No, the premise is wrong.<p>> That could threaten Microsoft's hold on PC gaming<p>Sure. But so what. PC gaming is a very small market that Microsoft don't actually care much about. Well, they have a Windows store that sells games, a Windows xbox app and PC game pass, and they put a bit of effort here and there, but not really. Microsoft doesn't really care about your Windows license key either. They could have made pirating much harder, but the fact that you can find Windows activator on their own GitHub says that Microsoft thinks it's a waste of time to do anything about it.<p>(In fact, Windows license is free on handheld gaming devices. So Microsoft doesn't earn any money anyway. <a href="https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-9-remains-free-oems-anniversary-update/" rel="nofollow">https://windowsreport.com/windows-10-9-remains-free-oems-ann...</a>)<p>Most of Windows installations come from OEM and enterprises. Everything else is a marginal error. They also can't sell (much) more licenses just as they want, because pretty much it's tied to PC sales that's more about whether people are buying devices.<p>Which is why they are stuffing ads everywhere in Windows. It sucks for users, but is a good (short sighted) business strategy -- you can only earn so much money from license, but you can earn infinite money from ads.<p>Seems hard for people to understand this.