What game from Zenimax is selling enough right now that's making them enough money to completely cover, and then some, the new cost of running all of those studios?

That's nonsense. Without Sony, cartridges would have been used for a further entire generation. Without Sony, and others, Blu-Ray would not been adopted.

You seem to be keen on false equivalencies. MS are not like Sony. As of now, they're buying spree is a complete admission of utterly failing to cultivate studios for three generations in a row.

It works both ways. MS sharesholders dure donlt appreciate seeing Xbox burn tens of billions of dollars in a perhaps goalless pursuit that could be given to them through dividends.

I like how we worry about investors not getting a proper ROI on MS, i mean if MS shafts the xbox brand that means someone else picks up the pieces. No loss for us gamers

What game from Zenimax is selling enough right now that's making them enough money to completely cover, and then some, the new cost of running all of those studios?

Who's in last place? Yet again?

I'm sure Xbox fans are hoping that MS just buys everything up. Can't beat them legitimately, so just buy the competition. Truth is Xbox is not MS. MS is not throwing that kinda cash around for Xbox on a constant basis. I mean they barely buy big timed exclusivity anymore, when that was there MO during the 360 and early XBO era.  We're also seeing fewer big 3rd party Day One games coming to Game Pass.

They have yet to even see the fruits of their Zenimax purchase, which won't happen til late 2022, maybe even 2023. Investors aren't going to be happy if they buy yet another $7B+ company, only to remain in a distant 3rd place.

Also, I'll defend the US a little, this isn't only a US thing, Embracer Group is the biggest culprit of this from a European standpoint, they're basically gobbling up the entire European market and have now started to expand into America, they have 80 frigging studios and they're in talks with 20+ more at minimum. They became the biggest publisher in terms of studios in the span of a few years of acquisitions and are now worth more than even Ubisoft.

Heck an Embracer Group investor predicted that they will be hitting Activision's market cap in the near future, they sure as sh*t won't slow down their acquisitions anytime soon, if anything they'll go bigger if that is their goal. Then there's Tencent, a Chinese company, who does a lot of acquisitions, company mergers have happened in the past across the entire world, from America to Japan.

As for Xbox, they ain't nowhere near the biggest publisher in terms of market share, studio numbers, employee count, etc. So I don't see any measure which puts them anywhere near to being a monopoly yet, if they do get close, I will call them out, I don't want a monopoly but the gaming industry is a lot bigger than some of you give it credit for, there's still multiple giant publishers, there's still hundreds of indie studios. If you know where to look you will see new AAA studios being formed all the time by former veterans of other studios; I can think of multiple from the top of my head, the former Bungie CEO alone has established 3 new AAA studios, the Arkane co-founder established a new studio, Aspyr is former Bioware veterans and multiple other studios have been former by Bioware veterans, from AA-AAA, etc. etc.

Studio is Acquired > People Leave > They Set Up New Studios > Studio is Acquired > People Leave > Etc. - Has been happening for years now.

Only thing I feel sorry for is some folk having their IPs taken away from their platform of choice if they can't afford a 2nd console or PC. If you can though, I'm sorry, Lol. Just get one if it bothers you that much? I would depending on what IP it is. If Sony acquires a studio I liked, ah that would suck but I would move on, I'd accept it, Microsoft is doing acquiring, Sony is moneyhatting, Sony is acquiring, they're doing whatever makes most sense for their business and ensures they remain competitive.

Folk were complaining for years that Xbox had nothing and mocking them, and now when they try to remedy that it's just "not like that" but the alternative given of building everything from the ground up or only acquiring close partners (which lets be honest, Xbox didn't have many significant ones after the Xbox One era) would have taken years to see any effect, would have ensured they stayed dead for this generation.

I think to Microsoft it would have been either that or close shop, I selfishly want Xbox to stay alive, I don't want Playstation to die either, the competition is good. All 3 are doing great and focusing on their own thing for the most part, Sony will be fine without Zenimax, in fact I still predict they win this generation pretty easily.

Take-Two rumour is nonsense, this thread is panicking over an very weak rumour, Lol.

Who's in last place? Yet again?

I'm sure Xbox fans are hoping that MS just buys everything up. Can't beat them legitimately, so just buy the competition. Truth is Xbox is not MS. MS is not throwing that kinda cash around for Xbox on a constant basis. I mean they barely buy big timed exclusivity anymore, when that was there MO during the 360 and early XBO era.  We're also seeing fewer big 3rd party Day One games coming to Game Pass.

They have yet to even see the fruits of their Zenimax purchase, which won't happen til late 2022, maybe even 2023. Investors aren't going to be happy if they buy yet another $7B+ company, only to remain in a distant 3rd place.