Microsoft has never been good at running game studios, which is a problem when it owns them all
The latest Xbox layoffs are about a long history of mismanagement as much as recent overexpansion
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But that is the whole point. You don't buy studios to make games, you buy them to get rid of competitors.
And for Microsoft, to get a back catalogue to ensure your subscription service remains attractive.
Obligatory.
not always true, they clearly bought zenimax to make exclusive xbox games.
Has Zenimax even released any xbox exclusives? As far as I know they’ve all been cross platform.
i figured it was going to be a transition over time for less shocking optics.
anyway, the main point is microsoft wants them to make games, exclusive or not. buying them didn’t eliminate any competition.
Yes, it did eliminate competition. They're no longer competition once Microsoft buys them. They're employees, possibly if a subsidiary, who contribute to Microsoft's profits.
Excluding steam because even playstation release exclusives on steam now, Starfield is (was? I don't know if it released on ps later on) xbox exclusive. Out of Zenimax's library, that is probably the game that you would want the least as an exclusive but at least it is something (they needed something after spending US$7.5 billion on them)
You don’t spend 8 billion dollars on a company to then shrink their market. Microsoft was never planning on making any of these properties they bought fully exclusive. The transition to third party you’re seeing now has been in the making for 5+ years at this point. Youre all just looking at this through the old console war lense when they’ve been over that ever since Gamepass released and they realized they make more money putting that on everything (larger market) than playing the exclusives game (smaller market)
