With a little more than 24 hours has passed since Microsoft purchased ZeniMax Media, acquiring Bethesda and its wealth of talent to make the Xbox brand more appealing. The dust hasn't settled yet, and word from Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and VP of gaming Phil Spencer spoke that they aren't quite done amassing talent under their umbrella as well as expanding their Game Pass program in an interview with Cnet. 

"You can't wake up one day and say, 'Let me build a game studio,'", Nadella spoke. "The idea of having content is so we can reach larger communities."

"Content is just the incredible ingredient to our platform that we continue to invest in," Spencer stated, echoing the same sentiment. "This doubles the size of our creative organization."

Since 2018, Microsoft has spent $10 billion dollars purchasing talented studios like RPG aficionados Obsidian, developers of 2019's critically acclaimed spacefaring venture The Outer Worlds, Double Fine Productions, who created Psychonauts, and Ninja Theory, makers of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. 

Historically, the Xbox brand wasn't particularly the place to go for exclusives rivaling the hype and near Hollywood pomp and circumstance of popular Sony franchises like The Last of Us and God of War, but the Xbox 360's appeal was the quality of its third party multiplatform games and online play. The Xbox One fumbled out of the gate with its launch and deterred a great deal of the previous install base.

Without question, it looks like the PlayStation 5 will garner more hardware sales than the Series X, but Microsoft has aimed to place more emphasis on expanding the Xbox brand through accessibility with XCloud and Game Pass. That alone will garner them success. And having more studios develop game for them enriches their talent pool beyond relying on Forza, Gears of War, and Halo for big, money making releases. The acquisition of ZeniMax (Bethesda will work on a semi-exclusive basis), this did prompt a concentration of Sony fans to demand they purchase Konami as a response. As amusing as that is (and as unlikely a transaction like that is to happen) the rumors of a PlayStation exclusive Metal Gear Solid remake have been circulating for a little over a year now. 

Considering how aggressive they have been, it looks like Microsoft as learned from some of their past errors. The question is now, who will they acquire next?