Another big acquisition is lined up for the already massive company as Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard, the companies announced this morning.
After investigations of sexual misconduct at the headquarters in El Segundo, California, Bobby Kotick will remain CEO, but once the deal is finalized – Activision Blizzard will report to Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
The $68.7 billion deal also details Activision Blizzard games going to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass “both new titles and games from their catalogue”.
Here’s the full press release from the Xbox website:
With three billion people actively playing games today and fueled by a new generation steeped in the joys of interactive entertainment, gaming is now the largest and fastest-growing form of entertainment. Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a leader in game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.
When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony. The planned acquisition includes iconic franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios like “Warcraft,” “Diablo,” “Overwatch,” “Call of Duty” and “Candy Crush,” in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. The company has studios around the word with nearly 10,000 employees.
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”
This move is a very interesting one as it comes from overnight with no prior hints. As the story moves we’ll be here to report it.
