To me, it looks like they want to prop up their platform vs the PS4 by doing a mid-generation performance bump and roping in some PC gamers to bolster their player numbers.
They've probably got a new X1 model with upped clockspeeds thanks to a process shrink and want to regain the performance crown from the PS4. By releasing a X1+, news sites can be encouraged to benchmark it vs PS4, thereby making the X1 platform look better.
Switching to Monthly Active Users would be the other half of the strategy. At the moment, that number only includes X1 players, but as they build up their Win10 audience, they'll roll those players into that number. Since there's something like 40 million gamers on Win10 right now according to Steam, why wouldn't MS want to try to target them. Think about it "It's the same game build, why shouldn't we lump the two together?"
In conspiracy level thinking, this is MS trying to break up Valve's PC platform. Valve is trying to build a plaform of Vulkan+SDL that would work for around 94% of active gamers on Steam. If MS can convince AAA studios to focus on DX12 instead, Valve backs down and Vulkan just becomes the Android low-level API.
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