Its like they think we don’t see all of this. Why would we trust Microsoft at all? I’m saying this as a long-time Xbox fanboy, I was on board, I have shirts, I bought all the Xboxes, I defended them during the xbone era, and they still burned me. Your list is exactly right.

• They are incapable of making quality games internally.
• they refuse to let writers do what they do best and instead meddle and water down stories
• they set wildy unrealistic expectations on games and studios and then like you said if it’s not literally the best game ever made of all time (on the shoestring budget and timeline they set) they blame the studio and close them

Why would I ever trust anything they made?

My spouse is playing Outer Worlds 2. They enjoyed the first, so playing the second. It is a fun game. It’s not amazing or groundbreaking, but fun. A solid sequel. Not everyone will like it but there’s a good following. How did Microsoft respond? They raised the price before it released to 80 fucking dollars (for what is solidly a 40 dollar game), they then backtracked to 60, still people refused to buy it at that price, they blamed the studio (obsidian) for lack of sales, and now told them they won’t make a third one because they just don’t see the demand.