I don't think they're in a position to hold anything much longer. PS4 has more than double the install base of xbox one and unless Sony screw things up in a E3 2006 way, PS5 has the momentum of last generation. Not only that but, right now Xbox is sharing most of its exclusives with PC which means the logical thing to do if you are on a budget is to buy a PS5 for the exclusives and juice up your PC for microsoft games and multiplatforms.
Microsoft has to show something that people can only get on that platform if they want to compete with PS5.
People keep trying to push this but don't look at any of the actual data. For the upper-tier PC gaming market, they comprise of 5% of overall PC gamers. So if there was this influx of console gamers just going to PC gaming equivalents for an equivalent hardware performance, they'd of been done it, and at a much higher percentage.
This also ignores the reality that using "they're also on PC" as a deterrent against getting a Series system might as well also be used against Sony. Already the pace of older PS4 games getting ported to PC has accelerated with games like Horizon and Detroit (as well as Death Stranding which many associate with PS). It's only going to grow especially in thanks with the Epic deal they've signed which would be very lucrative for Sony in getting more profit from PC ports as they won't have Valve taking 30% of the cut anymore.
In fact I'm willing to bet by 2022 we'll start getting PS5 1st-party ports to PC no longer than a year after they release on PS5, and some games will probably start going day-and-date. This won't have any discernible impact on PS5, either; FFVII Remake, everyone knew in advance would be coming to Xbox and PC a year afterwards, yet it still sold gangbusters on PS4 and helped moved systems. So even with the PC port undoubtedly poised to provide better graphics and framerate, people still went and bought PS4s and copies of FFVII Remake in droves.
You can try to argue the stature of the game is a motivating reason people decided to cash in now instead of wait a year, too, but that similar type of stature could be applied to most of Sony's 1st party. What hardcore GOW fan is going to pass up playing GOW 5 Day 1 on PS5 versus waiting a year to get it on PC? Very few. Even if the PC version came day-and-date with the PS5 one, why go spend almost $2000 - $3000 for a PC setup offering an equivalent experience to a next-gen system when you can just get a PS5 for $400 or so? Especially considering only a small percentage of PC gamers would even have setups by that point on par with next-gen systems without need to upgrade their rig?
All of this is a strategic game, make no mistake. And it’s one Sony are very good at playing. It’s time MS actually stepped up and hit it hard too.
Funny thing is they had exactly that type of spirit during most of the 360's life cycle, but that came by giving the OG Xbox team a ton of room to push for marketing and whatnot, and those guys were genuine gamers. You could tell. And then around the time Kinect game they started leaving altogether or went to different departments.
Very few of them were critical members of the Xbox One team and it showed right off the bat. The way MS marketed that system at the start was abysmal for a games console. They've been attempting to recover ever since and it meant getting some of those clearly responsible, gone. Now I'm not blind to say Spencer didn't have a hand in some of the mess that was XBO in the early years. But, he wasn't the one calling the big shots, that was Don Mattrick.
I would love if some of the OG guys like Seamus Blakely came back, and for however scummy he is at EA, Peter Moore put in a lot of good work on the 360 (and Dreamcast) when it came to marketing and arranging strong deals. I think the division's in good hands with Spencer more or less but it wouldn't hurt getting some of those OG-style bold thinkers back. Dunno where the girl who suggested they reveal the Series X at TGA is at in terms of the Xbox team, but I think she deserves a promotion.
Because honestly if people like that were being heard from the top brass of the division I doubt the Inside Xbox show would've been done the way it was, and their somewhat murky (IMO) messaging as of late would seem a lot more unified and assertive while also clearly shutting down negative talking points (that tend to be in bias of Sony).