I don't know who you're referencing, but the market data don't support that view of customer behavior, at least not en masse. I don't think it matters who "true Xbox fans" are or what their preferences are, beyond their role as fans to positively influence and promote the brand to others. I have written about the importance to supporting loyal customers, because it's more cost effective for a company to take care of its fans and leverage their loyalty to promote the brand, but beyond that, their being "true fans" serves no business purpose to the company.
There clearly are benefits to MS in terms of individual game by also making games available on PS. That's why they're doing it. They will clearly sell more copies of Indiana Jones by also making it available on PS. However, there are also negatives. The fact that MS is getting beaten up by its fans in the media is not a trivial negative. That hurts their business.
Now, what is hard to know ahead of time is: do the positive sales to PS players outweigh the impact of the negative market reaction to dropping exclusivity on their first-party games. I suspect the answer is yes in the short term (they'll see some short-term wins in terms of software sales) and no in the long-run (as they lose market share to Sony in the next generation of consoles, where the exclusivity could have made a huge difference in their favor).
"The fact that MS is getting beaten up by its fans in the media is not a trivial negative" you see, you continue to confuse. the problem is the naivety of certain media or simply the shortcuts and instrumentalization of information. You underestimate the PlayStation fanboys who are ready to make you believe anything.
Have you counted the number of multi-platform first party games (on other consoes) VS Xbox exclusive games (xbox and pc)? Do you see a generalization of first party games towards other consoles? The reality is that there are only 4 first party games on other consoles (2 small games an 2 very old games), Indiana Jones being a Disney license, and I am of course excluding historically multiplatform games. The reality is that there are much more console exclusive games than cross-platform games. Just facts !
The line up of exclusive Xbox games is much richer than the PlayStation line up. Even if Xbox sends some multi-platform games, Xbox has many more studios and licenses than PlayStation, it's a reality, they can afford this luxury. Playstation can't, for the simple reason that they don't have enough first party games.
You should research objective facts, research data, I know it's longer and more complicated than being content with what the other media say .
Ask yourself why Xbox signs exclusive games with third-party publishers, in addition to first-party exclusives? The answer is simple: exclusives matter! Spencer can't say it so explicitly for a lot of reasons, but it's a factual reality.
The business world, unlike the media world, is not binary, it is not all or nothing, Xbox simply has a hybrid strategy, a balance strategy. In the same way that they have a diverse strategy focused on Xbox consoles, PC, cloud, mobile, and also in small doses towards other consoles, it's not complicated. Unfortunately, this vision does not fit into the closed and binary framework of the media world which wants to put everything in boxes.
Of course, if we listen to certain influencers or certain sites, we have the impression that Xbox is going to become a "third-party publisher" as they say, but that is in total contradiction with the facts.
"third-party publisher", Here is a practical box to place xbox. We already said that to the previous generation. But that's not how it works in reality. Most media are outside of reality, they are only in a fantasized vision of reality, a reality that sells, a reality that clicks.
The other factual reason is that the console market is saturated, everyone knows it, even Sony knows it, only the cloud, PC and mobile markets are expanding, that's the direction Xbox is going, they are the real growth levers, not in other consoles for which very few games are planned anyway.
I completely agree with you on the short, medium and long term consequences of sending or not the games to other consoles. But you are misleading about the analysis of the current situation and about Xbox's future strategy.
The Xbox ecosystem is at the center of their strategy, the hardware and exclusives are part of this ecosystem.
This is in complete contradiction to what Spencer said "don't see these 4 games on other consoles as a sign that everything is going to happen, it's not the case"! It’s clear, isn’t it? Even Satya Nadella, his words have been distorted, he doesn't like exclusive games but it's in an ideal world, he said that in today's world of video games, exclusive games are part of the norm, and therefore as a good business man he adapts to this world.
Recently, Phil Spencer said he regretted not having made Destiny or Guitar Hero exclusive, it's because exclusive games matter.
I'm not throwing stones at you, you're not the only one to be formatted, but I think you should get away from the "what they say" and look at the information in a cold manner, with more objectivity and neutrality based on factual data.
Rumors and speculation are not more important than facts.
But today, the doom and gloom caused by rumors and false assumptions are often more talked about than the facts.
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