Why Do People View the MS Acquisition of ABK as a "Good Thing?"

[UnderwaterFunktown]

The problem is many people buy into the notion that Microsoft needs this acquisition to become competetive with Sony, when it all honesty at this point they've basicly chosen not to compete on consoles sales (latest case in point increasing the price of the Series X while they're already far behind). They're much more concerned with having the biggest subscription service and with becoming a ubiquitious actor in the industry who is not just on Xbox, but also PC, mobile and even their competing platforms. The truth is they don't need to sell more consoles than Sony to make more revenue than them and that's (understandably) what they're much more concerned with. This deal won't place Xbox anywhere near first in console sales, but it will arguably give them the biggest collection of IPs and franchises of any actor in the gaming space.

If their main goal had actually been to sell more systems, a better approach both for themselves and consumers would have been to strengthen their current studios or build new ones that are actually allowed to make exclusives instead of spending 70 bil on a developer whose games were already on their platform. All we really get are some more games on Game Pass, but they could have easily made a deal with ActiBliz for a much, much smaller amount to do the same. And that's exactly my main problem with acquisition, massive amounts of money being thrown around not to create something new but just for something that already exists to change hands. I get it, it's an easier and safer than building something new, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.