Xbox VS Sony. What started out as a simple takeover saga ended in a legal soap opera. But now it’s over, the judiciary has decided. What will happen now?
Xbox and Sony have been fighting for months, with the former looking to buy out one of the biggest players in the industry and the latter trying to stop it at all costs. A soap opera that will have had its ups and downs. His neck attacks, his playground tackles and his punches. A case full of numbers, revelations and compromises.
But that’s it, here we are, the end of the tunnel.
The FTC lost its latest lawsuit and was denied the injunction that would have allowed it to block its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. With that, Xbox emerged as the big winner and even took a step back in the face of UK regulators, who also decided to drop the case in exchange for a compromise. Rumor has it that Microsoft would be willing to make huge sacrifices to finally reassure them. So it’s official: Microsoft has a free hand.
Activision Blizzard on Xbox, a historic takeover!
And it’s a deal that can be closed very quickly, given that this Saturday, July 15 at 9:00 a.m. French time, Microsoft / Xbox will be able to formalize the acquisition as soon as possible. The court verdict will be announced on July 18. We’re talking about a deal worth nearly $70 billion. A colossal sum, even astronomical, much higher than any other acquisition in recent years, even if we add them up and mix the companies. This is unprecedented, and yet this is the price Microsoft wants to set for adding Activision Blizzard to its roster.
Call of Duty, Diablo, over watch, World of Warcraft, Crash Bandicoot or the countless mobile games from Kings, a subsidiary of Activision, including the legendary one Candy Crush… An insane amount of extremely popular and, above all, extremely lucrative licenses will soon end up under the Xbox umbrella. For one of them, too, Sony initially fought body and soul. call of Duty was actually in the sights of the Japanese giant, piloted by a Jim Ryan who didn’t want to let go of the piece. Finding the strongest FPS of all time in his opponent’s camp was out of the question for him.
We’re now awaiting more than one thing: final validation and bang-bang announcement from Xbox and Activision Blizzard. This acquisition will also sound like a relief to some, as Activision has been rocked by numerous cases of harassment, wrongful dismissals, etc. lately. Bobby Kotick, currently at the helm of Activision, is also expected to leave his post effective immediately following the replacement. At least that’s what was said at the time the acquisition was announced. And some are just waiting.
What impact on the industry?
Such a tremor will inevitably leave its mark. While Xbox’s defense was that not much would change, the fact is that the company will have some of the most lucrative licenses in the world under its belt. call of Duty and mobile games in mind. The green brand also stated that it wanted to position itself more strongly in the cloud gaming market, but ultimately made many concessions on this topic. There will certainly not be market dominance, but something could change with the takeover.
On the console side, Xbox is in a hurry and has lost the famous console war (yes, the famous one!). The numbers say it. Like it or not, Nintendo dominates with its little Switch and doesn’t ask anything of anyone, even if Big N is always brushed aside when we talk about Xbox and Sony, as the recent FTC lawsuit shows. Then we see Sony follow suit and Microsoft take last place in this trio with their Xboxes. It’s hard to imagine that such a takeover would change anything, especially since the green brand never really set out to break through with their Xbox series. Rather, it is about selling the service, an ecosystem and being present everywhere. And Xbox is pretty good for that though.
Services are the green brand’s passion. While Sony is proud to boast a far higher subscriber base for its PS Plus (by combining all the formulas), it’s Xbox that wins the bet with their Xbox Game Pass. The number of subscribers is numerous and above all the service enjoys a very special aura since many games are available immediately after release and are constantly promised. Even if the latter has taken the lead recently due to the lack of exclusive Xbox licenses or due to the latter’s failed launch redfall
Cloud Gaming is still in the phase of trying to find a place for itself with everyone but is a little stuck in the sauerkraut. Every actor tries to settle in there without really breaking through for the moment. But it’s something that’s on the rise and likely to grow even more in the years to come, along with the all-digital trend and the emergence of wearable platforms (ROG Ally, Steam Deck, Logitech G Cloud…) that are increasing and for more accessible to the general public. That’s good, isn’t it? And this is exactly where Xbox wants to position itself, instead of waiting and having to jump on the bandwagon. And it has to be said that cloud gaming fits perfectly with his desire to be accessible anywhere. Then to see.
It is a certainty that there will be changes. It remains to be seen when and to what extent. What is certain is that the market should be boosted. While it’s certain that Nintendo, as a good underdog, will continue to do what it does best, it could well be Sony taking the second step and taking risks. Things the company isn’t necessarily doing lately, preferring instead to capitalize on its aura and already well-established strong licenses. However, we do know that the company knows how to have a guarantor, as evidenced in particular by turning PS Plus into three attractive offers to battle Xbox Game Pass on its own soil.
And the games in all this?
But what interests us players are the games. What will become of them? This is a question that no one can answer yet. It is certain that some licenses will soon become exclusive or that new IPs will be added. Well if you are an avid gamer call of Duty, no worries. The license is expected to remain cross-platform for quite some time. And that’s even if it ends up in Xbox Game Pass.
Above all, the good news could be that there could well be a resurgence of licenses that have been postponed somewhat, such as e.g Crash Bandicoot or Spyro like what the fans are clamoring for. Because even if the marsupial is present in the Crash Team Rumble spin-off, it’s not the Crash Bandicoot 5 that everyone is expecting. For its part, the little purple dragon has not given any sign of life since the flight was suspended Skylanders and the release of the remastered trilogy of the license’s first three games.
For its part, Blizzard should continue its momentum Overwatch 2 that connects the seasons, Diablo 4, which will actually have the rights to its first season, World of Warcraft Flowing happy days and maybe even the return of star ship shortly. We’ll see, the final takeover of Activision Blizzard is sure to happen in the coming days.
And you, what do you think of this takeover? What do you expect from Microsoft and Xbox now?
