I already play on PC, I could care less if Microsoft buys every studio in existence at this point. Sounds like Sony and Nintendo just need to step their game up.

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.

They could afford both at the same time. Though if hurting the competition is their main aim they should buy Japanese studio's just for exclusivity. Not that the games will sell well on Xbox, they will do fine on pc. They will simply hurt the competition. Just look at how Tales of Arise sold on PlayStation platforms and on Xbox platforms. They won't sell much better in Xbox if they are exclusive (pc will get a significant boost probably), but PlayStation will lose much if it's shine if games like those disappeared from their platform. Buying EAir FIFA also could really hurt Sony. But those moves won't have the highest return on investment it's more bullying than anything else.

Well, let's see here. Oh look Xbox is behind in sales to Sony and Nintendo once again. The one with the least powerful hardware and oldest is still topping monthly charts.

Since you said you could care less. You admit you care.

It's easy to say that you don't care when you are on a Microsoft platform, but if the same was being done by Amazon or Google, you'd be crying about it.
I think this is total bullshit, but it's the nature of business so there you go. I'm hopeful that all these acquisitions will create room for new and innovative studios that will want to lap up those customers that are locked out of whatever content. Not everyone wants to own every possible platform to get access to all games. I could afford to do it, but it's a matter of principle. There's so much overlap between platforms(for now at least) that it's very redundant, and the less different ecosystems and accounts I can get tangled with, the better. I'm going to stick with Sony until the bitter end and see where it takes me. So far I'm only going to miss Elder Scrolls and Starfield, but who knows what else will be gone for me with the next megabucks deal..

i think i said this before but ill repeat it, its not like zenimax suddenly makes zero dollars because of the takeover. fruit is already there, you all are focusing on the trees that will develop from the next set of fruits

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?

No one in the industry does anything without spending money. It's funny to see posts like these coming from Sony fans, I guess some of you are just too young to remember how Sony entered the industry and began dominating with the PSone. Hint, they spent a lot of money.

I'd love to see your breakdown on how many "big" third party games come to GamePass day one now versus what used to. I mean, as a GamePass user I know you are factually incorrect, but I'd just love to see your math.

@bold, after all these years you still don't understand how this stuff works. That's why you keep predicting with every Xbox console that this will be their last one. 360 will be the last one. 360 model S will be the last one. Xbone will be the last one. Scorpio will be their last console. Xbox One S is their swan song. Series X is their last console. Investors don't give a crap about "3rd place". They care about money. Can you still make a lot of money in "3rd place"? Yep, sure can. So investors will be happy.

MS's market cap is trillions. You guys need to stop worrying about their piggy bank, they'll be ok.

A totally unsubstantiated rumour spread by people that have a narrative to spread, since Xbox is getting dominated. Despite buying 15 studios, Xbox still failed to reinvigorate its ecosystem and so the decision to buy IPs was reasoned with. Bethesda at the time was in poor finance, and so looking for a buyer. They had a couple of extremely strong IPs and talented dev studios so the deal made sense.

In other words, Xbox needed to buy 15 studios and Bethesda to even start competing with Playstation, that's how bad things had gotten.

Personally, I think they were overpriced, but MS desperately needed big IP to avoid Playstation from putting them out for good.

Lets get something clear for those unaware. There's is zero chance MS buys a Japanese dev (Capcom, SE, NB). Most of the money and most of the fans of their IPs are on Playstation. The Japanese government has also increased scrutiny on foreign investments in key industries, tech being one of them. Nearly every major Japanese publisher is on that list.

There is 0 chance MS buys the big Western publishers: EA, Activision, T2. Not only would it cost $50B+, a time frame of 50 years to make a profit, these companies are not up for selling, they want their IPs to be the biggest in the world, everywhere, creating a platform in itself. The last thing they will do is be bought by a platform holder let alone one that is in last place.

These pubs are big enough to start their own platform, and they have on PC. Consoles are restricted with no work around at the moment. A good analogy is Apple. Uber is big enough to stand on its own but it has to go through Apple to access the iOS userbase. Apple is not going to buy Uber and Uber does not want to be bought by Apple. Uber wants less restrictions while still being able to access all userbases.

Lastly, you'll notice that all these companies are publicly traded. If you're naive to think a couple of no name Xbox posters, heck even video game journalists, are privy to takeover deals that will result in massive stock movement, I have a bridge to sell you. Anyone who is privy to such information wouldn't post it publicly less they want a lawsuit from the SEC.

Hint, when Sony spent money, it resulted in technological innovation for the entire industry, expanding the gaming audience twice over to 100 million, unheard of at the time, and massively growing IPs for nearly every publisher.

You can make a similar exemption for Xbox 360 with XBL, where MS thought they could buy everyone but that's where it stops.

The MS and Xbox of now is nothing more than desperately trying to acquire big IPs all while Playstation has managed to grow its own set of IPs to levels that many thought were impossible.

MS investors in general don't give a crap about Xbox. It accounts like <10% of revenue and makes little to no profit. It could disappear and MS stock would barely move LOL.

Don't get it twisted. No one is worried about MS. They're talking about Xbox. Something that can be shut down, sold or liquidated. MS has done it to many divisions in the past, several that had more money in them than Xbox.