Yeah the only value is game pass and even then I don’t care much about that any more as I think Microsoft commitment with game pass has went down and will only continue to decrease as times gone on, and even if I am wrong Microsoft has owned ABK for almost 2 years now and barely any of Activisions back log is on game pass. I feel very gipped by that as I was sold a lie. I don’t have reason to believe it would be any different now if they bought someone else, like if they bought SEGA why should I believe the ATLUS back catalogue will drop into game pass or if they buy Capcom why should I beleive the old Resident Evil games will land there or same with Square Enix and Final Fantasy.
This becomes doubly true if they buy another huge publisher like Take Two or EA where that issue becomes prominate but also the worry that it will further change game pass. Like if they buy T2 its hard to imagine current microsoft dropping GTA 6 or even something like Red Dead Redemption 3 or Bully 2 into game pass day 1 considering the pull Rockstar games has. I could see pre ABK acquisition microsoft taking that risk but current Microsoft…it just doesn’t feel likely unless they changed game pass fundimentally with new tiers.
I think microsoft buying more remains at a 50/50 but the hype around xbox acquisitions (or xbox in terms of the console or even the ecosystem in general if we are being honest) is dead or barely on life support if we are being nice, this is also made worse by the fact we haven’t seen may massive changes in the cloud space meaning odds are people were likely too pre mature with that sectors growth as it feels like it will take another 10 years minimum for that to become main stream as for most people it doesn’t even feel feasable