You do not need to spend several thousand on a gaming PC that's a false assumption, and the gaming PC market is always a lot bigger than people think. Look at Apple and its gaming ambitions with its M class chips
You mean the ambitions where they have to do an inhouse port of WINE because no one wants to use Apple's technologies to make games for the Mac?
, now consider the fact those chips are in every single Mac sold, and have been for a while now.
...where they'll sit idle, not playing games.
What Mac games actually do 4k/60 with HDR?
Now whilst those are expensive, PV's do not need to cost several thousand to run a game as I said.
IS the low end gaming pc THAT big a thing though? As opposed to PCs that are ALSO used for gaming. Realistically a low-end gaming (as in dedicated to gaming, not a computer-computer as well) PC is just a console that is less turnkey than a console.
But the mobile market is the biggest games market by far, we have seen several times now someone launch a 'free' mobile game and turnover billions in revenue from its in app purchasing and ads, these are of course the most popular ones but it does happen.
That was largely an anomaly driven by pre-privacy-safeguards on device fingerprinting and tracking. I would suggest more studios are leaving mobile for PC & Console than the other way around, at least from what I hear from launch-partner Apple Arcade developers.
It is a mixed bag on when next gen consoles will launch, it is said Xbox will launch before PlayStation maybe in 2026. Things highly possible as the Xbox Series sales are flat and dropping, they've lost 47% in sales in Europe. That's huge. And their are now rumours devs are considering weather or not to support the platform, look at the WiiU to see what happens when no one buys your console.
The WiiU was a stupid idea, the Xbox is a turnkey gaming PC that doesn't require the user to manage Windows or drivers. They're not comparable.
Growth has a natural limit. Apple had something like a 20% drop in Mac sales in the last year. The iPad and Apple Watch have been flatlining for years. Is Apple getting out of all of them?
Xbox hardware is there, it is capable and has features, Game Pass is good, but it is clear it isn't a console sales driver in all regions and the Xbox idea of having your games on everything is impacting sales, and some of the game quality is lacking too, Starfield seems a marmite title, and it isn't as popular as they thought it would be I don't think.
Xbox will be the only console where it won't matter what platform or store you bought your game on, you'll be able to play it on Xbox - GOG, Steam, whatever.
If Starfield is bad, that just makes Gamepass better value - you get most of a year's Gamepass subscription for the equivalent price of buying one trashfire game you didn't like. Thats a huge dodged bullet. Gamepass is basically an insurance policy against buying bad games.
Phil has also stated how he would like all gaming platforms to be in Xbox console, so PS games and it's store and Steam too, mans living in fantasy land to believe that will ever happen with console sales flatlining, your comment in the games platforms in console misses that key fact.
Phil's unlikely to be going out and making a grand strategy statement that would leave MS open to being sued for defrauding shareholders by not adequately disclosing strategic risks, the way Apple had to settle for half a billion last week to protect Tim Cook over his defrauding shareholders by hiding flatlining iPhone sales in China.
Certainly, Phil'd be better informed on the subject than people on internet forums.