[jayceedenton]

This issue is nuanced for Microsoft . The health of PC gaming is a huge factor in the sales performance of home consoles, and of course Microsoft dominates that arena via Windows.

Xbox does not have true exclusives these days, because of a strategic choice by Microsoft to ensure that Windows PC gamers (and Xbox owners that also have a Windows PC) will get the same experience. So how do we apportion successes PC gaming market when we look at "Who's winning in gaming"?

For sure, this strategy of letting Windows join the 'Xbox' family seems to have hurt sales of the console itself. A Windows PC and a PS5 seems to be the perfect combination to play all the best games. But is it a problem that Microsoft is making and selling fewer of a certain kind of hardware unit?

I really want Xbox to survive as physical hardware. We need competition in the market to push those gaming devices to be the best they can be. I just hope that it's understood how shifting fewer units is a natural and inevitable consequence of bringing Windows PCs into the family.

It might be assumed that Xbox lost this console generation. Yes, there were some major mistakes made in this generation and the last that must have hit sales. What has also happened, though, is that Xbox as an overall gaming brand has grown beyond the console itself.

[Narishma]

> But is it a problem that Microsoft is making and selling fewer of a certain kind of hardware unit?

The problem for them is that PC players buy their games on Steam, not the Windows store, which means they miss on the 30% cut they would otherwise have got had the sale been on Xbox.