Microsoft Corporation is set to buy Call of Duty and Diablo Publishers, Activision and Blizzard for a rumoured deal of $69 Billion dollars, thus uniting the two grande names in the gaming industry. If this deal is pulled off then Microsoft will scale up as the third-largest revenue gaming company in the world, closely behind Tencent and Sony.
The deal is expected to close by June 2023. Till then, Activision will continue to remain independent.
As the biggest purchase by Microsoft ensues, they will be paying $95 per share in cash, for one of the top game publishers in the United States that rose to fame for titles like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. Despite being a game publisher giant, Activision has been struggling and grappling to cope up with social lash outs over its ill-treatment of women.
According to Microsoft, the present-day Activision CEO will continue to hold his position as the head of the company.
However, as the deal is secured, he will be reporting to Phil Spencer, current head of Microsoft Gaming.
“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”
Cited from the official news article by Microsoft
Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch Coming to Xbox Gamepass DAY 1?
The addition of Activision’s arsenal of block-buster titles like Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, etc to the existing catalogue of games will definitely facilitate Microsoft in expanding their reach in the PC and console gaming domain.
Gamers are already expecting fresh price listings of fan-favourite but expensive titles like Diablo.
Some are even speculating that Overwatch, Diablo and the other games are going to be added to Xbox Gamepass, making them hugely accessible to the community.
Call of Duty is also being speculated to be available for play through Xbox game pass.
Will Call of Duty, Diablo, etc become Xbox and PC exclusives? The answer is not yet confirmed but there’s an undeniable possibility of this happening.
Control the hype though, because even if something like this does happen, it’s going to be no sooner than post-June 23, when the deal is expected to close.
Xbox Gamepass is famous and favourite due to its budget-focused pricings. We can easily expect a boom in their sales if these speculations are welcomed to reality.
Microsoft has will hopefully make sure to bring as many Blizzard Activision titles as possible to the Xbox Gamepass catalogue. These are mere hopeful speculations. Only time will unveil what is to happen.
One of the industry’s most iconic publishers, Activison, has been embroiled for months in a slew of lawsuits alleging gender discrimination and harassment. Kotick, who has led the corporation for three decades now, is under heavy fire from his employees as they pressurize him to resign.
The scandals have taken their toll on a corporation that is already coping up with the end of a pandemic-fueled video game boom.
Activision recently delayed two of its most anticipated titles in November and issued a fourth-quarter sales projection that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, thus, sending the company’s stock plummeting.
The timing of this acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft could possibly have positive effects on the company, both strategically and culturally.
Although monopolies are always considered harmful to any industry, gaming or not, we can hope that from this deal onwards, there lies a bright future, fruitful for us, gamers.
