Today brought with it a development that gamers have been anticipating with no shortage of dread for days, even weeks: the Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) so-called “business update” that would offer a look at what’s going on in Xbox. The event looked like it might mean little going forward after all, with tweets from Microsoft studios coming out to almost shrug and suggest that the most we’d see is fewer console exclusives or more games that start out as exclusives before going elsewhere.
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The good news was that there was no end in sight for Xbox, and Microsoft—noted Phil Spencer, head of Xbox—decided to take four games to the other consoles. Spencer then went into an extended explanation, suggesting that exclusivity is going to be “…a smaller and smaller part of the industry.” Meanwhile, the question of what this meant for Xbox itself was largely kept low-key. Xbox was cited as a “critical component” of the overall strategy. Still, with the Xbox Series X and S lines now in their fourth year, a hardware refresh will likely happen in the near term.
Is Microsoft a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on MSFT stock based on 32 Buys, one Hold, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 56% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MSFT price target of $469.45 per share implies 15.53% upside potential.
