The more I think about it the more it becomes clear Microsoft just needs to kill Xcloud altogether and settle out of court with the CMA to change their decision (which I think is possible as with any other court case).
Xcloud may be a big part of MS's future ambition and especially with the emergent market but right now it's far from rising to the significance of the added value of ABK portfolio to Game Pass and added revenue stream.
It would also:
- Boost every third-party cloud provider 10 years deal significance greatly.
- Some of those providers and future ones may use the Azure platform anyway.
- Increase the production capacity of Series X.
- By the same token as no.3 added capacity to grow Game Pass
MS could always reintroduce itself in this venture a few years after the deal is completed when CMA initial assessment of this market is proven wrong. It's not like MS is gonna lose an edge here either as using this as a game pass feature will make it instantly an attractive choice to anyone using cloud streaming then.
