Every studio out there has a price.Those are all existing properties and I didnt refer to them. I'm talking about studios that Phil announced in the past year or two. I know that there are some exceptions but overall I fail to understand why the xbox would need to acquire inXile, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games or even Double Fine. But maybe Im looking at this the wrong way.
I realize this but I just consider the Hitman IP valuable enough to make them AAA. Also maybe the reason why MS hasn't acquired any major AAA studios is because there aren't that many around willing to be sold. As someone here has mentioned before.
What we are seeing is industry consolidation, and the latest move by Sony is one of the best things that has happened in gaming in my opinion. They have gone out of their way to get one of the best developers that has predominantly made games on the PlayStation platform. This is what Microsoft did with Playground, and failed to do previously.
It should have been something that was expected. Sometimes the best moves that are done are the ones that deny others an opportunity to encroach into your domain.