The Series X|S combined has sold less than half the units of the PS5. I can't find sales numbers on the X vs S, but it seems like a lot of studios have determined it's just not really profitable to do that level of optimisation unless you can also squeeze the game onto Switch, which does not have as much overlap in demographics as the Xbox and PlayStation do.

The article cites Larian having similar issues with Baldur's Gate 3 and Remedy with Alan Wake 2. This isn't just one shitty lazy dev studio- this is Microsoft forcing hard decisions on devs by insisting on walking the Series S like they're in Weekend at Bernie's.

It's a ton of work for a tiny bit of revenue, why bother. I'm sure they're just fine where they're at. I'm not coming to Microsoft's defense here whatsoever. The burden of affordability should not be thrown onto game devs

You can't buy your way past low-end hardware.

I have been saying for a few years now that i think Microsoft is getting out of console hardware, and pushing cloud gaming and Game Pass to the switch and PlayStation marketplaces.

We're already seeing game pass on certain Samsung smart TVs, all you need is a Bluetooth controller, which means the mobile phone market is right around the corner.

Is it too late for that?

I don't think a ton of people would care enough in the first place, and those that do would probably prefer SetamOS or PopOS or something else that isn't affiliated with Microsoft.