Growing Game Pass on PC and Microsoft Store on PC are really agnostic to Playstation. Playstation/PC gamers may be happy to use Microsoft store to play them on PC.

Well what we know for certain is MS buying more studios creates more hyped about their 1st party line up. It will get more people using their platforms; Xbox, Windows Store, Cloud and of course Gamepass.

I don't feel MS had bail out Xbox per se, things have been going well before the purchase of Zenimax. Their games are starting to get more critical acclaim, their new studios are working on lots of new content, Gamepass is apparently doing well enough to brag about, they've been finding great success in recent PC releases and people are hyped about next gen. Things were looking good and then they threw in Zenimax on top of that. I think it shows MS is happy enough with Xbox that they want to do more to help it thrive.

Things are certainly looking much better now than say 2013. Yet they aren't done, they are still considering more studio purchases which will bolster their offerings.

You aren't saying anything new. MS has already said they're happy as long as you're playing their games.

So if you're a PC gamer, you're likely using Windows. On top of that you're probably buying games on Steam or maybe using Gamepass on the Windows Store.

Several MS games have been doing really well on Steam. Which is great, that means their titles have become lower risk and more profitable thanks to the audience they found on PC. You also have to consider PC has a bigger audience world wide than console reach. Therefore if you don't support PC then you ignore a huge audience that don't have consoles, this is why I always encouraged PC support.

They have to actually deliver on promises. They keep buying studios and publishers and all that, which is great, but I refer back to Rare. They bought this studio, then did virtually nothing with it. I've yet to see ANY positive change due to all the stuff they're buying. 

And I still maintain that Gamepass - though great for new gamers or people who don't care about owning their games - clearly does nothing for most people. If it was as big of a deal as they're making it out to seem, People would be snatching up Xboxes left and right but that's not happening. History proves that exclusives and gimmicks are what sell consoles, not games as a service. There's nothing I want on Xbox that I can't get on PS or PC, so why would I care about Xbox? 

I totally agree that this was no bail out for MS gaming studio or the Xbox brand instead you can see that there were moves with the promotion of Spencer that shows that MS was going in a different direction and their focus had advanced beyond the console war.  If you look at how things had changed for MS when they fired Mat and put Spencer in charged.  Next there is a shakeup and Spencer get promoted and now only report directly to Sat.  You look at his moves and we see this huge purchase and it becomes obvious that Spencer sold Sat on something way bigger than Xbox and probably also sold him on the competition and where they need to position themselves to move the company forward.  As someone already stated, gamepass one of the gateway drugs MS has to also sell you all their other services, things have moved where gaming is a platform situation for MS.  Getting EA pass into gamepass is also another big move, I wonder if they tried to get UBI on as well or do something like what Amazon is doing but Amazon beat them to the point.  I see more along these lines as well between MS and Amazon because you do not have to purchase a publisher to get their content on your service.

Runa maybe you should really make some research everyone brings up Rare but they've been one of Microsoft's best studios. The only reason you bash them is that they been task by Microsoft to work on Kinect titles.

Microsoft bought Rare in 2002, Three years after they release 2005 - Kameo: Elements of power; 2005 - Perfect Dark Zero, and 2006 - Viva Pinata. In 2008 they release Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise & Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts.

In between 2009 and 2014, Microsoft made a big push for Kinect and Kinect 2.0, They made Kinect Sports, Kinect Sports: Season Two, Killer Instinct in 2013 & release Kinect Sports Rivals in 2014. 

Then Phil Spencer took over as head of Xbox in 2014, dropping the Kinect and freeing up Rare to work on what they wanted. They release a very popular and well-received Rare Replay in 2015. Worked on a very ambitious title Sea of Thieves that was release 2018 and they have continued to support to this day. 

Sea of Thieves deserves the criticisms from launch but the studios have constantly been adding and improving the game to make it the game that it is today.
In July 2020, Rare announced that Sea of Thieves had passed 15 million players. 

Now that brings us to today, They just release Battle toads and Sea of Thieves is still a very popular title being played by millions.

Rare is working on one of the most anticipated for Xbox Series X/S in EverWild.   

Here go watch this again:

Oh come now, there’s more to it and you know it. For one, Game Pass was introduced in the later years of this gen, where the trends have long since been decided. The gen belongs to Nintendo and Sony, and doesn’t matter what Xbox does it would face a uphill battle due to market share alone.

Then you have the main idea of day 1 exclusives. Only recently will this idea truly take off because when it started, it was the usual “Xbox trinity” mixed in with oddballs like Sea of Thieves and Quantum Break. If you ain’t into the trinity, I can see this not be broad appealing. 

Next gen is technically a clean slate and Xbox hasn’t enjoyed this much hype and good PR for literally several years. The 23 studios (as opposed to 7 in 2017) are poised to add games you simply can’t find, and most importantly, don’t just include Halo Gears and Forza ;)

I know I know, you need to see it to believe it. But hey, for the last place brand getting 15 million GP subs, imagine next gen if Xbox starts it off right and once the big hitters hit like Elder Scrolls/Starfield etc. Exciting times ahead. 

I beg to differ Microsoft store is hot garbage and most PC gamers avoid it like the plague. Their recent games are quite successful on Steam mind - not a surprise to anyone as its the most popular gaming platform on PC.

Not sure that's entirely true. Windows Store activity is clearly growing with each notable release.

Also, if you want cheap access to new releases then you have to use Gamepass.

Yeah, gonna be honest, if MS store was as good as some xbox gamers make it sound, it would have reached steam levels of praise, usage and popularity by now. Most avoid it and go for Steam/GoG, Epic for the free old games etc.