Xbox at the Crossroads | Opinion
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This week sees us at a philosophical crossroads for Microsoft’s Xbox division and its gaming ambitions more generally.
On one hand, the hotly anticipated Starfield – arguably the first truly notable fruit of the acquisition of ZeniMax two years ago, and Bethesda’s first major new IP in nearly three decades – is almost upon us, with hype for the game peaking as pre-loading becomes available ahead of the launch. It’s the most important software launch for the Xbox Series X/S consoles to date – there’s more on the line here than even with the launch of Halo Infinite, I’d argue – and Microsoft is hopeful that this will mark a turning point for a platform’s well-documented struggles with its first-party software pipeline.
On the other hand, the saga of Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard rolls onwards, with one of the most significant developments in months being Microsoft’s return to negotiations with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and a new formulation of the deal, under which the rights to cloud streaming for all of Activision’s games would be handed over to Ubisoft.
The billions of dollars spent on acquisitions thus far haven’t delivered the pipeline anyone hoped for
This is meant to address the concerns that were core to the CMA’s blocking of the deal, which were focused on the potential distortion of the emerging streaming market – as the CMA and pretty much everyone else involved has been at pains to point out, there’s really no justification for blocking the deal on the grounds of the status of the existing console market, where PlayStation has an enormous lead over the Xbox platforms (as does Switch, if you
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