thats what im thinking , Sea of Theives and We Happy Few werent that great, well to sell there service-
The Outer Worlds and Minecraft and Ninja Theorys Games look like theyre going to do Well, im Jealous that they managed to snag up Obsidian and Ninja Theory
I Loved Enslaved Odessey to the West and Heavenly Sword , i Hope Sony Buys Remedy , i feel like they still have something really special to make ,
Max Payne 1 and 2 are always on my top favorite games list

I Really Wanna Know whats up with The Bioshock and System Shock universe i want another game to have a great atmosphere like those

I think it's not so much that MS will tell them to change the game on a major creative level. But like most publishers or producers, they wouldnt be completely hands off, and in some cases take a good idea, feature, or content, and tell the studio to monetize it in some way.

But that's a problem with the industry in general, and it's not always the case, but there are some pretty obvious examples of it happening....like EA with mass effect 3. I dont know if MS has anything as egregious as that though. A lot of any monetization probably comes from add on to the original design.

Problem with discussions like this is there are a lot of ways to define creative freedom, and once one defines it themselves, they dont tend to look past that.

As an hypothetical, I doubt MS would go in and tell Ninja theory to make HB2 like GOW. I think they wouldnt say no if NT wanted to make it like GOW. But, I can see ms say something like, "let's add some of this side stuff here that we can charge for", even if it goes against the original design.

Again though, that's common in the industry.

MS as a publisher and producer is going to request changes, additions, or subtractions to any design though. That's just what they do, and again, MS isnt completely hands off. Most developers left to their own devices make mistakes. Even ND has a producer which makes sure things stay on track

It actually benefits Microsoft to have compelling games to play for first party. Sure, any first party games will be put on XGP #DayOne, but first party games will be how they sell subscriptions and KEEP gamers on XGP...that is key. XGP success will rise or fall depending on the quality of their games. If their quality is great, subscriptions will rise...if their quality is crap, subscriptions will drop. So for them to care about quality only makes sense...I mean if they didn't care then they wouldn't have gone on to acquire so many in so short a time.