For real though.
Can you tell me the idea of buying companies not to improve your library?
I know Sony did the same with Bungie,which also doesn't make sense.
I don't care either way since I play the games on my pc, but if you know that if Microsoft buys another publisher I won't change anything for other people, then why buy their product to begin with?
If I can play cod, spider man, god of war etc on my pc or whatever platform I own, why own more than one?
I love it personally, but it doesn't make sense to be both first and third party.
Own more than one cause you want to and you might prefer to play on one thing over the other. I own an expensive gaming PC, PS5, an Xbox Series X, and a gaming laptop. I can totally justify needing every last one.
Also, Xbox Game Studios are building more exclusives games internally than ever before, plus they're finding external partnerships to build more exclusives, example Contraband with apparently others in the wings to be announced.
Now Starfield, Elder Scrolls 6 and any future Fallout games would have always been among the most anticipated games by far this gen whether Microsoft acquired them or not, and now all of those games (new singleplayer entries) will be exclusive to xbox consoles. That's already a massive improvement to their library. Redfall from Arkane would have also been multiplat, but now that's exclusive to Xbox.
The same will be true for major singleplayer projects for the rest of Bethesda's studios, such as id software. Indiana Jones may not be exclusive from Machine Games due to the Lucasfilm part of it, but that deal was made before Microsoft acquired Bethesda. But that wouldn't apply to a new Wolfenstein.
And what makes all this even better is that every last one of these games going into Game Pass day is further improving Xbox's value as a gaming platform. Game Pass literally is one of Xbox's most important exclusives. That service is promising you that you get to play the full versions of all new Xbox first party games day and date at no additional cost. As long as the great games, big AAAs included, keep coming, it's literally important enough to call it the most important exclusive they have.
And, make no mistake, Bethesda's big singleplayer RPGs are consistently massive hits. Starfield, unless something has changed dramatically, will be no different from their past great games. They know how to make incredible games. People may laugh at character models, animations, graphics, but they are masters of world building. They make you believe the spaces you are in. They feel fully realized, you feel like you are really there. There's lots of depth and attention to detail. You really get your money's worth with a Bethesda RPG.
Starfield, Fallout and Elder Scrolls are all as big a deal as Call of Duty ever was; they simply just aren't the kinds of games that you will ever see release as often. Hell, to me they are bigger because they're my preferred style of game. I'm finally thinking about giving COD another chance again (last time I did was Modern Warfare 2 after COD 4 way back in the 360 days, but I was always looking forward to Bethesda's RPGs more than any COD this gen.
To put into perspective the kind of draw these guys have, the last big release from Bethesda's main studio in Rockland Maryland was Fallout 4, which sold 12 million copies by launch day. That's better than Elden Ring and even better than Cyberpunk 2077 at launch. Fallout 4 gets lots of criticism (even the very best games do), but it's legitimately an incredible game experience. They streamlined some RPG systems, but that didn't prevent it from being an incredible game with deep customization all the same. The additional crafting and upgrade system took character customization to a whole other level from any of the previous games.
Now as to Activision Blizzard, though I initially assumed they would go ahead and make many of those games exclusive after the contracts are up, there are very strong reasons to NOT do so, to not do what the fanboys want. A more successful Xbox or Microsoft Gaming business means a better, more successful and more competitive Xbox!
More new games, more ambitious projects, more intermediate and smaller projects. Just more games all around. Game Pass becoming more of a value juggernaut is every bit as important as having Xbox exclusives, even when that comes at the cost of compromises on exclusivity to Xbox with specific Activision games. Just imagine the amount of revenue from Warzone, Warzone 2, MW2 (future COD games), Diablo 4, Overwatch 2 all being multi-platform? But then we still have Warzone mobile (which is coming), COD Mobile, Candy Crush (which is also apart of the Activision transaction), as well as World of Warcraft, which we know full well is going to end up on game pass and come to consoles.
They can selectively make specific new titles exclusive to Xbox, such as Blizzard's new survival game. They can give some of the studios more creative freedom as they like to make something more to their liking, but again, exclusives are something nobody should be concerned about on Xbox because Xbox clearly has plenty on the way.
I have one major concern, though, every single studio under Activision literally helped with COD MW2. Sorta makes you wonder how they will possibly find a chance to give those other studios enough creative freedom without possibly harming COD as a franchise. I know most hate the usual COD cycle, and I'm not a fan of it myself, but they do some very impressive things organizationally and from a technical standpoint.
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