PC gaming is actually a competitive market that would still give players options to escape that (Gog, steam, Epic, itch and humble dumble, hell even Microsoft store and company launchers), it is not guaranteed to never happen because cartels happen, but it is far more hard and improbable than consoles, which are locked-down computers with unbreakable monopolies installed in then, at the mercy of the feudal lord of choice. PS: not to mention, Piracy, emulators and Libre games on linux.

Yo-ho-ho matey.

Microsoft is seeing to that as fast as they can

It was a discussion. And XBox Live was a significantly better experience than PSN. A lot of people were happy to have the premium online experience on PS4 vs the barebones PS3 experience.

To be clear, I had PS Plus on the PS3 when it was just unlocked (free-ish) games and extra discounts. And most of my favorite playstation multiplayer was on the PS3. So I was mostly indifferent to the change.

Microsoft actually tried that during the 360 era with their "Games for Windows Live" service. You had to pay Live "Gold" in order to play online for those games, the exact same subscription required for online gaming on Xbox.

The whole service was so poorly done, so intrusive, and so un-PC, that it didn't stick with PC gamers.

Nowadays, with quite a few PC gamers already paying for the Game Pass subscription and a rather streamlined experience for PC, I wonder if things would turn out differently somehow.