Microsoft to acquire video game maker Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion

[nanoguy]

Forward-looking: Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard in what would be the company’s largest acquisition to date. Valued at $68.7 billion, the deal will likely change the video game landscape and elevate Microsoft to become the world’s third-largest video game company.

Microsoft today announced it is acquiring Activision Blizzard, the well-known video game publisher behind franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo, Candy Crush, and Hearthstone. The all-cash deal is valued at $68.7 billion, which makes it the largest acquisition in the company’s history.

Previously, Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion, and last year it paid $19.7 billion for Nuance Communications. As part of the deal, Microsoft will get Activision Blizzard’s nearly 10,000 employees and will likely become the third most valuable video game company only behind giants Tencent and Sony. It will also grow its publishing and esports production capabilities to a total of 30 internal game development studios.

In addition to inheriting all intellectual property and development resources, Microsoft is planning to add Activision’s game roster to Xbox Game Pass once the deal closes.

Xbox Game Pass has grown to 25 million subscribers, a healthy increase from the 18 million it reported in January last year. In 2021, Xbox Game Pass added 20 Bethesda titles to its catalog, and now that catalog is growing with several popular titles that have a combined 400 million active players across 190 countries.

Activision Blizzard has been under a lot of legal and public pressure over the last few months as a result of allegations of sexual misconduct and unfair pay for temporary workers.

Microsoft has yet to reveal how it will deal with these concerns, but in the meantime Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard. Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report directly to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer, which seems to suggest he might not remain after that.

Microsoft Gaming is a new division that will tackle the company’s gaming ambitions across Xbox, PC, mobile, and the cloud. CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement that “we’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”

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https://www.techspot.com/news/93029-microsoft-acquire-video-game-maker-activision-blizzard-687.html

 

[scavengerspc]

And so many of you said I was nuts when I mentioned this last fall.
And I also stand by my statement back then that MS\EA is coming up.

 

[Dimitriid]

Very convenient how Microsoft came in after it'd been consistently dropping in value, specially after the very notable sexual assault and discrimination open cases.

I'm sure they'll assure everyone nothing will change but quietly remove future games from PS5 consideration just like they did with Bethesda, except this will hurt a lot more for PS5 holders.

 

[Geralt]

Horrible thing. The touch of M$ will ruin Activision Blizzard.

 

[theruck]

Diablo is the new minecraft lol

 

[Pastuch]

Very convenient how Microsoft came in after it'd been consistently dropping in value, specially after the very notable sexual assault and discrimination open cases.

I'm sure they'll assure everyone nothing will change but quietly remove future games from PS5 consideration just like they did with Bethesda, except this will hurt a lot more for PS5 holders.

Console gamers don't matter bud. This is techspot.

 

[Pastuch]

Horrible thing. The touch of M$ will ruin Activision Blizzard.

Um, Blizzard hasn't made a good game in 8 years. How could MS make it worse? Two Cosby suites instead of one?

 

[sac39507]

Maybe they could implement better anti-cheating in Call of Duty now. Seems like the studios under Activision don't care.

So, who's the largest gaming company?

 

[Dimitriid]

Horrible thing. The touch of M$ will ruin Activision Blizzard.

Activision was already ruined, mostly due to inappropriate touching in fact.

 

[MarcusNumb]

MS + COD = I guess we will have to use more mines in the next version.

 

[Dimitriid]

Maybe they could implement better anti-cheating in Call of Duty now.

It already had that: it's called servers. As in, back over a decade ago when we were able to host and run servers and didn't have to rely on the stupidity of peer-2-peer multiplayer which after the initial couple games, CoD and Activision helped popularize.

 

[TheBigT42]

Horrible thing. The touch of M$ will ruin Activision Blizzard.

Even more so

 

[stewi0001]

I'm guessing the price was too good for MS to resist.

 

[Shadowboxer]

Sony should be sweating at least a little bit at this point. If MS employed Sonys own tactics against them we could see Minecraft, elder scrolls, starfield, fallout, COD, Diablo etc all be made xbox exclusives. And if they dont, they still take a cut everytime someone buys it on Playstation.

 

[yRaz]

It already had that: it's called servers. As in, back over a decade ago when we were able to host and run servers and didn't have to rely on the stupidity of peer-2-peer multiplayer which after the initial couple games, CoD and Activision helped popularize.

Yeah, private servers were a feature of mine. Being able to run mods and have a community of regulars on the server was the best part.

 

[Phyrino]

Two years ago Phil Spencer said "When you talk about Nintendo and Sony, we have a ton of respect for them, but we see Amazon and Google as the main competitors going forward"

So it would not surprise me if Google took some of their pocket change and bought Sony.

 

[Shear]

And so many of you said I was nuts when I mentioned this last fall.
And I also stand by my statement back then that MS\EA is coming up.

I call Ubisoft first. It makes sense why Activision is selling now and Ubisoft is in a similar place. Also they are already releasing their new game on MS game pass...

Man... Poor Sony

 

[scavengerspc]

Very convenient how Microsoft came in after it'd been consistently dropping in value

Convenient, good business. Everyone can pick and choose.

Horrible thing. The touch of M$ will ruin Activision Blizzard.

AB will flourish from here. Just like most Microsoft and Sony acquisitions do
in the gaming sector.

 

[nobody655321]

Very convenient how Microsoft came in after it'd been consistently dropping in value, specially after the very notable sexual assault and discrimination open cases.

I'm sure they'll assure everyone nothing will change but quietly remove future games from PS5 consideration just like they did with Bethesda, except this will hurt a lot more

 

[nobody655321]

Activision was already ruined, mostly due to inappropriate touching in fact.

More importantly, their quality of game development has gone down.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

That xbox pass is looking better and better. I might just pick it up if I ever get back to having more than a few hours a week for gaming.

 

[Gezzer]

Blizzard started going down hill after it was acquired by Activision IMHO. Well maybe more aptly put, it's down hill slide started to increase. Activision really only has one franchise that it's beating into the ground, CoD. Blizzard as well really only has WoW as a truly valuable IP, and they've now been beating that one into the ground as well.

As things stand I don't see this move by Microsoft as being either good or bad for gamers. Each release of CoD becomes a Xbox exclusive for a year or two? Yawn... WoW takes a new direction? Couldn't be any worse than the last few one eighties the franchise has made over the years. I lost my zeal for WoW with the Pandora expansion and finally gave the game up for good after Battle For Azeroth.

This news effects me and IMHO most gamers very little...

 

[Dimitriid]

More importantly, their quality of game development has gone down.

It has don't get me wrong, and probably as a result of the culture there. But even if it actually increased, it's never going to be more important than workers rights to me as a matter of principle.

 

[Bamda]

I love it because my Xbox Game Pass for PC just got a lot better.

 

[mak2020]

This should be a HUGE No by FCC. file complaints people. FCC.gov do you really want MS to take over another company and ruin it even more?
probably end to steam on linux which is probably what they are really scared of. not sure if Blizzard own Valve. lol