If Xbox ever gains majority market share your choices go out the window.

Wasn't there a quote from a Microsoft exec stating exactly that is essentially the only plan. They either have majority market by 2027 or they leave the gaming industry.

I love how it's all or nothing, they don't care about gaming. Even if that exec quoted didn't have the power to are the division, it shows a lot about what their plans are. And as always, it's not good for the consumer.

The best thing the consumer can hope for is they grow too big and regulatory agencies grow some balls and split them up like old Bell. That's the only way I could see it benefitting consumers in the future. Even if MS left the gaming industry, they are not selling everything off piecemeal like a tag sale. It's all getting sold to Facebook or a better fit would be apple. They already have the hardware side, they could whip up a console real quick, and they already have the marketing on their side. Although both FB and Apple have tons of cash to burn, I could see FB buying it, developing a sub par console in the hopes it can bridge the gap until they can get everyone in VR goggles. That would be almost as bad for consumers as MS' Monopoly...

Also, I am not implying either of those companies could afford to buy those purely with cash. It's just if you have massive cash reserves it's usually indicative of planning on new investments. Looking at the list again, and sorting by reserves as a percent of value, I could also see Google and Amazon being contenders. Amazon already has spent money developing devices, although that has turned out poorly for them, so they might be hesitant to dump a huge amount of money into something that hasn't worked well for them in the past. Google has the money, they have power, but little to no experience in gaming world beyond mobile gaming.