Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard: What this means for Xbox and gamers in general

Header Jan18 1 1333x Source: Microsoft Blog

Microsoft announced plans to choice upward ZeniMax and Bethesda in belatedly 2022, in a deal worth $7.5 billion. At present, Microsoft has revealed another major gaming acquisition, worth about ten times more than. For almost $70 billion dollars, Microsoft is acquiring Activision Blizzard, onboarding franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Processed Vanquish Saga, Diablo, and many, many more than.

The deal is a blockbuster moment in the gaming industry, as companies like Netflix, Disney, PlayStation, Tencent, and many more compete for our gratis fourth dimension with subscription services. Microsoft'south big subscription service is, of form, Xbox Game Laissez passer, and this bargain is no dubiety inspired to bolster the content therein.

With the grit settling, there are dozens upon dozens of questions most what this actually means. Here's my take on what Xbox fans tin await, and what fans of games like Call of Duty, Overwatch, and then on, tin can expect from Microsoft too.

Why is Xbox doing this?

Xbox Game Pass Source: Matt Chocolate-brown | Windows Central

Microsoft is on a mission to reach all of the earth's ii billion gamers. If nothing else, this conquering shows that they are mortiferous serious nigh it. Activision is a company built almost entirely around monthly active user engagement, and much like many of Microsoft's chief competitors, such as Tencent, this deal is designed wholly effectually boosting the number of users engaged in its ecosystem.

Activision has declined in recent years (even before y'all mention the wide-reaching lawsuit into its workplace practices), with Call of Duty selling less, Globe of Warcraft struggling, and Overwatch 2 nowhere to be seen. Activision has a very poor reputation inside and exterior the industry. Their involvement in Blizzard has merely accentuated their decline in the public eye, and franchises like Phone call of Duty take unmistakably started to stagnate. Joining Microsoft, which generally enjoys a loftier workplace satisfaction rating, should breathe new life into a company that is struggling to reconcile Activision'south shareholder greed with the desire to brand high-quality games people really want to play.

Indeed, this is ultimately all about Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass potentially gives developers a flake more breathing room. Every bit a platform holder, the dynamic is a bit different for game production. I can run into a globe where Microsoft would permit a Call of Duty to exist delayed for polish reasons, whereas Activision wouldn't, to ensure it hits shareholder goals. As part of Microsoft, whose growth is driven largely past Azure cloud services to business, Xbox is somewhat shielded from the same kind of shareholder scrutiny. This should pb to better experiences for gamers since Microsoft's main goal is to keep Xbox Game Pass subscribers engaged and interested in the service, which recently crossed 25 meg paying customers.

Indeed, this is ultimately all about Xbox Game Pass. Being able to include games like Phone call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and fifty-fifty perks for those games on other platforms, will drive engagement and subscriptions in the service. I suspect we'll encounter monthly rewards for Call of Duty in Xbox Game Pass, much like we've seen with Halo Infinite. We may fifty-fifty run into them for mobile games like Hearthstone and Candy Crush, giving Microsoft ways to evangelize value to gamers who aren't traditionally interested in consoles or even PC gaming. This also gives Microsoft a much bigger footprint in mobile in general, which is something they've traditionally struggled to achieve.

Speaking of engagement, what does this mean for exclusivity?

Will Call of Duty, etc. become exclusive to Xbox?

Call Of Duty Vanguard Season One Isabella Operator Source: Activision

While we don't know for certain what Microsoft plans to do, it has hinted that it intends to go along some games exclusive, while others will remain multiplatform, during a call to investors earlier today. If I had to gauge, I could foresee single-player games like any potential Sekiro follow-upwardly going exclusive to Xbox, but games like Call of Duty and Overwatch, I feel, are far more probable to remain multiplatform.

Much like Minecraft, Call of Duty is a franchise that is far bigger than any single platform potentially. Removing it from PlayStation is a sure-burn down style to generate a mountain of ill will. Phone call of Duty is also driven by microtransactions, earning itself millions of dollars from the PlayStation platform on a consistent basis. The entire business organization model of Telephone call of Duty revolves around access, with games on mobile phones, PC, and every platform possible. It's for that reason I highly, highly incertitude nosotros'll see Call of Duty yanked from PlayStation on that basis. What I practice expect to see is Phone call of Duty and similar games go straight into Xbox Game Laissez passer at launch, giving Xbox consoles a value proposition that won't be on PlayStation. I also wait Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers to get special perks in Call of Duty, too, much similar the exclusivity deals we've seen hitting PlayStation in recent years.

Yet, I can come across franchises similar Diablo IV, which are cooperative, PvE-oriented, and less microtransaction driven, potentially go exclusive to Xbox.

Diablo 4 Rogue Campfire Source: Blizzard Entertainment

These are games that may benefit Xbox the near driving appointment with Xbox Game Pass and the panel ecosystem directly and don't necessarily depend on broad annualized appeal. I as well suspect games that currently aren't on console, like Earth of Warcraft, potentially striking Xbox as exclusives also, especially given the fact PlayStation has Final Fantasy 14 every bit an exclusive on its platform. While, naturally, these online games would benefit from larger cross-platform audiences, Microsoft may seek to put the Xbox stamp on some games that have no footprint on PlayStation. This will create an association and elevate the Xbox platform's status as a place for loftier-quality exclusive games.

Ultimately, in that location's no style to know for sure which games will go exclusive or not. For now, I think it's best to work on the assumption that Call of Duty and Warzone will remain multiplatform for definite, while some of the smaller games could go fully Xbox and Windows exclusive. Either way, all of these games volition definitely launch day one into Xbox Game Pass, which is currently exclusive to Xbox consoles, PC, the web, and Android.

Will regulators get mad?

Activision Source: Windows Primal

Even with the acquisition, Xbox will withal be third on the list for gaming revenue. Sony and Tencent are both far alee of Microsoft, even with the combined revenues from Activision, Blizzard, and King. It'south unlikely that regulators will step in to preclude Microsoft from being "third-placed," even if it seems similar on the surface that this gives them a large share of the publisher output. They yet don't have the largest gaming platform footprint by a longshot, especially when you factor in Apple's App Store and Google'southward Android Play Shop, which boast truly absurd gaming revenues, which utterly dominate growth rates in the gaming sector.

Journalists and commentators who live inside the console industry chimera may be raising eyebrows, just Microsoft should find it fairly easy to argue that they still remain a adequately smaller part of the overall gaming pie. Regulators would be unlikely to cease Microsoft from competing with Apple and Google at the platform level, and Sony and Tencent at the publisher level, considering all of them remain far larger even subsequently this acquisition. The fact Activision is a company arguably in refuse will also help the argument, delivering an exit for shareholders who are probably happy to become rid of Activision from their portfolio, given the lawsuits the visitor is faced with, and the declining footprint of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

In a world where Disney was allowed to larn basically everything this side of Warner Brothers, anti-trust arguments don't seem to hold any water — just anything tin can happen betwixt at present and 2023 when this deal is expected to close.

The deal isn't fully airtight yet

Source: Windows Central

Indeed, Microsoft and Activision expect the deal to finalize somewhere between June 2022 and July 2023, and many things can happen betwixt now and then. Deals of this magnitude will undoubtedly rattle some politicians in the U.Due south. and European union, especially among those who are seeking to reign in "big tech." Microsoft'due south avoidance of social media and other more subversive and controversial forms of entertainment could help it here, given how Microsoft positions Xbox as a very sanitized and safe platform, devoid of the typical political soapbox nosotros often run into beyond Facebook'south services, for example. But indeed, until the bargain is fully closed, nosotros won't know for sure.

What I'chiliad personally hoping above all else is that Microsoft tin can turn Activision around, non only for gamers, merely for the employees that work in that location.

What I'thou personally hoping above all else is that Microsoft can turn Activision around, non simply for gamers, simply for the employees that work there. Activision is notorious for treating its workers similar garbage, with large and seemingly arbitrary layoff rounds to pad quarterly figures, unequal pay, and of form, widespread allegations of sexist workplace culture. Microsoft is by no means entirely innocent in this surface area either, only it seems to be in a far meliorate place than Activision, and volition likely move further, faster, to repair the harm and heal the bug Activision has faced in recent years.

We tin besides only hope this volition lead to better games too. Activision has been notorious for aircraft half-broiled, low-quality titles in recent years. Call of Duty: Vanguard is one of the weakest entries in the serial to engagement, seeing sales declines non seen for Phone call of Duty in years. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has as well been and so ill-received past fans that it collection a mass player exodus to Final Fantasy 14 Realm Reborn, to the bespeak where Square Enix had to shut down sales of the game.

Hopefully, Microsoft can give Activision'due south developers breathing space to focus on quality over quarterly earnings, similar the Blizzard of onetime. At that place'southward a lot of speculation about how all of this may play out, and ultimately, we won't know how Microsoft's culture will bear upon Activision for years to come. For everybody involved, and gamers, I tin can only hope it all ends up beingness positive.

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