Age of Empires, for one. Thoughtful updates and remastered versions that aren’t priced like new games. Then new games that are actually worth the update. Can’t wait for that same ethos to be applied to Warcraft.

I love SC2 and think it is one of the best esport games. However it is considered a "classic game" for Blizzard and they have a skeleton crew maintaining it. Funding for professional events has been decreasing consistently and especially reduced in 2023. There was a recent controversial balance patch that highlighted problems with community interaction and communication -- and no one knows how soon until a new patch might be deployed. (While it's also true that most fears by players are overblown). Basically, the whole community just holds its breath hoping things continue as they are and the other shoe never drops on a 13 year old game.

Best case scenario is that Microsoft embraces these properties and revitalizes them without ruining the game in the process. Worst case is they kill it completely...

I’m not sure what Blizzard’s strategy with esports is (or now Microsoft’s), but they basically imploded the official Overwatch league by being extremely ambiguous about whether or not it would continue, buying out franchise contracts to leave the league, and leaving Twitch for YouTube.

Microsoft definitely takes the Halo esports scene seriously, so running an esport well is definitely in their skillset. Hopefully those people are paying attention and want to get promoted.

Exclusive IPs aren’t and shouldn’t be a marker of good stewardship.

IMO, exclusives are one of the biggest issues with game systems nowadays, especially now that consoles are basically just reskinned and optimized computers.

Forza is pretty good

Sunset Overdrive was a single game publishing contract with Insomniac Games best known for its Sony second party games and now entirely owned by Sony since 2019 (just after Sunset Overdrive). Microsoft can't follow up on Sunset Overdrive.

>Halo is a shell of what it once

I don't think this is a point against Microsoft, they owned both Halo and Bungie during the golden era. The quality dropped off sharply once Bungie decided to work on other projects and Microsoft had to put together a new team to replace them. If they're still capable of supporting game studios however they did with Bungie, it could be exactly what Blizzard needs.

I don't know if you count it as a game, but Flight Simulator? Sure there was a decade or so when nothing happened, but I think they more than made up for that.