> How is any of that hypothetical? Microsoft has always been opportunistic

It’s hypothetical because you are discussing a different reality to the present.

Hypothetically you might be right, but seems unlikely given their past actions and the current industry trends. However it’s impossible to prove or disprove your point because it depends on conditions other than our current reality.

> No no no. You do this repeatedly, trying to say that I'm naive, it's extremely condescending.

I don’t mean to be condescending. However it’s going to be difficult to discuss Xbox Live without actually discussing the features of Xbox Live.

> I just don't believe the hype, I don't think streaming is the panacea for video games and based on the way I'm seeing most people around me engage with video games, I don't think I'm alone in thinking that.

The “hype” is a combination of extensive market research that extends far beyond your social circle, and the intentions of big corporations.

You might be right that the reality will not live up to the hype, but citing your evidence as “based on how most people around me engage with video games” isn’t a particularly wide sample.

Seriously, read some of the market research on this (I have, given my background and social circle also being industry experts) and it massively contradicts your anecdotal analysis on Microsoft and the wider games industry:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=video.game.market+research&t=iphon...

> Latency will always be worse and the only solver for that is throwing expensive graphics hardware into edge datacenters.

Latency isn’t a problem for all types of games.

You’re also focused on just one aspect of subscription services and an area that’s still underdeveloped at the moment too.

Lastely there have already been examples of streaming games that have proven the concept does actually work.

> Meanwhile, smartphones are starting to run AAA games without needing to stream anything at all, compatibility layers are being developed that allow for Windows games to run on ARM/Android. You're not wrong that "gaming on everything" is becoming a thing, but I don't think relying on streaming alone is going to cut it.

Alone it won’t cut it. I never claimed Xbox Live was a streaming service alone. I said it was an area for growth.

> You sound like the people hyping up Stadia. Games everywhere, man, streaming is the future!

A future, not the only future.

Subscription services are the future but there multiple facets to that. I’ve repeatedly discussed each of them so I’m confused why you keep thinking online can only be one thing or another.

> The future isn't streaming, the future isn't a la carte, it's all of those sales models at the same time.

That’s literally what I’ve been saying. Are you even reading what I’m posting or just automatically opposed to them because I disagreed with your assessment on Microsoft and the “failure” of the Xbox One ?

> The future of Microsoft as a games company is that they sell their games any way people want to buy them, that is, they act like a regular old publisher.

You’re implying that people have the ultimate say in how they consume software yet history has proven that rarely proves to be the case. For example Adobe moving to subscription model.

You’re also implying that most people don’t want a subscription abased model for gaming when actually it’s already proving very popular with people who like to play lots of different games (as the market reports I’ve linked to have demonstrated).

Fortnite “Seasons” is a similar concept. While the base game is free, you have to pay for any season exclusives. Epic saw a massive growth in revenue and engagement after switching to this model. While on the surface this model might seem contradictory to the subscription model, it’s really not:

Both other regular updates offering exclusives to keep people coming back, and those exclusives aren’t available as part of their base free package.

Nintendo are doing this with their emulators being exclusive to Nintendo Online and new ROMs drip fed over a period of months.

Sony are doing this with their emulators being Playststion Plus.

Only Microsoft are pushing their online subscription as being hardware agnostics.