Xbox just bought what now?
Xbox just bought what now?
Xbox's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the greatest video game acquisition of all time and will change the industry as we know it.
Microsoft bought Bethesda, last year, for $7.5 billion in what many called the most groundbreaking video game acquisitions of all time. And it really was an earth-shattering, industry-changing acquisition.
But today, Microsoft decided to cash in some of that Windows and Office 365 money, and purchase Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion — 34.97% more than Activision Blizzard’s $50.9 billion market cap at the time of purchase — a deal that will go into effect sometime in 2023.
Side note, I know I usually put things out on Monday, but with yesterday being MLK day, I honestly forgot yesterday was Monday until like 4 p.m. so I just decided to go with today, and boy, I am glad I did.
This Microsoft acquisition makes the Bethesda acquisition look like any other small thing. Activision Blizzard has been a powerhouse in video games since their inception, and has a stable of studios that put out some of the biggest earning video games in the industry.
Just to name a few, Microsoft now owns the three Call of Duty studios, Raven, Treyarch and Infinity Ward; Blizzard, who makes little known games like Overwatch, Diablo, and World of Warcraft; and King, who makes absolutely huge mobile games like Candy Crush.
These are huge well-known franchises that will help bolster Microsoft’s already incredibly strong selection of games across their consoles and PC. Xbox Game Pass may now truly be living up to being the Netflix of video games with all of these offerings.
It is an extremely exciting announcement that will surely pay off for Microsoft in the future.
Although this is an astounding acquisition, to say the least, it does still come with many drawbacks.
Activision Blizzard in 2021 was in the news for all the wrong reasons. They had allowed a workplace culture to grow and fester that was full of misogynistic and predatory practices against employees.
Throughout 2021, there were nearly 700 filings for workplace misconduct at the company and 39 firings in response to internal investigations. All the while, their CEO Bobby Kotick being supported by their board of directors, and receiving no punishment besides a paltry pay cut to his bloated salary.
These issues within Activision Blizzard are now Miocrosoft’s responsibility to clean up and ensure that the studios that are part of Activision Blizzard are a safe and supportive place to work for anyone.
Besides a large hill to climb in turning around Activision Blizzard’s workplace culture, there is also a tinge of hypocrisy in this acquisition, albeit one that many game companies fall into.
Xbox bills itself as a consumer-friendly company that does what is best for gamers all across the industry. Unfortunately, if they make games like Overwatch and Call of Duty, which have always been available on everything, exclusive then it isn’t hard to point out the flaw in their consumer-friendly image.
This is not to say that Microsoft is the only company stuck in this unfortunate PR cycle of trying to stay consumer-friendly while doing what is best for business.
Personally, I also think that making these games exclusive to one platform is missing out on a huge chunk of money that could be brought in by keeping it an all-console release. Hopefully, Sony putting out MLB The Show 21 on Xbox may keep some doors open for large game titles to be released on other platforms.
Like I said in the beginning, this is huge news for the games industry that will change how it works from top to bottom for the foreseeable future. Who knows? Maybe even Sony will have a massive acquisition of its own to respond in kind.
For me, I have access to both platforms and love video games as a whole so this is just super exciting to me. I hope Xbox can steer Activision Blizzard to a better place to work, and also keep making the quality of content they are known for producing.