This could be done without an acquisition though, no? There are a bunch of games on Game Pass from non-MS studios. They just need to draft an agreement with Activision, which would be far cheaper and less monopolistic.
Whereas if Microsoft has a large library of first-party titles, they can take a loss on unit sales to grow the platform. At some point if they are successful they hope to get to a size where other AAA third-party publishers like Activision are willing to sign a licensing deal like "Microsoft agrees to pay $Xm / year for unlimited streaming of the CoD franchise".
But it's not obvious to me that there's a viable path to getting Activision content on their streaming platform. (It's not available on GeForce Now, for example). Anyway, on this licensing point I'm not an expert, so I'm interested in others' thoughts here. Particularly what the current licenses for existing GeForce Now / Game Pass games look like.
Isn't this Microsoft's job in building a valid product out of game subscription/streaming? What's the goal here - Microsoft owns every game developer to have on their subscription service?
It's like saying Spotify must buy all the big labels because how else could they run a streaming business?
https://www.pcgamer.com/xbox-chief-reveals-more-about-how-de...