Taking this into account, and in light of these multiplatform rumors, how can we explain the $70B Activision acquisition? Was it a Musk/Twitter situation where the ball got rolling and they couldn't legally pull out? If Microsoft just wants to be a publisher, they need to build profitable IP. You don't get in by buying the most expensive, well-established brand at its peak.
Maybe they think they can own enough of the market that gamers will have no choice but to subscribe. I even find it doubtful that Gamepass can be profitable enough to make it up in volume. Compared to selling 30M copies of Call of Duty for $70 every year? We already know Bobby Kotic didn't like the Game pass business model.
If MS is bowing out of the Console Wars, then being a publisher has to make sense on its own market logic. Starting that project out in an $80B (acti+zeni) hole implies a long term commitment I can't understand.