I will be shocked to see anyone go with HBM, unless that party thinks that prices will have dropped significantly and will continue to do so by the time the next wave of consoles hits.
It depends what you consider by bulking. The "interest" in the past few months has been returning to a place where they were long before the crucial moment in 2016 when Phil Spencer closed a bunch of studios and cancelled projects all over the place. Fast tracking the acquisition of talent is what they had to do to get back on form before the next generation, and now I feel they've more or less reached a state of equilibrium. I don't think Microsoft was adverse to studio acquisitions back in the original Xbox or 360 days, so I don't think their interest in that area has changed much.
If you were to ignore Mojang and Microsoft Casual Games, then Microsoft now has 11 studios. Playground, Ninja Theory, Rare, Obsidian, InXile all have multiple teams working on multiple projects. Microsoft has never ever had this big a presence in first party development all geared towards the core console instead of splitting development between console and kinect. Everything also points to them picking up a few more developers.
All that matters is that at the end of the day they are where they need to be developer wise. That being said...I'm shocked at how many informed (compared to masses) posters just assume it will be all honky Dory. If it was as easy throwing money at developer every publisher wouldbhave Zelda's and god of wars. You can't just expect studios to make gold first time out
Bungie.
343 Industries.
Turn 10.
Playground Games.
The Coalition.
These are/were making good games since day one for Microsoft. There is also nothing that points to Obsidian, Ninja Theory struggling to make quality games from day one given their output over the last decade.
Some will not get that game that averages 80 - mid 80's in critical reception. Given current outings, Compulsion Games and Undead Labs look like they will need a lot of work to get games that are quality and not bug ridden out. I also do not know how InXile will transition if they are to move away from CRPG's.
I think you'll find they all want the same thing. Both Sony and MS want to build on an ever increasing playerbase and Sony has been working on PS Now for quite a few years now, so it's not like MS is suddenly a pioneer for wanting to get in on streaming.
The comparison between PS Now and Game Pass is also neither here nor there. The only thing that they are similar in is that they will both offer streaming options once Microsoft releases Xcloud as a streaming product for Game Pass. That is where the similarities end.