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[12Dannu123]

In the recent years we have seen massive consolidation of the semiconductor industry, as we have seen companies spend 10s of billions buying another company, this follows the trend of having an integrated solution in chips. Another example of increasing consolidation is Disney and Fox merging together to compete against Netflix and the attempt from Comcast to get Time Warner which has HBO etc. Which leads me my next point.
With the increasing rise of cost in developing games these days and the rise of GaaS, it's very unsustainable and risky to develop games these days that return in an investment. With Game as a Service, companies like Microsoft can use Netflix-like systems to get subscribers.
So what if a company like Microsoft did buy a massive publisher like EA and aggressively buyouts gaming publishers for their Game Pass ecosystem, what if this leads to a consolidation of the gaming industry where we only have publishers like Microsoft and Activision Blizzard. Sony and Nintendo can't afford to buy a company at the moment, since a larger number of major publishers are in the 10-20s billions.
Could we see the collapse of ecosystems in future generations?

Do you think with the increasing desire of the Netflix model, could we see the start of a consolidation of the gaming industry?

 

[Ragnaroz]

Not possible. In AAA sphere, maybe. But they can't buy all the AA and indie studios, there are just too many of them and new ones keep appearing every day.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Not sure why Microsoft would have to buy EA to validate this argument when EA itself is a perfect example. Or Activision/Blizzard, or Vivendi/Ubisoft.

I think gaming is an industry that was both ahead of the curve in this respect, and immune to its worst effects. I think its probably much easier to buy a game studio and integrate it into your existing business than any industry you listed above, but on the flip side gaming has by far the lowest barrier of entry of anything you listed above.

 

[mikezilla2]

regardless the semiconducter intdusredy/ tech is about as Flimsy as the Margins on the HDD space in my opinion