Can Xbox Game Studios replace Bethesda and Bioware as the RPG kings?

Who'd have thought that one day, Microsoft might be a leading RPG mega-publisher?

Once upon a time, I would've called both Bethesda Game Studios and Bioware my two top developers. Both studios are responsible for some of the best games ever made, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and Mass Effect 2.

Full of player choice, breadth, and potentially hundreds of hours of gameplay, Western RPGs feel like a struggling breed, where mega=publishers like Bethesda and Bioware's respective parent companies, Zenimax and EA, realize they can make far more money with far less investment chasing mobile phone games and microtransaction-laden service games like Fallout 76 and Anthem. Both suffered their fair share of criticism for blandness, bugs, and, at worst, boredom-inducing gameplay. Despite that, both games enjoy an active fanbase of players who are presumably paying up in perpetuity, justifying EA and Zenimax's continued investment in these low-rent pseudo-RPG efforts.

Fallout 76 is a ...