Microsoft has announced its plans to acquire the entirety of Activision Blizzard, which includes video game publishers Activision, Blizzard and King in a deal estimated to be valued at $68.7 billion USD.
Studios including 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, Treyarch will all be part of Microsoft with this deal.
Should the deal goes through, this will see Microsoft becoming the third biggest video games company by revenue behind Tencent and Sony.
It also means big franchises under the Activision Blizzard banner including the Call of Duty series, World Of Warcraft, Overwatch, Spyro The Dragon, Crash Bandicoot, the Tony Hawk games, and Candy Crush, plus the esports brand Major League Gaming, to be under Microsoft’s ownership.
The two companies will operate separately, with controversial CEO Bobby Kotick remaining as CEO, for now.
However, once the deal closes, Activision Blizzard will report directly under Phil Spencer, previously head of Xbox and now under the title of CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
“As a company, Microsoft is committed to our journey for inclusion in every aspect of gaming, among both employees and players,” said Spencer in his post on Xbox Wire.
“We deeply value individual studio cultures. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand-in-hand with treating every person with dignity and respect. We hold all teams, and all leaders, to this commitment. We’re looking forward to extending our culture of proactive inclusion to the great teams across Activision Blizzard.“
Microsoft cites its plans on growing Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass to include games from Activision Blizzard.
It’s a ridiculously big acquisition deal, that’s almost 10 times more money which Microsoft acquired Zenimax (Bethesda).
Though more importantly, we will have to see if the acquisition, should it goes through, will improve the working conditions over at Activision Blizzard. Currently, the company is mired by sexual harassment allegations and other mistreatment of its workers, enough for the state of California to go sue them. Spencer’s remarks on the studio cultures seems to be in the right direction, but hopefully it’s more than just words.