The Xbox 360 is one of my favorite consoles, and these days even I am struggling to see the point of owning an Xbox anymore. There was a glimmer of hope with the Xbox One X, which rectified the errors of the Xbox One, but now we're back to having Microsoft making stupid gaming decisions all over again. The Series S shouldn't exist, and neither should PS5 ports of MS exclusives (the latter of which would be the absolute death knell for Microsoft consoles).
Realistically, the scenario I was hoping wouldn't occur seems to be underway already, slowly but surely: Microsoft leaving the hardware console business and positioning its gaming division as exactly that, a third party publisher. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
Anyway, Shenmue 3 was a PS4 exclusive....I'm guessing that if Shenmue even has a future at this point, it'll certainly include Playstation.
Microsoft put themselves into those decisions, basically.
The Series S forced developers to try and achieve parity on two systems of drastically different power levels.
This resulted in either frustrated developers skipping the Xbox platform or inadvertent "PlayStation exclusives" that ended up costing Xbox dearly at first(such as Baldurs Gate III).
Games cost an exorbitant amount of money to make these days(even AA isn't cheap by any means), but Xbox conditioned their entire audience that purchases were not necessary with Game Pass. In their mind, not even an Xbox is needed.
They encouraged a Netflix for Games model, but that doesn't lead to much profitability and developers, again, noticed.
Putting their games on competing platforms is the best way for them to get money and they need it.
"Microsoft doesn't need money."
They don't--but the suits at the Microsoft division(not Xbox) are saying "Hey, you spent 80+ billion dollars on these publishers and we aren't seeing much ROI".
Xbox games becoming more of a "third party" is 100% an upper Microsoft decision, not the Xbox division. Satya wants his money back.
I can guarantee you the upper echelon of Microsoft would want nothing more than a chance for Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo eco systems.
From the intel I've gathered, they have offered but weren't successful(yet).
It's been a series of missteps by Microsoft to get to this point. I've long said they never fully recovered from the 2013 E3 debacle with Xbox One vs PS4.
It's a wonder they have gotten this far.
But this doesn't come without cost--without Microsoft as a true competitive force, you'll see Sony return to their most arrogant form, last seen in the PS3 days.
One might say it's already begun--no real games being shown, a $700 PS5 Pro that almost no one considers worth it, and a recent price hike on all their controllers.