Hopefully this serves as a wake-up call to small and mid-sized studios to stop letting themselves be acquired.
I get that it must be grueling to be an independent studio constantly jumping from one project to the next, worrying that a single misstep could mean people don't get paid. I've read the history of Obsidian studios.
But the alternative of not being under someone else's thumb is that it is less likely you are told, "Your team delivered everything we asked for--a stellar game, well-received, and it hit sales targets; but someone upstairs wanted more, so you're all fired."
IMO, this is continued evidence that large gaming companies are broadly dumbheaded. Are there any non-shitty non-indie studios worth really investing in anymore? I even think larger IP like Halo, Team Fortress, DOTA, etc. could really benefit from being sold off to smaller, passionate, hungry teams.
I loved the original xbox and 360, but Microsoft has mostly lost its way when it comes to gaming, and since losing the console wars these days, is left as only a publisher for all the game companies they've acquired to whatever ruin is happening now, even selling to competing hardware platforms. Microsoft still seems to have a habit of ruining everything they touch, this looks like a tailspin for xbox and the game studios acquired they can't even figure out what to do with.
Most high-profile games have been disgustingly bad for years, particularly looking at like Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft that puts out crippled AAA(A) titles laden with micro-transactions, game passes, and DRM as invasive as malware if released to PC. People are sick of getting poor value from expensive games.
Since Valve has been involved with Proton in Steam, finally making Linux gaming a real possibility, I find I buy and play lots of smaller indie games with a $5-10 price point that I would never have considered playing on a console. I laugh at games selling for $70-100 now, but I'll gladly spend $70 for 10 smaller games that will bring me far more joy overall.
Most expensive AAA titles also don't tend to work under Linux at all due to DRM, MTX integrations, etc that only serve to anger and frustrate me, whereas smaller games work almost universally, and increasingly more offer native Linux clients as well that we'd simply never see from EA, Ubisoft, and particularly Microsoft. Usually they have problems even working natively under Windoze well enough, asking for or expecting Linux support just makes them laugh.
I feel a lot better about supporting indie studios than the mega game and media cartels, and Valve/Steam always for their Linux support. Sony and Microsoft can feel free to die off already.
Microsoft never really got gaming like Sony and Nintendo. Yes, at the end of the day all 3 exist to make as much money as possible, but Microsoft has been the most consistent in pushing the shittiest stuff into the gaming landscape. Paid online, DLC, live service games, even their dashboard since the 360 era has been all about how they can extract the most amount of money from gamers.
Sony and Nintendo have done their fair share of crappy things, but they also have just as many awesome games that "respect" gaming. I can't think of a single recent MS game that hasn't been an absolute flop in terms of just providing a great experience.