this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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I like how people assume they bought them to make games instead of buying them to eliminate the competition.
They know, they just don't give a shit beyond short term gains.
I think some portions of the company do want to buy these studios to make games. Mostly because they need a regular funnel of titles to put on Game Pass, and the best way to do that is small- to mid-budget games that can generate hype. But then other portions of the company want to chase that big AAA paycheck because big numbers look good, even if ROI isn't as good for that one game versus 3 or 4 smaller titles. And others still only care about what will make the balance sheet look the best for the quarter.
Even smaller companies end up with various "factions" within the org as far as vision and how to best create success (or even how to define success); a company like Microsoft is so fractured that different divisions are unaware of each other's goals and have competing interests.
I'm not trying to defend Microsoft here, I just think this is a consequence of an overly large organization that doesn't have unified goals.
This has been my thought every time I see a post about them shuttering studios. They're just killing competition. But for what? They aren't producing quality themselves, so just to leave the field empty?