Original report comes from the paywalled The Information, that they tried to sell to private equity for $100B-$150B, but that it was short lived and fell through. This backs what a lot of us have been thinking based on the moves Sharma has been making, that they track with a sell-off of the Xbox brand.
Even shedding their studios, Xbox is such a huge brand, who could possibly afford it? The only people I could imagine would have the means and desire to buy Xbox from Microsoft are Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, or the Saudi government. You know, the worst people on the planet.
Not only is it a huge brand, it’s also a struggling brand. Like as disappointing as Sony has been lately and while I do have some regret that I got a PS5, I have never once wished I had instead gotten an xbox.
First of all, you must be excited to see all the new opportunities that came out of the PS5 jailbreak. Popping in a PS2 disc and playing on a PCSX2 fork made specifically for the PS5, that’s some cool shit.
Second, despite the truth in your statement, I don’t think the world oligarchs have any qualms about Xbox being a struggling brand. Rather, they see it as an opportunity to further cement their media empires for a century or more. “I already own the news media, social media, and print media, but what if I also owned the medium of games as well?” They don’t want a single art form to escape their grasp and coalesce/spread dissent.
Oh I’ll have to check that out. I’ve been letting it update when it wanted and kinda assumed I had missed the window of breakable versions.
But yeah, your second paragraph is also accurate sounding to me. Though I do wonder if they see the video game market similar to the other media markets, considering how no one seems to be able to compete very well with Valve.
sigh That’s gonna be the end goal, huh? Wouldn’t surprise me if it ends up in the hands of Bonesaw or the Ellisons.
Not that I want to float ideas, but Zuck & Bezos have tried to get into the gaming space before.
I will sell every Xbox I have, and figure out a way to sell my 17-18yo gamer profile, 60k+ gamerscore, and 300+digital game library on eBay if one of those assholes buys the brand!