So did Respawn, but EA offered them a big sack of money and they took it. Big publishers seem to take on smaller studios that are either weak or down on their luck after a few years of flops here and there. 

Why do so many people become upset when Microsoft aquires studios but we rarely see the same level of anger when Sony or Nintendo does likewise?

The funny thing is that, out of all the three companies, MS is the only one that is allowing their first party titles on PC (and even other consoles).  So yeah, Im here scratching my head trying to understand.

As a PlayStation fan, I agree. People didn't hype Hitman 2 and now its failing in sales while people still aren't buying it with its good reviews.

I'd say good for Microsoft on buying a quality developer. Sony needs more competition and I'll be able to play their games on PC anyway.

If Sony wants to compete, they should buy other developers. They shut down two of their revered first party racing game developers and it has bit them in the behind now. The only reason they were in a strong position was that both their competitors stuck to a niche and never got varied games. That might now change for Microsoft.

So why does all of a sudden IO becomes lost to you? I am guessing you are assuming they are going to make bad games from this point on if brought out?

They listened to the criticism and MS is a company with resources.

Put the two together and you have a hungry company feeding there hungry fans. Next gen Xbox is going to be releasing games on all fronts. There buying to build there multi-device set-up. PCs, Consoles, Mobile etc.

Rumours have it MS might be buying another 5 studios to add to there current 14. No idea who or if this is true, but ill be keeping an eye out. Possibly be announced at E3 2019.

As you mentioned, IO could make an amazing Perfect Dark sequel.

After so many purchases this type of rumor is very likely.

uhh, that's mostly because PC gamers expect quality port jobs from MS, who was once a company that catered for PC first. These days their port jobs are still spotty or locked to a terrible storefront with zero modding capabilities. 

I'd honestly rather a really good stellar port job, or nothing at all. That and their crappy storefront still needs sorting out.

I guess they were hoping to get more sales from Hitman 2, I mean in the UK disk sales were 90% less than Hitman 1.

When you have the stark reality of going bankrupt or getting someone to buy you as a company and secure jobs/your own future (and I guess the owners would make some money too from the acquisition), then I can see it as a no brainer.

No they weren't. They were 90% less than Hitman Absolution ... which came out in the 7th generation when digital sales were still only about 10%-15% of sales, and was the best selling Hitman game ever. A dumb metric if there's ever been one. 

The Steam player count is better than Hitman 1, with a more consistent player base. Not only that, but:

https://www.destructoid.com/hitman-has-passed-13-million-players-504583.phtml

Hitman Season 1 went from 2 million in early 2017, to 5 million in late 2017, to 13 million in mid 2018 (it's worth mentioning this metric was before Hitman 2 was announced, so it had nothing to do with an upcoming game bringing hype to the first season).

Completely agree. I myself is big on Microsoft but Sony has produced alot more variety and number of games thanks to the studios they acquired and made themselves. It's only good for the industry if we have three strong competitors that push out great games and services for us gamers 🙂.