With all the threads about Xbox consoles having no games (something I disagree with) I think it would be a game changer if they bought ZeniMax Media.  With one fell swoop they'd aquire several major IPs, multiple major exclusives currently in development, and several very talented game studios.

Imagine how people would view Xbox One if The Elder Scrolls 6, Fallout 4, Doom 4, Dishonored 2, The Evil Within, Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Elder Scrolls Online, and whatever else is cooking at ZeniMax Media suddenly became Xbox One exclusives with no chance of ever appearing on a Sony console.

Hopefully Microsoft does actually start stuggling with Xbox One so instead of phoning it home like they've done the past 2 years with Xbox 360 they'd actually have to start working hard for their sales again and become the aggressive Microsoft we saw during the original Xbox and early Xbox 360 days.  Then we'd actually see them buying major studios again.

One of Microsoft biggest mistakes was not purchasing Bioware. ZeniMax Media don't compensate for that mistake.

I would hate that, because they would then close most of it down :(

There is no way either Sony or MS would support the number of games that these companies push out.. and the money they spend on games... there were rumours of MS buying Take2 at one point as well.

It's disappointing the money MS have spent on things like NFL.. $400 could make a lot of good games. It's like the money spent on FIFA and TitanFall, I would say thats probably around another $100million. They could easily have made some massive games for that cost which would have been enough over the next 5 odd years to make a massive difference to the range of games they make.

They finally had the chance to get a life!

Meh, I like that bethesda is multiplat. What microsoft needs if they want to be successful is some eastern developers. Imagine the fall out if microsoft bought square?

Ugh, no. Stop with the consolidation wishing. It usually results in the new management shutting down the "less profitable" studios. How many awesome studios have been purchase by a big publisher only to become a shell of themselves or closed within a few years? Do we really want Bethesda working on Fallout Kinect instead of the real thing? I emphatically do not.

There is also the chance that they wouldn't make a PC version in order to force people to buy an Xbox One. If they were to do that with Fallout then Microsoft would earn my eternal hatred. Bethesda games are PC games.

Microsoft have spent the last few years building up a network of internal studios.

I'd say that a number of their previous full studio acquisitions turned incredibly sour (i.e. Rare; Ensemble Studios).

This doesn't make the slightest lick of sense to me. I've seen Kowen saying in the past that if they were that serious about it, just poach staff from the studios and have them come over and work on new IP's specifically for Microsoft. Although it wouldn't have the same result, it'd be significantly cheaper while still being extremely effective.

Given the state of microsoft and xbox division they can buy them easily. PC community especially modding community will be angry but I wont mind microsoft releasing next elder scrolls game exclusively for xbox one. Plus it will be a huge boost for their console.

Buy studios is not part of microsoft current business strategy.

It's not a smart business decison, it's risky, and if you don't have a GTA franchise it's not very profitable.

Nice sig.

Anyway this would be awesome for Xbox only gamers but would really suck for PS gamers. Idk how I would feel about that, because if MS or Sony bought them, they surely would pump out less games. But if it meant less buggy Fallout and Elder Scrolls? Yes please.