| RolStoppable said:
Turns out that the whole Activision-Blizzard acquisition was never about boosting Xbox's prospects at all, but instead about bolstering Microsoft's standing as a third party publisher in the future. |
Well, yeah. Microsoft tried to tell us, and regulators, a million different ways that they're not trying to tie people to Xbox consoles. But, for whatever reason, people didn't believe them.
And it makes sense, if you think about the history of Microsoft. They are a software company. They stated many times in the past, with the Zune, Windows phone, and Surface, that those products were only brought to market as a way to introduce their software to those categories. I don't think they've ever wanted to sell any hardware. They only did so because they felt like they had to in order to get their software into certain segments of the market.
In fairness, they talked publicly a bit differently about gaming. So, I understand why people compared them directly to Sony. However, it was also always clear that they saw gaming hardware as a way to get their software into living rooms. But, they have other ways to do that now (cloud), and they probably care a little bit less about being in the living room anyway. Also, they see gaming not just as a way in the living rooms, but also as a way back onto mobile devices.
Given this, why continue to operate a money losing business like gaming hardware? I don't think they are ready to drop put just yet, because the transition to cloud gaming is nowhere near complete. They don't want to lose mindshare among gamers, so they need to continue to be where gamers are. But, you can rest assured that they will be taking their first good opportunity to get out of the console space.
