It's no different to what Sony did during the ps1, ps2 and ps3 dayz..thsts how they have alot of first party studios. Same with Nintendo. 

So whats ms doing is  basically trying to catch up with first party studios. They just buy in bigger bulk then individual studios. Good for us gamers whi have access to gamepass as it will be more content to us to play. Same goes for pc players. 

KazumaKiryu said:

A rumor: Several rumors and statements from industry insiders are said to suggest a studio takeover by Microsoft on the scale of Bethesda (ZeniMax). Microsoft pulled out 7.5 billion US dollars for this acquisition at the time. Exactly which studio it should be was not revealed. But it is said to be a "totally crazy takeover" and, like at Bethesda back then, one should be surprised. Bad for Sony and Nintendo-Fans, if this true.

I think it's unbelievable when such a rich corporation buys everything - I don't like this US policy. that's sad in my opinion :( How do you like acquisitions like this? Is that okay or terrible for us? Microsoft wants to build a monopoly on gaming studios, i think -.- Even if studios have never partnered with Microsoft or have stronger profits on PlayStation/Switch, an acquisition is possible. For me it's a matter of principle.

Share your opinion and thoughts on the topic, I'm curious. Calls to boycott Microsoft(-Games) are being heard in some Internet forums. Are you in? Any opinion is welcome - but please have a friendly discussion with anothers.

xboxdynasty.de

https://gamerant.com/new-microsoft-xbox-game-studios-acquisition-rumors-bethesda/

A rumor: Several rumors and statements from industry insiders are said to suggest a studio takeover by Microsoft on the scale of Bethesda (ZeniMax). Microsoft pulled out 7.5 billion US dollars for this acquisition at the time. Exactly which studio it should be was not revealed. But it is said to be a "totally crazy takeover" and, like at Bethesda back then, one should be surprised. Bad for Sony and Nintendo-Fans, if this true.

I think it's unbelievable when such a rich corporation buys everything - I don't like this US policy. that's sad in my opinion :( How do you like acquisitions like this? Is that okay or terrible for us? Microsoft wants to build a monopoly on gaming studios, i think -.- Even if studios have never partnered with Microsoft or have stronger profits on PlayStation/Switch, an acquisition is possible. For me it's a matter of principle.

Share your opinion and thoughts on the topic, I'm curious. Calls to boycott Microsoft(-Games) are being heard in some Internet forums. Are you in? Any opinion is welcome - but please have a friendly discussion with anothers.

xboxdynasty.de

https://gamerant.com/new-microsoft-xbox-game-studios-acquisition-rumors-bethesda/

MS started with the whole “take away 3rd party content from the competition” from the 7th generation with the 360 then Sony followed with the PS4 and now PS5 and then Ms started buying studios and the trend continues.

They will do whatever they can with the money and continue buying studios, but then don’t complain if the other companies (Sony and Nintendo) start to make the same.

With gamepass they should be able to reach 20 million or 30 million.. For example example, gamepass has 29 million users roughly. Almost all those will download and try the game and then there will be those hard-core fans that will buy physical copies or limited edition. Combined together and 20 million  should be attainable 

Manlytears said:

Saying that buying Studio/Publisher is unfair is crying, anything goes in this game to dominate the market... I don't like the practice, I think creating something new is better than "prohibiting" something that already exists to reach others, besides that, it obliges me to invest my hard-earned money on a second platform.
Xbox seems to want to dominate this market and they will spare no expense for that. If they create/buy the content I want then I will go to their ecosystem without a second thought, but... I really hope they don't buy IPs/studios that I love and then finish them off for not having a good result. as exclusive to the "xbox ecosystem".

In a perfect world I would assemble my PC and play everything on it, It would be so nice to see Sony releasing games on PC day 1.

Another important point to consider...

Will these studios make a profit by making Xbox exclusives? A game that sold 20M-30M in the past could end up having a much lower result when it becomes exclusive to a platform with a small user base... If all these studios fail to drastically increase Xbox's market share financial deficit will emerge and at some point MS will stop "burning" money on xbox. There is a big risk here, when the MS financial subsidy runs out the xbox can end up being unsustainable.

It fells like:
"become nº1 or die trying!"

A takeover is public so then it is clear what is happening with an IP.

Money hatting normally isn't.

Sony literally practiced that tactic before MS even entered the console race.  OG Tomb Raider entries were money-hatted off competing platforms for years (I think 2000 was the cut-off date).

If talking about DLC timed exclusivity?  Okay.  That's a different story.

[Correction made on Page 6]

You know what would be even better? If Microsoft used their existing resources and teams to make games instead of just buying existing companies and accumulating IP. As it stands, they have all the money in the world and all the buying power you could ask for, yet it appears they are terrible at managing their studios. If they were better at management, we'd have seen some new games and new IPs by now. They've been touting all these new studios they've acquired for what, 4-5 years now? How many times in the last half-decade have they had entire blocks of their E3 Showcase dedicated to telling the world about all these studios and teams they bought? 

I know that game development takes time, but it's time. It's time to see some results. If they buy Bethesda and we get Starfield, I'm sorry but that's not because Microsoft funded it, that was them buying a game in development for multiple systems that they've purchased exclusive rights to. If they buy Arkane and make Redfall exclusive, that's not Microsoft making Redfall, that's them buying a game/IP that was already in developing and locking it behind their monolith. 

The only reason I don't want to see Microsoft buying studios is that apparently, they suck at it. They keep cancelling games (like Scalebound), they keep putting out bad games (Crackdown 3 and State of Decay 2 and Sea of Thieves, at least at launch), and even the games in the IP that are their holy trinity have been slowly dwindling in sales and reception (Aside from Specifically Forza Horizon). I'd love to be wrong. I'd love to see these investments pay off. But again, we've got a decade of history and patterns to extrapolate from and until we actually see a shift in game reception, output, and sales, it means nothing. 

Microsoft can 'care' all they want. They need to do better. Anyone that rich can throw billions around, but it takes actual talent to make good games. Sony and Nintendo know that, which is why their games sell well and are critically praised and are regularly talking points for the general populace. Microsoft has all the potential to be just as prolific and successful, but for some reason just can't seem to actually deliver on those promises. I'd love to see 2022 just explode with the SEries X getting like 20 amazing, top-range, best-selling, generation-defining games, but I just don't see that happening no matter how much cash they throw at it. We'll get like 5 games, 2 of them will disappoint, one will be truly amazing, and the other two will be alright. That's the pattern they've been going with and even saying 5 exclusives in a year would be their best year since 2016, so even that pessimistic estimate it'd be better than it's been in half a decade. 

I was arguing with someone on twitter recently and I did a bit of a calculation. PS5 in its first year (under my consistent rules of 20+ reviews and 75+ score, not factoring in last generation or PC on all consoles), 14 exclusives so far in its first year with a potential for 4-5 more before November 20th. That's more than Xbox has had as a brand total since 2017, with only 8 games. For comparison's sake, under those same rules, the Switch (the best first year I think ever?) had 12 exclusives, again not factoring in PC or the prior generation. So when Sony buys companies like Insomniac or Sucker Punch or Housemarque, nothing really changes. Nothing's being taken away from other platforms because those companies almost exclusively developed for PS anyway. 

So again, no. I don't want Microsoft to 'care' unless they're also going to be good at their jobs. From the perspective of someone just focusing on the numbers and the sales and the review scores, all I see is Xbox doing the same thing WWE did by buying up all the talent and all the groups and doing nothing with them. Effectively wasting them and wasting all of our time. WWE had Riccochet in their roster for years and he was one of the most exciting wrestlers on the indie circuit, and he was reduced to nothing under their banner. Same with daniel Bryan and so, SO many others. That's Microsoft. They're the richest brand but that doesn't mean they know what to do with all that money. All the potential in the world but no ability to capitalize. Like WWE I'd love to be wrong, I'd love to actually see them succeed because the potential is there and more good content means more diversity, but holy hell I don't want this company doing this in particular because they are SO bad at it until proven otherwise. 

Not really.

Money hatting doesn't change the company, nor the games they put out. Maybe some extra minor add-on content for the current game but nothing else.

A take over can completely disrupt the company, change the way they make games and what kind of games they make. It's very unclear what will happen to the output of Bethesda.