Microsoft has a lot of plans for their future in gaming, and they’ve indicated that those plans go well beyond just the world of consoles. While the company has struggled in the console war against Sony and Nintendo – Sony has outperformed them and Nintendo has beat them on titles – it doesn’t indicate that Microsoft is giving up. In fact, they are merely changing tactics.

At the recent Game Developers Conference, Microsoft unveiled a new Cloud Gaming division of their company. The cloud is designed as a learning tool which will include all the cloud gaming products they currently offer and made available exclusively to developers. This is in addition to efforts to create tools and platforms that will work across all gaming devices from computers to consoles and even mobile gaming.

The biggest news out of this move, however, is how Microsoft is changing its perspective of success and profitability. In a discussion with Gamesindustry, Kevin Gammill, GM of the gaming cloud, indicated how Microsoft is learning from their successes. In particular, they are looking towards Minecraft, which beat even Grand Theft Auto 5 by over 50 million sales.

And Microsoft has been heavily investing in values like Minecraft. Last year, they unveiled the Minecraft Marketplace, a shop very similar to Steam’s marketplace, which allowed users to create and sell content while Microsoft took a small portion of the transactions. In just two months, Minecraft Marketplace generated $1 million in revenue, and it represented a refocusing by Microsoft on what profitability centers are beyond just the console.

Microsoft is also the most open console currently on the market. While the console wars have often focused heavily on exclusive titles – which still happens today – Microsoft sees a different future. Microsoft is completely fine with crossplatform play. In fact, they are excited about it. One of the main reasons is that if they have some stake in the value of the game, they gain exponentially. So yes, if Minecraft players from Xbox can play with those from PlayStation they could be driving away profits from users buying exclusively Xbox Minecraft copies. However, their overall profit centers raise because they still have customers engaging with their product. Gammill envisions this as a focal point of Microsoft’s future.

This is something we have seen with Rocket League as well as Fortnite: Battle Royale. As these games grow in popularity, it could behoove the consoles to let players have as inclusive an experience as possible, but at least in the case of Fortnite, Sony isn’t yet willing to buy into crossplatform.

Like Valve, Microsoft is also very interested in the entertainment value of their brand. Valve released the Steam Link back in 2015, a device that could connect all devices to Valve’s Steam storefront and software. Ever since, Microsoft has been taking notes and looking into their own possibilities.

While Microsoft has announced that they have no plans to step back from the console market, they are also making big moves to branch out. Their recent announcement to separate themselves from the rest of E3 may also indicate that they want to become a brand outside of just the traditional scene.