Xbox has announced a deal to buy Activision Blizzard, the company behind Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and many other major gaming franchises – coming in at a staggering $68.7 billion.
Announced on Xbox Wire, the deal means Xbox will soon have Call of Duty, Warcraft, Overwatch, Diablo, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash and more. Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced that all Activision Blizzard companies would report to him after the deal closed.
No timescale has been given for how long the deal will take to close, and it is likely that the deal will be scrutinized as to whether it creates a monopoly before being formally approved. Spencer confirmed that Activision Blizzard would continue to operate as an independent company until the deal was completed.
As expected, Spencer says Xbox will include “as many Activision Blizzard games as we can” on Xbox Game Pass services. Bloomberg sources report that Microsoft plans to continue selling some Activision Blizzard games on PlayStation, but will make some Xbox-exclusive content.
A separate press release added that this acquisition not only bolsters Microsoft’s gaming business, but that it “will provide building blocks for the metaverse.” After the deal closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, after Tencent and Sony.
Microsoft PR confirmed the deal is worth $68.7 billion, many times the $7.5 billion paid by ZeniMax Media in 2020. As a point of comparison, Take-Two recently acquired mobile giant Zynga for $12. .7 billion, which was the largest gaming acquisition in history. That was comfortably overshadowed by this deal.
Activision Blizzard has been embroiled in several scandals over the past year, many revolving around CEO Bobby Kotick. Microsoft initially confirmed that Kotick would remain CEO until the deal was officially confirmed, and later told IGN that he would retain his position following the acquisition.
Phil Spencer recently said he was “disturbed and deeply disturbed” by Activision Blizzard’s reports of workplace abuse. The company didn’t specifically mention these issues in today’s announcement, but Spencer is keen to say that “Microsoft is committed to our journey to inclusivity in all aspects of gaming, among employees and players” and that “we look forward to extending our culture.” of proactive inclusion for the great teams at Activision Blizzard.”
With the change, Microsoft plans to increase its repertoire to compete for space among other gaming giants, as they have been doing in other acquisitions in different market niches. Details of the acquisition and availability of Activision games on other platforms like PlayStation should be discussed soon.
Translated matter from IGN.
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