Wait, the plan was to get recurring revenue out of single player games by tying them to gamepass.

This failed, for entirely predictable reasons, and now MS is holding a load of very mature, stable game studios and needs them to male checks notes double the revenue (actually, profit). This simply isnt posssible.

Theres a story out from early in the year about MS requiring a 30% profit margin across the firm which when applied to games is just nonsense. Not ambitious or unrealistic, nonsense.

Games is a terrible fit for MS and the companies who allowed it to buy them for stability are realising that.