It doesn't make logical business sense because they are cutting off millions of consumers from buying the product, missing out on massive revenue.
to you, sure, but to microsoft, who is in a much much much much better position to judge this, it clearly does make sense.
and it's not half. It's 3rd, at the very best when being super generous. These are bethesda games. Skyrim is what makes them the most money. A game sold mostly on pc.
i'd be willing to bet that the figures are something like this:
skyrim sales:
70% pc
14% playstation
14% xbox
2% switch
now of that 14% that playstation used to have for skyrim, you'd find a percentage of those buyers also own an xbox/pc. lets say 4% currently have another way that they'd play the game without having to purchase another console/device to play it.
so these buyers will still buy, just not on playstation.
this leaves 10% of skyrim buyers that have a playstation and can't buy the next elderscrolls game. of that 10%, let's say 2% will buy an xbox so that they can play this game (among other possible exclusives) so that's now just 8% of buyers not being able to play their game, but an increase in xbox sales,game pass sales.
i don't think microsoft worry about 8% of sales lost, for the potential increase in xbox revenue, and the amount of money skyrim alone continues to make any way.
now these numbers are just random ones picked out, but my point is, when you say half you're wrong, it is going to be way way way less than half the sales that they are closing off from.