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Microsoft completed its purchase of ZeniMax Media, parent of Bethesda Softworks, for roughly 7.5 billion dollars. Buying an entire publisher to supply a subscription service signalled that consolidation had become the main competitive lever.
Competition between platforms shifted decisively from hardware to ownership of studios and libraries. Subscriptions require constant supply, and the cheapest reliable way to secure it turned out to be purchasing publishers, which changed the strategic logic of the entire industry within a few years.
