In an announcement that shocked the gaming industry, Microsoft Announced plans to acquire Activision BlizzardIn an announcement posted to Xbox Wire, Phil Spencer (CEO of Microsoft Gaming) confirmed the shocking news in a deal worth $68.7 billion. Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard in an all-cash deal of $95.00 per share, which includes Activision Blizzard’s net cash, which is nearly 10 times what Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda in 2021 is worth in terms of value.
After the deal, Microsoft will own Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone “, “Guitar Hero”, “Crash Bandicoot”, “StarCraft” and more games IP. Who knows we’ll all see the day Crash Bandicoot becomes the Xbox mascot. wilderness.
The deal has not yet been finalized, and there is no word on when it will all be completed. “Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Games will continue to operate independently,” Spencer noted in the release. “Once the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.”
Spencer attached a diagram showing the company’s planned structure after the acquisition. You can check it out below. As part of the acquisition, select public companies include: Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, and Treyarch. It remains to be seen whether future games like Call of Duty will land on the PlayStation from here.
The news, of course, comes as Activision Blizzard is embroiled in a messy (and very public) discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed in California. So far, the lawsuit has led to the departure of several key figures as part of a plan to clean up the house. Whether Microsoft will directly address these issues in the future — or remove Bobby Kotick, the current head of Activision Blizzard — remains to be seen. It’s worth noting that Kotick doesn’t appear in the chart above.
According to Activision Blizzard’s own announcement, it has now been confirmed that Bobby Kotick will continue to serve as Activision Blizzard’s CEO. He and his team will continue to focus on driving efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth,” the release said. “Once the transaction closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer. “
Going back to Microsoft’s statement, albeit a vague reference to what’s going on in the release. Per Spencer: “As a company, Microsoft is committed to engaging employees and players in every aspect of gaming. We take individual studio culture very seriously. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating everyone with dignity and respect. We This commitment is required of all teams and all leaders. We look forward to extending a culture of positive inclusion to the great team at Activision Blizzard.”
But in the short term, what does all this mean for you as a gamer? First, a ton of Xbox Game Pass goodies are coming. “when closed,”[When the deal closes], we’ll make as many Activision Blizzard games available on Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass as possible, including new titles and titles from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog,” Spencer said. “We’re also announcing today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass. “
Expect to hear more about the deal in the days and weeks ahead – undoubtedly one of the biggest games of all time. We’ve released a bunch of dream games we’d love to see from this acquisition, from World’s Edge’s new Warcraft RTS to Tim Schafer’s Spyro the Dragon, you can read it now!
