And in the buisness industry, there isnt a level playing field. If a company wants to compete with a mega corp, so be it, these things can and will happen.

Also buying studios is the exact same thing  as buying studios.  Weather its Insomica or Bethesda, the concept is the same.

Guerrilla games? Insomniac? Naughty Dog? Zipper? Sucker punch? Unknown studios?

Ok mate. Referees can assist in moving goalposts too. Team work makes the dream work.

Holy mother of all cats. There are people who really think that Microsoft buying Bethesda for $7.5 Billion dollars was to get back at Sony and not a continuation of their business plan for the gaming sector?  Christ on a sandwich, I'd forgotten about this kind of stuff. 

You don't wanna play that game, trust me. 

Which game? Now I'm confused.

I know you must be salty from this acquisition, but at least be realistic. No way suddenly all these new MS title will be mediocre. If you have payed attention at all with with studios like Ninja Theory, Obsidian, Compulsion games, Playground, Inxile, The Initiative, etc. They've been building up these studios and giving them what they need to be the best they can be. Giving them time to make the best games they can. Don't just take my word for it, all these devs have been saying the same thing. If you don't think MS will do the same thing with these new studios, you are in serious denial. If anything, this will make it so they DON'T need to release games like ESO and Fallout 76 now. 

You realize, if MS actually wants Xbox/game pass to really grow, quality titles and diversity are absolutely important to making this happen. Half-assing it won't cut it. 

That would be funny, and it wouldn't be the first time, or even the second or third, Microsoft has made a multi-billion dollar purchase that completely blew up in its face. 

Welp, I guess this is how they plan to make Game Pass the "Netflix of gaming", I doubt boosting hardware sales is the only reason they are doing this for. I wonder if they'll try to come for some Japanese third parties in the future (that's when their buyouts would start affecting me in a more significant way, since I'm more into japanese games but I'm not into Xbox).

Edit: now that think about it, aren't there laws in Japan that make it hard for foreign companies to buy japanese ones?

Pandora's box has been opened.

Sony must have heard of this impending acquisition for quite some time now, especially with rumors that they were negotiating timed exclusivity for Starfield, and even the rumors that Sony was looking to purchase Bethesda back in January. Hopefully Jim Ryan was serious about not being complacent. Sony has invested billions into other sectors of their business while the Playstation division hasn't seen that kind of investment. And its one of their most, if not the most, profitable division. Sony has $33 Billion cash in hand, obviously its for the whole company, but gaming is looking to be the most lucrative, especially with all the tech giants ready to get into the fray.

You don’t spend 7.5 billion to keep them multiplat. That would happen for free if MS did nothing. Worst case they are timed, 6 months to a year. Ideally they are exclusive to Xbox and PC and they attract millions of new gamers. Which long term more then make up for any lost PS5 game revenue.