As I've said though, they're literally doing both. Spending $69bn doesn't stop them from doing the other things that you want them to do so I don't understand the complaint. Isn't Eiyuden Chronicles coming to Game Pass on day one? That's just another form of Microsoft providing financial support to a developer.

If you simply dislike large companies acquiring large companies then that is fine but all the stuff about what Microsoft should have done instead, despite the fact that they are doing that stuff, is a bit odd to complain about Imho...It seems like your actual complaint is simply not liking large publisher acquisitions.

Nobody thinks it's risky, Microsoft is literally doing both things as we speak from acquiring large publishers, acquiring smaller developers, funding projects, providing financial assistance through Game Pass, improving and providing tools (see Game Stack). They're doing almost everything you're asking.

So, Microsoft is spending billions on that stuff already. That $69bn spent on Activision was just chilling in the bank in a total balance of $100bn+ and Microsoft was looking to invest it quickly. It probably would have just been used on something else. They tried to acquire Pinterest for $50bn and Discord for over $10bn as well, Lol. It is earmarked for acquisitions.

This isn't entirely true; Tim has praised Microsoft a lot for Psychonauts 2, it had a lot of cut content and they were running out of budget until Microsoft acquired them, Tim said the acquisition helped them to delay the game and add back a bunch of the cut content, including the praised boss fights.

Yeah it's good to have more games on gamepass, but you'll be getting less exclusives than what you should be getting. If you own multiple consoles it's no issue, but if I was strictly on xbox i'd be pissed.

Wait.. did you just say that Halo and Gears have more things in common than all of the "Third person perspective and a focus on singleplayer" games on Playstation?? Dude, Halo and Gears are not even in the same genre..

What's next? are you going to tell me that you see more similarities between Gears 5 and Gears Tactics than between TLOU and Uncharted?

Implying that Halo/Gears are that similar is just as silly as the Xbox fans saying that all PlayStation games are the same, Lol. It's lowering yourself to that level of debate, a level which makes zero sense.

"Yet aside from the 1st vs 3rd person perspectives" - You say this as if this isn't already a huge difference for a shooter, Lol.

Halo/Gears look nothing alike. Halo is often more vibrant, colourful with grand sci-fi set pieces and futuristic equipment. Gears is often more dreary, dark, realistic and closer to modern look, they have two completely different art-styles.

Halo/Gears also feel nothing alike; I don't even know how you can play both games and say this with a straight face, Lol. Heck...Not even some Halo's feel like other Halo's, Lol. Gears has relatively kept the same feel since its inception whilst Halo has changed it up quite a bit. I like them both, but I'd always prefer Halo's gameplay and always get demolished on Gears MP. The combat encounters are completely different.

"Space marine shooters fighting aliens" - This isn't even accurate either, the COG in GoW aren't even space marines, they've never even stepped one foot in space throughout the whole of Gears 1-5, Lol. The Locust (the enemies in GoW) are not aliens either, they're native inhabitants to Sera, the planet which GoW takes place on.

The Locust and Covenant couldn't be any more different in terms of motivation, technology, story, design and feel to fight.

Even with Halo/Gears having heavy military themes too, they're still different tonally, Gears is a lot more personal than Halo I would say, it's less a story about humanity at war and more a story about "brothers" while Halo has Chief basically solo everything and barely show any emotion whilst doing it (although he receives more characterisation in later games) it is mostly just Chief kicking ass with a grander story overlapped over him.

If does feel like you've not played either and just think they're similar because they've both got guns and have military themes, Lol.

As for Pentiment...It doesn't help your argument that you just discount any game simply because you've personally not heard of it, isn't the first time that you've completely discounted an Xbox game on the basis that you specifically haven't heard of it, Lol.

See this nonsense right here? This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is exactly why I feel the 'argument' people use about Sony's games all being the same because they're mostly part of a very broad, over-arching, nearly-all-encompassing genre is so inane I swear it's satire. There's no way anyone actually believes that Gears of War and Halo have less in common with one another than, say, Ratchet & Clank and Bloodborne. 

I refuse to believe you're serious. 

I think you're reaching pretty far by nitpicking minor details to make these two sound less similar than they actually are. 

Keep in mind I didn't say they were the SAME, just that they have MORE in common with one another in terms of look and feel than...

...you know what? Nevermind. I made a very simple, basic statement about matters of degrees and everyone is acting like I spoke with some absolute, reaching SO GODDAMN FAR to put words in my mouth or misrepresent what I said that it's clear that this is just console war BS rearing its ugly head. My Statement. 

As stated.

Is simply

That Gears of war and Halo

have more in common with one another

Than pretty much any pair of two Sony games. 

That is it. Not that they are identical. Not that sony games do not share common traits and details. Not that the shift in perspective from first to third is insignificant (just that it isn't as big a deal as people who are SUPER into these games seem to think it is...and look at that, you have a HALO icon, of course you're going to be far more pedantic about the details than the average person.) And not that the subtle differences between them don't matter. 

And yet you're over here trying to lecture me because the COG aren't actually space marines like that changes the gameplay, look, feel, or style at all. They're space marines. the UNSC are space marines. The COG are space marines. they're all space marines. Not LITERALLY, since they don't carry the title of 'marine' since 'marine' is a strictly United States designation for elite military squad. None of them are literally space marines, but for all intents and purposes they're the generic 'space marine'. 

My argument from the get-go was always about shades of black, matter of degrees, and spectrums. And yet both of you are sitting here acting high and mighty arguing semantics and minute details like it matters. 

and yes, The fact that I don't know what the heck Pentiment is absolutely IS a knock against it. I keep up to date on all the major consoles and publishers. I join groups online to keep up on upcoming games and releases, I spend hours a day every day just browsing news sites and scouring the internet to learn more about upcoming games. I used to do journalism for this very site. Keeping up on this shit is a not-insignificant part of my life and I've never heard of this game. And I actively seek out information on upcoming games, especially exclusives. I browse Metacritic daily to see if there have been any new releases I missed. So yeah, if this game some how managed to avoid me despite all that, it's not likely to be selling consoles. Period. Maybe it'll become a sleeper hit (I'd love to see that), but given my complete and utter lack of awareness of it up to this point tells me it's no God of War Ragnarok or Starfield or Tears of the Kingdom. 

I think you're reaching pretty far by nitpicking minor details to make these two sound less similar than they actually are. 

Keep in mind I didn't say they were the SAME, just that they have MORE in common with one another in terms of look and feel than...

...you know what? Nevermind. I made a very simple, basic statement about matters of degrees and everyone is acting like I spoke with some absolute, reaching SO GODDAMN FAR to put words in my mouth or misrepresent what I said that it's clear that this is just console war BS rearing its ugly head. My Statement. 

As stated.

Is simply

That Gears of war and Halo

have more in common with one another

Than pretty much any pair of two Sony games. 

That is it. Not that they are identical. Not that sony games do not share common traits and details. Not that the shift in perspective from first to third is insignificant (just that it isn't as big a deal as people who are SUPER into these games seem to think it is...and look at that, you have a HALO icon, of course you're going to be far more pedantic about the details than the average person.) And not that the subtle differences between them don't matter. 

And yet you're over here trying to lecture me because the COG aren't actually space marines like that changes the gameplay, look, feel, or style at all. They're space marines. the UNSC are space marines. The COG are space marines. they're all space marines. Not LITERALLY, since they don't carry the title of 'marine' since 'marine' is a strictly United States designation for elite military squad. None of them are literally space marines, but for all intents and purposes they're the generic 'space marine'. 

My argument from the get-go was always about shades of black, matter of degrees, and spectrums. And yet both of you are sitting here acting high and mighty arguing semantics and minute details like it matters. 

and yes, The fact that I don't know what the heck Pentiment is absolutely IS a knock against it. I keep up to date on all the major consoles and publishers. I join groups online to keep up on upcoming games and releases, I spend hours a day every day just browsing news sites and scouring the internet to learn more about upcoming games. I used to do journalism for this very site. Keeping up on this shit is a not-insignificant part of my life and I've never heard of this game. And I actively seek out information on upcoming games, especially exclusives. I browse Metacritic daily to see if there have been any new releases I missed. So yeah, if this game some how managed to avoid me despite all that, it's not likely to be selling consoles. Period. Maybe it'll become a sleeper hit (I'd love to see that), but given my complete and utter lack of awareness of it up to this point tells me it's no God of War Ragnarok or Starfield or Tears of the Kingdom. 

And every time I've ever argued that fact, I point out that bit about Halo and Gears being so similar, and I get the same kick-back of 'they're not even the same perspective', like that separates them entirely despite their overall look and feel are really similar. 

Okay, a few things: 

1 - I wasn't 'cherry picking', it's well known that Halo and Gears are two of the most popular and successful Xbox game franchises ever. I chose them becuase they're successful and popular and  yet aside from the 1st vs 3rd person perspectives, their overall look, feel, style, and aesthetic are pretty similar. Space marine shooters fighting aliens. Not to say they don't have their niches and don't have strengths and weaknesses, but that they are more similar in look, feel, and tone to each other than any two of the list of Sony games I provided. (The closest you could get is that The Last of Us and Days Gone are both zombie games) 

2 - I deliberately chose to not include games published by a company but on opposing consoles (like Minecraft and Psychonauts) because they're not selling Xbox consoles. Just like MLB the Show isn't selling Sony consoles despite being published by sony. When I make these discussions I'm strict about 'Xbox games' being games you can only get on XBox but not Playstation or Nintendo (I include the family of consoles, so if it's Xbox One and Series X but not Sony/Nintendo then it counts; I also don't factor PC into the equation since if I did Xbox would never get a single game and Sony's output would also slowly be whittled down)

3 - I specifically chose a bunch of well-reviewed, high-selling, popular games on Sony's and Microsoft's; the fact that I had to google what Pentiment even is doesn't help your case at all. 

4 - Have you seen all the JRPGs that either have been or are Sony exclusives for years? Sony very much so has done a good job juggling all worldwide audiences, including Japan (Though Nintendo is still better at Japan and Microsoft is still better at America; The key is that Sony does a bit of EVERYTHING, hence the argument about diveristy).