Next step might be killing the Xbox, by the sound of things. A move I mused about, uh, possibly closer to when he started than to now. Pre-PS5, certainly.

A few years back, I wrote that Microsoft’s goals allow for a joint console. They can offer Sony a generation without an Xbox, and charge a nominal fee for providing the new Playstation with DirectX drivers, and accept whatever hardball licensing deal Sony offers. The money is irrelevant. Sony would be paying them to end the concept of gaming consoles as competing platforms.

When Sony recently hinted at the PS5 specs, I realized Microsoft could do this without Sony’s cooperation. They can just… not make a console. They’d die-shrink the Xbone, sure, and maybe give Nintendo a hard time with a portable version. But they can - at their leisure - leave the Playstation as the only traditional home console.

In either case, Sony may not realize they still need exclusives. Right now they understand that’s the only thing separating their $400 television rectangle from other $400 television rectangles. If theirs is the only one besides “computers” they might not acknowledge their competition. Microsoft would gamely publish Halo 7 or whatever on Playstation let’s say 5. Sony would keep making money on games big and small, which have a historically easy time porting to and from their machine. Developers love reaching more customers.

Now they are at the very least winding down any physical game sales. Which by itself is just awful. But if it’s part of turning the Xbox brand into a weird PC, a Windows storefront, and a game streaming service for any gizmo with a browser, hey sure sounds great. Not sure that plan needed another generation of slumping market share whilst gobbling up other publishers.