because of how much it cost for their day one releases. Sony started this with PS Now since PS3 couldn't be emulated back in 2014 when the PS4 launched, prior to Game Pass, but the cost wasn't nearly as high since these games already made all their money Sony was paying practically nothing in comparison to keep the service open before following Microsoft and rebranding it. Microsoft has since announced that the Game Pass is going to be broken into several tiers, the day one Game Pass and the regular subscribers.

Microsoft is now even starting to publish all of their games from the companies they've purchased to try and balance out all of this loss onto the PS5, but all this is doing nothing for the Xbox brand, it is getting a one time sale on another console.

It's unbelievable that Microsoft AND SONY have not figured out the problem with this business model and this problem all stems from releasing their games third party. Regardless that it's only PC, when you tell customers there's no reason to buy an Xbox or Playstation, you have no idea how many are going to just stop supporting the console altogether but it's going to happen.

Every single person who stops supporting Xbox or Playstation means;

-Loss each console sale which are each profitable in some denomination, this isn't the PS3.
-Loss of sales from the base peon online subscription. If you have to pay $80 a year for a subscription just to play online, that's a very large margin of profit. People on PC don't have to pay this which is a huge motivator on staying on the console, why pay $80 a year when your console has no exclusives just so you can play with your friends?
-Loss of accessory sales. Playstation 4 has the best controller imo, but the controllers themselves since 2014 for all console manufacturers are pretty shit. Outside of the N64, stick drift never seemed a thing on consoles until PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. Whether you're buying replacements because of shit controller manufacturing to funnel even more money from the consumer or you just want multiple controllers to play games with friends and family, that's a loss when people go to PC and can buy any brand of controller they want(but this is not as big of an issue for MS as it is Sony.)
-Loss of residual income. Only Nintendo makes most of their money from first party game sales. This year 81% of Nintendo's software revenue came from first party, but neither Microsoft or Sony's first party sales come close. Microsoft and Sony's revenue comes almost exclusively from third parties in comparison to how much they actually make from first party. However it's their first party games that generate the hype of knowing you can't play these on another console. When all your games are on PC you are giving literally no reason for people to purchase your console and you are losing ALL residual profitability that come from the above.

All people have to do is look and see that Sony is on the exact same path as Microsoft. The PS5 so far has sold 62 million PS5s, Microsoft has sold 31 million Xbox Series consoles and we're already four years through the console generation, more than halfway yet combined less than half the sales of last generation, which were about equal to the previous generation only because PS4. The PS5 isn't even going to reach 110 million, Xbox Series probably isn't going to reach 50 million, a total sales figure lower than the seventh generation of consoles.

Playstation is on the same trajectory of Microsoft and all of the milestones are hitting exactly as they did with Microsoft. The positive sales figures for PC, pushing hard on the new branding of PS Now with a massive price increase due to a significant drop in PS+ sales. Year on year console sales losses even if not as significant because again, they only just started porting everything to PC, even allowing their first party games to be released on other platforms, and no, not just MLB, but Lego Horizon Adventures and Freedom Wars. I mean how fucking stupid are these companies that they think releasing multiconsole on one competitor just to beat out another dying competitor? Microsoft's big push for Switch releases anyone? Ori and Ori 2 ring a bell?

It all comes down to exclusivity and these companies are driving their own selves out of the market by their games not remaining completely exclusive to their brands and pushing digital hard. The one thing console games have over PC is that PC hasn't had physical games since 2006 or earlier other than a small handful here and there, the second thing they have over them is their exclusives and these console manufacturers are getting rid of both of their biggest draws for the short term gain.

I will repeat again, Playstation is going to be at Xbox within a decade, and it likely won't even take that long. Maybe half a decade. If Sony has any hope to recovering their brand, they'll stop supporting PC and start pushing physical games, considering that's not going to happen, they're done. Five years, 10, they're done.