I think we all would like to see Crytek be more of a player in the industry and see some of the monopoly from Epic taken away.
Yes there is other engines out there, but when almost everyone uses Unreal, it is like they have a monopoly and people like CDPR are switching to Unreal, so Epic Needs competition in the engine market.
Agreed. Phil Spencer talked about expanding ID tech at the Bethesda joins Xbox roundtable and I’m sure ID and probably machine games next games might be showcases for the next iteration of the engine. Also, the COD studios use ID tech and so the ABK deal could bring in a lot of games developed on the ID tech engine. Crytek is going to need to partner or sell to a company that can bank roll further development of their engine. I won’t be surperised if Amazon acquires them since they developed a similar engine for them.
As far as I remember COD studios use IW engine.
But you are right about ID tech but I hope MS acquire Crytek, more FPS 
If I’m not mistaken, COD even in its current iteration, still uses a heavily modified quake engine (Id Tech 3).
Mayhaps the newer ones switched recently and I just missed it.
EDIT:
Poking around, it looks like they are still just rebuilding the original engine as far as I can tell. Though Im sure it barely resembles the original source at this point, if at all.
I’ve had this discussion ad nauseam on the YHMAH podcast, but for all intents and purposes the current IW engine is new as to the definition of what the industry considers new. I’m sure you’ll see someone say “it’s just a heavily modified idTech3 
” but in reality, every single engine on the planet has elements retained from previous engines. Pretending as if a single line or batch of code negates that the overwhelming majority of the codebase is new, is peak disingenuous (this isn’t directed at you at all, but rather a PSA for those unfamiliar with dev).
Just a general note for all around.
Yeah, beyond Powershell I am a abject code newb. So I make no judgements and openly admit is is all well above my head.
No worries at all, like I said it wasn’t directed at you at all, just a PSA 
I’m not particularly excited or interested in acquiring an engine, but Crytek is a studio that would make sense at Xbox. Hunt Showdown is a real success with a large community of players. Crysis needs to be worked on and adapted to this generation, but it is an IP that has potential. And Crytek might also be working on a new third-person action-adventure game, not Ryse, but a new IP. So yes Crytek is one of the multiple independent studios that could grow the family, but if Microsoft is heading in that direction, I think the choices are quite wide and varied.
I think King and Alpha Dog can be grouped together - perhaps also MS Casual Games? (Solitaire, etc). Similarly, perhaps Creative Assembly+Relic+World’s Edge
I think they will just let them stay as subsidiaries. I also doubt you’d ever really see Halo studios.
You could drop them into Paradox/Strategy games wing.
Let’s imagine ABK goes through and they decide to go after individual japanese studios instead of a publisher. If you had to choose 3, who would you choose and why?
Honorable mention Nihon Falcom. Makers of Ys, popular in japan
Silicon Studio, great RPG developer
Good-Feel, lots of ex Konami talent who worked on Bomberman, Castlevania and Silent Hill
Vanillaware, probably the biggest untapped Japanese developer. Shame on Sega and Atlus for not giving them a bigger budget/resources. Xbox will treat them better
Basically what I want for independent Japanese dev studios that MS potentially acquires is experience working on AA games that were just out of that AAA range or AAA games in the past or present. I’ve listed such devs multiple times in this thread, so I won’t do so again 
. But there are good amount of those types of studios in Japan that would be good buys.
Next Publisher: Warner Bros Entertainment. They have Avalanche Software, TT Games, Rocksteady, Monolith, all lego studios. That’s the Perfect fit for Game Pass and Next Xbox heading the years 2025-2030.
Nihon Falcom (JRPGs)
Arc System Works (fighter)
Mages (Visual Novels)
I’d like to see others, but I think these three would help fill some markets MS doesn’t have.
I also think so. Acquisitions are a two way street, they need a buyer who is willing to pay a premium and they also want to be bought out. Warner is a perfect company is both of those regards.
Gaming has shown that it has big potential for cross media promotion. The Last of Us series brought big sales to the games, now the Mario movie, Sonic, etc. Microsoft themselves are doing this with Fallout, Halo, and Gears.
I personally think its a target for mid 2024.
Honestly, there are lots of very interesting possible combinations regarding future Microsoft acquisitions, but staying within the realm of the possible (value, number of employees, validation from regulators, relations with Xbox) I have the impression that the perfect combo would be Capcom + CDPR + Warner Bros Discovery. Of course that implies a lot of things, including that these companies want to join Microsoft, but from my point of view, these are probably the 3 most aggressive big acquisitions to make in order to bring as many players as possible to Xbox and become the new industry leader. Microsoft would get a totally incredible catalog of games and cover all of its needs. I think it’s a great way to end the race for big acquisitions and then focus on independent studios. Of course, there are other very exciting combinations, but I particularly like this one.