Microsoft has announced the purchase of Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The deal is the largest takeover in the gaming industry to date. With it, Xbox owners will integrate titles like Warcraft, Call of Duty or Candy Crush into their online platform.
The Redmond giant announced the purchase of the video game firm, which is going through the most turbulent moment in its history due to several complaints of sexual harassment and other misconduct that have been carried out by its own employees against other workers and managers.
According to Microsoft, “This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.”
When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the third-largest video game company in the world in terms of revenue. It will be only behind China’s Tencent and Japan’s Sony. However, until the deal closes, both companies will continue to operate independently. The purchase is expected to be completed during the fiscal year 2023.
The purchase of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft will mean that some of the most important video game franchises in the world will come under the orbit of Xbox. Like, Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and World of Warcraft, just to name a few.
So far, there have been no clear announcements as to whether Call of Duty will be released for Playstation in the future — or exclusively for Xbox and Windows PC. Speaking to Bloomberg, Phil Spencer, who is responsible for gaming and Xbox at Microsoft, said that “some of Activision’s games” are still coming to the Sony console.
With nearly 400 million Activision Blizzard monthly active players in 190 countries and franchises valued at three billion dollars, this acquisition will make Game Pass one of the most compelling and diverse game lineups in the industry.
