In terms of third party exclusives to secure, I think Crytek is worth giving a second shot now that the XBX will be retaking the performance crown. Not on a Ryse sequel, but probably a third person shooter/adventure hybrid, or on a third person shooter/RPG hybrid, more in Crytek's comfort zone. It would be a graphical showcase and another die-roll on creating a new IP for Microsoft.
As part of a broader strategy looking forward though, differentiating from Sony is probably a smarter move than trying to be an inferior clone of Sony. GaaS is extremely non-sexy for people in terms of list wars and hype, but frankly, something in that vein is a lot more likely to capture a large, sustained audience than trying to copy Uncharted. They still need to make conventional games too, but creating enough break-out hits to beat Sony at their own game is really damn unlikely to happen. Sea of Thieves is probably their most forward-looking game for this reason.
