No, he said "currently investing more in software," which they aren't. Their investments in software are about equal to what they have been.
And that's something you have absolutely no way of knowing if that investment is done with external developers.
And it's not like the size of the investments is a problem in the first place. It's clear that games like Quantum Break, Scalebound, Forza Horizon 3, and even Fable Legends had hefty budgets available to them.
In Matt's defense, when people think "investing in more software", I doubt most would mean "invest money in getting an exclusivity window in a title that would otherwise be multiplat", or "pour money in having dlc temp exclusive", or "man I wish they'd give more money for that sweet exclusive marketing" instead of developping new 1st party IPs.
I may be wrong though.
You are not wrong, but that's not what I'm talking about either. Quantum Break, Scalebound, Sunset Overdrive, Ryse, others and at a time even Age of Empires and Gears of War were not investments in expanding their 1st party studios, but still weren't just a timed exclusivity window in games that would otherwise be multiplat.
Mind you, that a combination of both funding new external games and securing some multiplat timed exclusives was precisely the early 360 strategy that so many ask for Ms to return to.
And if you ask me, having a big number of 1st party studios is overrated, and something that even Sony realized as they cut some of the fat from their studios, not because they closed some, but also how they shake their studios that got stuck into making games in mediocre franchises (quality and sales wise) just because the studio had to work on something. Another example would be Days Gone. Game looks extremely mediocre in every way (and that's being generous) and screams that the only reason it's being made at all is to give the studio a shot at the formula that has worked well for other Sony studios.
Where's that clear? Or are you just referring to them investing more into marketing deals to have launch exclusive indie games?
It's clear because of the budgets of the games themselves. Last gen all we heard was Ms touting about how even their big games had tight schedules and budgets. Even their big series like Gears or Halo had tighter budgets than Sony's, despite selling a lot less. Lair cost more than double Gears of War 1 to make for a jarring example.
Now he have Ms "throwing away" 70 million dollars into a failed project, and the tech/scope behind their games also shows tons of investments.
For example, what game looks like Gears of War 4 and run at 1080p60 on multiplayer? And that's on a xbone. Gow 4 itself screams high budget throughout the campaign, with the sheer graphical prowess but also employing new tech such as the storms.
Or crackdown, a open world, filled with physical simulations, with 4 player coop. That's not something easy to do. And let's not even get started on the cloud, they are literally doing something no one has ever attempted before, and that too requires investments, on the tech, on the infrastructure and on the game itself which has to be made with that kind of tech in mind (or you think modelling the interiors of the buildings, the walls, the inside of the walls, down to the metal structure and gas pipes has no toll on the game's budget?
Another cancelled game, that is clear that had a big investment behind is Scalebound. There's a reason no one has ever even attempted to make a action RPG game with again 4 player coop, in a seamless world that even has flying islands. And the reason is that it's a nightmare to come up with a way to get all that working. Even if the framerate wasn't very good. A single look at any footage also shows how the game was sooooooooooooo much ahead of anything Platinum has ever done graphical wise which again, means a big budget.
I could go on, but you get the point. It's clear these games had big investments behind.