Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more join Team Xbox
As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the liveliest, most dynamic form of entertainment in the world, and we’ve seen the power of social connection and friendship that gaming enables.
As we pursue this mission, it is incredibly exciting to announce that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard.
Over many decades, the Activision Blizzard studios and teams have earned immense sources of joy and respect from billions of people around the world. We are incredibly excited to have the opportunity to work with the amazing, talented and dedicated people at Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment and Raven Software, Sledgehammer games, toys for Bob, Treyarch and every Activision Blizzard team.
Pending the closing of this transaction, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal closes, Activision Blizzard’s business will report to me as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
Upon completion, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as possible on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalogue. We also announced today that Game Pass has now exceeded 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass.
Activision Blizzard’s amazing franchises will also accelerate our plans for cloud gaming, allowing more people in more places around the world to participate in the Xbox community using phones, tablets, laptops and other devices they already own. Activision Blizzard games are played on a variety of platforms, and we plan to continue supporting these communities in the future.
As a company, Microsoft is committed to inclusion in all aspects of gaming, for both employees and players. We attach great importance to individual studio cultures. We also believe that creative success and autonomy come with treating everyone with dignity and respect. We commit all teams and all managers to this commitment. We look forward to extending our culture of proactive involvement to the amazing teams at Activision Blizzard.
In all of the world there is no more exciting place for fun and connection than video games. And there’s never been a better time to play than now. As we extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone, we look forward to welcoming all of our friends to Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming.