It seems like MS don't care about buying smaller developers anymore, they seem to be focused on the bigger publishers now. They weren't going to have an issue supplying GamePass after the Bethesda deal, now they easily confirmed they wont.
This is another PC rich heritage company. Both Activision/Blizzard and Bethesda all have strong histories and ties with PC gaming. Mean while all i want them to buy is Moon Studios, nothing else, but damn this was a shock and not sure how i feel about it.

On a global level they are a long ways off from that, but certainly in America and legally speaking they are heading that way. They better be careful. I'm going to post something politicak because it impacts the situation, if you don't want to read it then skip the below:

In the past, big corporations could count on Republicans in USA being pro business, whereas Democrats were the monopoly busters trying to be pro worker. Nowadays, since 2016, the Republicans have shifted more to fighting for the working class (citizens doing farming, steel factory workers, etc.) as Democrats have shifted more towards helping out the ultra poor and non-citizens. Add to that that Democrats are still anti-monopoly and the fact that many big companies have gone woke and are trying to cancel conservative mindsets in their workplace and you now have Republicans (like Senator Hawley) that are wanting to break up big tech companies. So you've got both major American political parties actually on the same page-ish over something. I wouldn't be surprised if Meta, Alphabet, Microsoft, and Apple all get split up into multiple companies each in the coming decade or two.

All of this applies to Activision and Bethesda. At launch Fallout 4 sold more copies on PS4 than either PC or Xbox. Playstation has been the biggest platform for COD for a generation. The only difference is that MS has precedent publishing on other platforms and will likely continue to do so with these major established IPs

All they need to do is buy 2 major Japanese publishers now and I'd have no need to purchase another game ever again. Gamepass is amazing.

Very good business for Microsoft. EA or Take Two should be the next target for Microsoft.

Wtf, do they plan to purchase the entire industry. Hopefully they at least improve the work conditions in that company.

I remember way, way back when Disney almost had the whole movie industry, that said industry had to put a law in place to prevent Disney from owning everyone. That law has since eroded with time, but I hope to god ppl wake up an realise that MS and holdings companies are doomed to repeat that same scenario, and put the same kind of law in place.

Growing up, I really thought we would never enter that dystopian style future, where megacorps are the ones who own everything, and yet here we are, seeing massive signs of that becoming a reality. 

I give it another decade before we're left with just MS, Nintendo, a few Jap pubs, Tencent, EG, Embracer, Apple and Facebook. Some will think that's enough, but to me that's paltry compared to what we've had around before. 

Ubisoft's not doing so hot and neither are EA, so who knows how long until someone like MS buys either of those two next, could even be Tencent that buys them out for all we know, but that's not a good sign. 

Some folks here try to put a spin as if this insanely big fish is out to "help" everyone and make everyone and everything "flourish" and be a "better place", but that's just not how this world works, like at all. This industry has changed from being purely about passion projects, it's about money and war-chests and who has the most assets. 

It's not even remotely healthy to say this is great for everyone, because we saw how Disney went about it nearly 100 years ago, how we're seeing Disney doing it now, as well as other pubs and holdings companies. History will repeat itself, please stop enabling it and saying it's the correct course, because it ain't. 

This industry is so fucked. I don't like Activision but what MS is doing is a monopoly. This should not be legal. Sure Spencer does it with a smile but really he's just as dirty as any excec. Eliminate the competition by buying everyone. Age-old monopoly garbage.

So you only account for the money you saved before Microsoft raises the monthly fee of GamePass? What happens when they raise the annual fee to $20 - $25, lock everything behind their subscription service with no option to purchase the games individually (like Microsoft Office), while the industry increasingly becomes fragmented? 

This could very well lead to Sony being increasingly more aggressive when it comes to acquisitions. Don't forget, Take Two recently bought Zynga, a mobile publisher that is more than half their market cap, with significantly less assets/cash on hand than Sony Corp. 

While it's nice to see Slimebob Kotick get the boot this is probably the nicest boot he could've gotten, as he can now blame him leaving on the company being in a transitional phase, which is a good opportunity to step down.