The huge news is shaking the ground of the gaming industry with Microsoft’s official announcement. One of the biggest gaming companies, Activision Blizzard, is about to join Microsoft for $68.7 billion. The acquisition will be complete in the next year. Bobby Kotick will be staying as CEO of Activision Blizzard until the acquisition completes. Then, Phil Spencer will be the leader of the gaming giant.
Alongside the great people of Activision Blizzard, we will welcome legendary franchises such as:
@PlayOverwatch @Diablo @CallofDuty @Warcraft @CandyCrushSaga @Starcraft…and many more!
— Xbox (@Xbox) January 18, 2022
The company might see the sunshine again
Activision Blizzard was in trouble for a while with the various news of harassment for employees that have emerged. The company has been under investigation, and they are still facing many lawsuits about the problematic culture in the workplace. In the few years, many of the dying fans of the franchises, content creators, key people in the management, and many employees left the company. Those events also affected the development of the games with the constant action happening in the working environment and the management.
Several big companies also cease partnerships with Activision Blizzard games until some concrete steppes are taken on the management side. Ironically, Microsoft was one of them telling that « We might break ties with Activision Blizzard over horrific events and actions », just two months ago.
The huge acquisition has already become a new hope for retired fans and content creators. One of the most well-known Blizzard-games e-sports player/streamer, Grubby, who has abandoned Blizzard games because of its actions, said he will be returning to full-time Blizzard games streaming again.
Seems I’m a practically a full blizzard games streamer again!
Microsoft acquires Actiblizzard
New support possibility for HOTS and especially – new chance of a proper remake for wc3? Will love you long time
— Grubby (@followgrubby) January 18, 2022
This news also brought hope for the abandoned games of Blizzard, such as Heroes of the Storm and WarCraft 3 Reforged. The quality of the content of the new games and expansions are also expected to rise again with the new management.
Is Microsoft devouring the gaming industry?
On the other hand, the massive financial power of Microsoft/Xbox is a rising concern in the gaming industry. Nine months ago, the company had already gained Bethesda for $7.5 billion. Yet, they still managed to devour one of the biggest companies in the industry, Activision Blizzard, for almost $70 billion.
Microsoft might go on buying the huge gaming companies. But how will these acquisitions change the gaming industry? One thing is sure that for every industry, competition is good, and monopoly is just bad. Let’s hope that Microsoft does not become a monopoly…