The developers don’t have to take it. But Sony’s marketing, engineering and pipeline are the best of any publisher in the most markets.
That’s a way of creating value, goodwill and moving the industry forward rather than just buying up anything and everything because you can’t compete due to poor management.
By now Microsoft in their 20+ year investment in the console space should have had a far larger, more successful content portfolio. Given they own the dominant development platform, the drivers and software behind a lot of projects they should have far superior development teams, engineers and a better pipeline.
Just what they’ve been doing for that time is beyond me. They literally have all the tools and money to be a roaring success in most areas. But it feels like they’ve squandered success and have lurched form crisis to poor management repeatedly.
Sony is evidence that you can be hugely successful by valuing talent, trusting them and spending your money wisely.
Sony, as an alalogy have invested in the best doctors, surgical methods and customer relations whereas Microsoft didn’t and have decided to buy whole hospitals. Except the doctors can leave - we’ve seen that with some of their acquired studios already.
They were on the right track with studios like Playground where they helped set them up, invested in the talent and IP and moved to a purchase.
The only reason Microsoft can’t compete, if they can’t compete, is because of their own ineptitude.