It seems they have been taking preparations all gen long.
It's mostly the fact that they removed exclusivity for their first party titles, GamePass, full cross-platform play, shift towards xCloud and now reports of (possible) xCloud exclusive games.
If you really take a second to stop and think about it, it's basically phased preparations.
You need to remember that we came from a neck-on-neck race last-gen, but MS had already dropped the ball during the second half of last-gen.
Add to that the original Xbox One plans, MS reducing half of the EU to Tier 2 countries and the rest of the world Tier 3, Phil Spencer who was supposed to 'save' the XOne but ultimately barely did anything and the world outside of US and UK basically saying FU to MS.
MS will have a really tough battle going into next-gen and xCloud isn't really showing MS' confidence in Scarlett.
Guess we'll find out next-gen, but I wouldn't get my hopes as a xbox fan.
Lol true.
They should just call it quits and become the next EA/Activision after next-gen.