It’s less the focus on consolidation and more getting out the very problematic leadership from Activision (Bobby and his crew). Not that Microsoft is a bastion of progressive thought or leadership, but it’s suspected they would be much less likely to have covered up things like the Cosby room, suicide due to harassment, or the theft of breast milk. Activision’s leadership has some deep seated problems with sexism in general.
My thought is are they from different lots and are the batteries from different manufacturers and different lots? You don’t want to have 5 devices and them all from the same batch and all fail in the same way. A company not concerned by safety probably wouldn’t consider any of this. I also bet their SOP didn’t include changing batteries every time, so you have to rule out that these spares probably weren’t getting charged up or have their batteries replaced either.
There’ll need to be a serious rethink about the safety design.
The owner is on record saying he thinks safety regulations are bogus an he’s actively looked to cutting corners because you can’t live in safety our whole life.
This whole thing was a stupid mess. I can’t even really muster any sympathy for this situation because everyone made boneheaded decisions every step of the process. Including controlling thrust and control surfaces with a wireless PC controller because you’re too much of a spedthrift to spend 10k on some deep sea cable glands and build an actual fly by wire system for your 1.25 million dollar trips to the bottom of the oceans.
Like @Lockely@pawb.social mentions, they did intend to clean house by dropping the board with a buyout.
I, personally, am not too bothered by the consolidation of game studios. There are plenty of AAA game developers and indie devs are filling other niches (and sometimes become AAA themselves). It’s a different industry from something like making cars with high production costs and huge barriers to entry.