Over the last few days, there have been a few things on the people’s lips: “Do I ally with trans people I love and care about, or that angry woman that doesn’t believe science” and “7.5-billion is a lot for Fallout 76, isn’t it?” Astro ‘terfing,’ as I think the kids are calling it, over Joanne’s nonsense being published in gaming again. Microsoft broke many news sites Monday, as they once again went on the Bill Gates’ all-expenses-paid studio buying cruise, this time starting negotiations of buying up not just a studio, but a whole publishing sector.

In an interview between CNET’s Ian Sherr and Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella and Xbox head Phil Spencer, more details were revealed. Ahead of what will be one of the strangest console generations, Nadella wants to continue the ever-expanding catalog his tenure as CEO has brought. Famously, in 2014 the company bought Minecraft developer Mojang for a then jaw-dropping 2.5-billion. Of course, later through E3 presentations, the company would announce further purchases such as South Park, Fallout: New Vegas, and The Outer Worlds developer Obsidian, and later Double-Fine, developer of Psychonauts.

“The idea of having content is so we can reach larger communities,” Nadella said, with intentions to purchase further publishers and studios and develop the Game Pass library further. Spencer furthered this sentiment with “Content is just the incredible ingredient to our platform that we continue to invest in,” going on to say, “This doubles the size of our creative organization.” Since the purchase, the fabled developer John Carmack has commented on the wholesale (pending) purchase of ZeniMax, which includes Carmack’s former studio ID Software. He stated that he wouldn’t mind returning to some of his previous work.

Take this for what it is, as someone who has had a lifetime of Sony consoles, this is how Microsoft/Xbox beat out PlayStation’s sales figure dominance. Since the intended purchase was announced, both sides of the contrite “console wars” have had their catfights, gif wars, and all-out insult hurling based on zero facts; Claiming everything from victory, swearing revenge, and baseless on the spot rumors/speculation stated as fact. The fact is, Microsoft/Xbox has set up a purchase of a company as it has done before, the business continues as is whether you like it or not.

Spencer is noted as saying Bethesda will be semi-independent, with an effort to keep the teams their own, with their own culture, “They’re not about becoming us.” As Mike noted of the announcement, the tale of exclusives will be a “case-by-case” situation, with one speculating it would be stupid to suddenly switch longtime franchises to Xbox and PC “exclusives.” Possibly the most notable example of no change would be the release of Minecraft Dungeons, which continued to release on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.

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