Because it's run by fucking idiots with MBAs who have no connection whatsoever to the company's profits and losses.

For a long time, their value proposition was "use us because what else can you do?" Trying to monololize the gaming industry by buying up whatever good studios they can is just a part of that.

If you buy up all your potential competition, you have no competition.

They wanted to own existing IP. Not make new stuff. Buy an asset, milk it, and that'll do. Any words about long-term maybe were lies.

Embrace, extend, and extinguish

Fear of missing out. It is institutionally ingrained into Microsoft when they were publicly burned for "missing out on the internet."

It's just like destroying all the health pickups in a multiplayer game so the other team can't heal, I guess.

Looking for exclusivity of games to "beat" other companies. As always is their model of "force people to pay us" instead of "make something compelling". Its the Microsoft way.

my best guess is the people who signed off the purchases aren't the same people who evaluate the value of the things they have purchased