True, but they want Xbox to stay more and more relevant. You have to expand or else you will explode. That goes for every game company. They will cut costs, buy more game ips and more. Out of the big three, Microsoft can do it the best.

@Snoopy

" am going to make a bold prediction and say they will buy a company like besethda games." lol really? I hope to be alive by then. You are expecting too much from MS, hope you don't get dissappointed.

Why not? They bought Gears of war and Minecraft this gen. They are obviously looking to push windows platforms in terms of gaming.  Look at how xbox is a huge part of windows 10. Out of the "big 3", they have the most money to spend and will spend if it helps them significantly. 

Sure they are expanding, building their Windows10 thing etc. I do think they're on tracks to make Xbox more relevant, it's a great product and it will sell more and more. I'm not sure I believe it will outsell 360 but I think they're focusing on a bigger picture. I hope they focus on 1st party and maybe pay 3rd parties to make new IP:s but I sure don't want them to start buying any known IPs, that just sucks for those playing on PS4 and it's not good for gamers :P

They already are doing it. Future gears (eventhough it never was on playstation) and minecraft will probably never be on playstation. Microsoft has done this before in other industries and will keep doing it until the end of time.

I just don't see it, they can do much more with that kind of money, bethesda studio isn't a small company after all.  minecraft makes sense because that game can sell everywhere even on a dead platform like ps vita which is why I don't think minecraft sequel will be exclusive, maybe some exclusives feature and marketing.  with GOW, they bought the franchise, not the studio which I guess it's more cheaper to do.  There is also a budget for everything even if MS have the money to do it.

But will it help them significantly to just throw money around? I don't think that's they way to make xbox brand more relevant.. Sony has definitely earned it's place gradually building their brand and product and now they control Europe today. Now is not the time for Xbox to make any short-term panic solutions. Glad there's Spencer on the case :)

Well from what I heard epic games is being made into a mobile gaming company and gears of war was really the only popular console game that they had. However, I do think "minecraft 2" will be on many devices, but they will probably skip playstation console to make it a selling point for xbox systems. It won't matter if it was exclusive on window platform, but will matter for consoles (since gaming is it's primary focus).

Short term? Buying big game studios with big name game ips (like gears and minecraft) is a lot more effective 90 percent of the time than making a new game studio and a new ip. It hard to sell people on new ips. Don't get me wrong, I love new ips (as long as it isn't a genre I hate like anime based jrpgs without any western appeal), but it is a lot more effective to buy an established franchise and make it an exclusive. You're not just buying a great title, but you're buying an establish fanbase that could possibly be ps4 only owners or non current gen owners. That will make their next console choice a little more obvious for them.

Is there any update of this thread.