Yes, so they're doing just fine. Next question please.
And there never will be proof because it's fanboy nonsense.
Sad Guy Phil™ says otherwise.
You mean the same Xbox brand that started Day 1 on PC to actually broaden their customer base because Xbox was failing miserably BEFORE the ports even started? The PC ports were a solution to their falling business, not a symptom or cause.
They were doing better with XBO prior to Day 1 PC, than they are doing today with Xbox Series. And that's an undeniable fact if you excuse all the lifelines the division has gotten through M&As of giant publishers and IP like Minecraft.
MS basically calculated that since Xbox meant so little to their bottom line, what did it matter if they had their players drop the console and go to PC? They still own the PC platform when it comes to gaming, even if Valve has the biggest storefront in Steam. Those gamers still need Windows, and Windows is way more important to Microsoft than Xbox.
That's why Microsoft had no issue doing Day 1 on PC. "Broadening" their base isn't quite accurate. It's more like, they bled a lot of their core console base and didn't have the content or value to bring them back to Xbox, so they chased them where they ran off to (PC). Which luckily for Microsoft, isn't too much a loss because they still effectively own that platform through Windows.
Who is "we"? You're a Sony exec with enough pull to influence their decisions?
We're fans of the brand, who want it to prosper, but not compromise itself with cannibalizing business moves. We also don't want them to become a jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none brand where focus is split between too many avenues and they can't excel at core things.
I've personally already seen this happen with Sega, and we've been watching it happen with Microsoft in real-time. It's also happened to other platform holders like Atari. Whether big or small, they're all vulnerable to that type of mistake, and I don't want Sony to fall into that trap. If anything they should be taking Nintendo's approach as lead.
The customers that you lose by not porting to PC are more numerous than the ones you'd lose by not porting games to PC. Both Sony and Microsoft realized that.
Then where are those Rift Apart PC sales? Or Returnal, for that matter? Even TLOU Remake underperformed on PC. And a lot of Microsoft's games aren't doing so hot on PC right now, such as Starfield and RedFall, or Forza Motorsport. Even releases like HiFi Rush, Pentiment, etc. didn't really light the charts up. Sea of Thieves does decently, but that's kind of it.
So yeah uh, very big money for Sony to chase there copying that I guess