Xbox main problem right now is that their studios can't seem to put out games in a timely fashion and are not managed properly. MS already has more game studios than Sony without the Activision deal, yet their 2022 was dry as a bone.
This tells me that the real solution for MS to actually get somewhere isn't buying every studio in sight, but managing what they already have properly to put out some content once in a while.
343 should never have gotten to where they are right now. We can only hope they will be in a better position at the end of the generation, if they are just not permanently scaled down altogether
Sony has been sucking up developers also. One can make the point that and I have brought it up that Sony can't keep their old studios running properly and need new blood in constantly. After all the majority of Sony's block buster titles are coming from purchased developers and not home grown.
Looking at MS's purchases
2018 - Ninja Theory They had released in 2017 dexed , hell blade. In 2018 they had a location based vr nicodemus, in 2019 star wars vr vader immortal , 2020 bleeding edge and they have hellblade 2 nearing completion and Project mara
2018 - Undead Labs they released state of decay 2 that year. They released state of decay in 2013. So roughly 5 years of development. So they should have a title ready in the next year or two
2018 - Compulsion Games another studio that released a game the same yar they were purchased. Before that was contrast in 2013. So we should be seeing something new from them over the next year or two most likely.
2018 - Playground games another studio that released a game the same year they were purchased. They put out Forza horizon 5 in 2021 and are working on fable .
2018 - Inxile they also released bards tale the year they were bought. In 2020 they released wasteland remastered , wasteland 3 and frost point vr.
2018 Obsidian they released pillars of eternity 2 the year they were bought , rleased outer worlds the next year . They have released grouned in 2022 and pentiment in 2022. They have avowed and outer worlds 2 in dev right now
2019 - double fine They released Rad the year they were purchased and it was published by bandai/namco . They released psychonauts 2.
2020 - zenimax and we all know about that
Saying ms's problems is studio miss management is a bit out there as a reason . Halo infinte reviewed really well and has a good metacritic , its single player side is exceptional. Even the guys of the multiplayer is great. They failed in the amount of content for that portion of the game .
2023 is shaping up to be an amazing year. Hi-fi rush is amazing and is getting tons of love from critics to gamers Its a 89/9.1 so far on metacritic. We have minecraft legends , redfall , forza and starfield still to come . We still have e3 to look forward to and we can always have more directs.
Like I have said before it doesn't really matter what MS releases there will be a vocal group of fans that will shout down the releases. Even with Hi-fi rush people were quick to say this success had nothing to do with MS because it started development in 2017 before MS bought them. You don't hear people say that Sony had nothing to do with Spiderman's success because Insomniac released it before sony bought them. You wont hear people bring up development start dates with any of the dozen new companies Sony bought to diminish sony's success.
