Once upon a time Microsoft didn’t put ads in their operating system.

Microsoft has jumped the shark. Stop giving it the benefit of the doubt.

New Microsoft is probably getting a cut.

Microsoft jumped the shark decades ago.

It's a "legitimate" corporation. The malware has a "legitimate" purpose. The user "technically" agreed to the abuse when they mashed next on the install wizard.

I seriously doubt any anti-malware software will block this.

Yep, this should be a solution... stop the malware from working, and if the game doesn't work, the users can refund it (since the gameplay time will be 0 hours anyway).

Let the developers (well... managers) deal with the refunds then.