Buying Gears of war cannot be cheap, that IP has the potential of selling 5-7 million, maybe on both consoles, so MS buy it.
But thats not all folks.
Titanfall is EA's only new IP this gen, and likely biggest because it is from the same devs as Call of Duty. The price tag to get timed exclusivity on that must be high. But MS buy it.
Rumours surfaced it could be timed and Major Nelson wasn't sure whether it was. A couple of days later it was announced that it was permenant. MS bought it.
Companies like Insomniac who have a multi-million fanbase on Sony consoles, now why would a company like that almost abandon a whole fanbase, especially after not giving them a new IP for 6/7 years. MS bought their IP.
To add to the EA craziness, Peggle 2, PvZ:GW, MS bought timed exclusivity. They also bought exclusivte ultimate team content for fifa on their consoles, as well as paying for Fifa to be included with day one pre orders of most Xbox ones in EU.
Stuff like this doesn't come free.
My point is, Microsoft are not creators, they are shoppers. They buy their successes instead of creating them. They do not boast a first party dev force as big as SOny or Nintendo. What this means is, lets say they have a budget, they spend alot of it on other devs and non-original IP's, when they could on their own.
I suppose if multi-plats look weaker on your console, the best solution is to buy the multiplats rights.
Lets look at Sony quickly. Now Sony do spend money too, but I think we can agree its nothing in the range of MS. Excluding indies, how many third party exclusives did PS4 have at launch, 0, I believe, whereas MS had Dead rising 3(bought) and Ryse(Possibly bought).
But most of the money they do spend are on their own studios to create new ip's or new experiences. Isn't that what us gamers want. MM invested around the range of 40 million in developing a new ip.
I have a feeling this money spending is going to bite them in the back one day, especially if the PS4 is far succesfull this gen. Buying up multiplats, ip's etc. limits creativity because it means the primary motivation factor of this industry is money. The end.
