A reader means that if the Activision Blizzard takeover failed, Microsoft should think about selling Xbox to Sony.
There has been a lot of discussion over the past few weeks that Microsoft is losing its grip on its Xbox business, with people talking about the possibility of it exiting the gaming industry entirely or stopping making all of its games on Game Pass . I’m not sure with what seriousness these suggestions were made, but it’s clear why they came up now, rather than at any other time in the recent past, as Microsoft makes an exhibition of itself in its flailing attempts to buy Activision Blizzard .
I have no idea if the takeover will go ahead. Since they are incomparably wealthy, I thought it was only natural that they would get what they wanted, but if nothing else, they would surely sweat for it. I think the most likely outcome is that they’ll be forced to make even more concessions to Sony, potentially making the deal not worth the effort.
Even if it continues, they’ve wasted the past year harping on it and their lineup of games has clearly suffered. You could say it’s a coincidence that while all the Activision Blizzard stuff is going on, Microsoft hasn’t released any games worth mentioning, but the other recurring piece of news over the past year has been of mismanagement across multiple Xbox studios. True or not, nothing is currently being produced and I feel like Microsoft is starting to lose control of the situation.
Imagine the Activision Blizzard deal fell through and Microsoft wasted all that time, money, and effort on nothing. I imagine some serious questions will be asked of boss Phil Spencer, who, as one reader pointed out this week, has now been in charge of Xbox for nearly a decade. While he says the right things most of the time, he has little to show for his time as a leader, other than a bunch of new developers who haven’t released anything yet.
Microsoft as a wider company is currently obsessed with ChatGPT and the fact that Bing is finally relevant and being used by people. It’s easy to forget how huge Microsoft is and how gaming is just a small part of what they do, and completely irrelevant in terms of profit. If Xbox continues to show little growth and the gamble on buying Activision Blizzard doesn’t pay off, I think serious questions will be raised, just as they apparently were after the Xbox One’s failure.
My answer to these questions would be simple: sell the Xbox business to Sony. They may be a much smaller company than Microsoft, but the Xbox division can more than afford it, especially if it’s being sold because it’s in trouble.
You could argue that Microsoft should sell it to Google or Amazon or some other mega company, but those are not Microsoft’s direct competitors, Sony. As a relatively small player on a global scale, Sony should be Microsoft’s ally, not the enemy. The Xbox was created because Microsoft did not want Sony to ‘take control of the living room’, but that concept is now completely outdated.
The reason why the Xbox was made is no longer relevant and so Microsoft should just do what it usually does in these situations: buy a company with more experience (it tried to buy both Sega and Nintendo) or failing that, instead of them cooperate. I think they could buy Sony, but I imagine if they didn’t buy Activision Blizzard they’d quickly abandon that idea, especially with monopoly investigators still gasping for breath.
Sell the PlayStation business to Sony and they can still keep their finger on the cake by selling them access to their streaming services (they already have a deal to work on that together) and maybe help with other technical aspects like the console and controller design.
Microsoft could continue to research and develop game streaming and sell it not only to Sony, but to other companies, even Google. They could, as it were, become the support studio for other game companies and interested parties. Maybe they could even keep a developer or two and still make some of their own games – though one of the obvious choices for that would be Halo and they’ve made such a hash of that lately they’re probably better off to make sure that’s the first thing they sell.
I’m sure Microsoft isn’t interested in anyone’s opinion on the internet, but I’d be surprised if something similar to what I’ve said hasn’t crossed the minds of at least a few executives, or at least some shareholders. Xbox is currently down and this idea of Microsoft playing the long game is getting out of hand. If it takes any longer, consoles will no longer exist and holodecks will be real before they manage to get themselves into gear.
By reader Taylor Moon
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