Microsoft has made a huge announcement this afternoon as they have announced via their official site that they have acquired Activsion Blizzard. Microsoft will now own huge IP’s such as Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and many more. The deal value was reportedly a cool $70 billion. It is unclear whether the Nintendo Switch will be privy to new games from Activision Blizzard other than what has already been announced. Microsoft also acquired Bethesda Softworks last year for $7.5 billion.
“Over many decades, the studios and teams that make up Activision Blizzard have earned vast wellsprings of joy and respect from billions of people all over the world. We are incredibly excited to have the chance to work with the amazing, talented, dedicated people across 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 and every team across Activision Blizzard.
Until this transaction closes, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently. Once the deal is complete, the Activision Blizzard business will report to me as CEO, Microsoft Gaming.
Upon close, we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog. We also announced today that Game Pass now has more than 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass.”
We’re never going to see a new, GOOD Spyro game now, huh?
They were never good to begin with 🤷
I dunno about never or good but sadly I doubt we will see a new game at all anytime soon, same with Crash.
@DemiGOD: The original trilogy were (and still are imo) good to me.
So Microsoft is turning into the videogame equivalent of Disney, buying everything up (and ruining most of them, look at RareWare).
I don’t like this. At all.
Are they sure they want Blizzard right now though with everything that’s going on with them?
Ok, Rare was such a long time ago. Using them as a benchmark is very misleading. Honestly while Rare had a lot to lose in terms of quality, Activision needs a lot of help right now. Microsoft could actually clean up the company.
Alright let’s get Master Chief on a skateboard.
This monopolization is REALLY bad for any industry! And especially for consumers. Small companies do their best work when they’re independent.
While I agree with you, I hardly think Activision can be described as a “small company”
This will be a huge blow to Sony. Either way. I hope they sack that awful CEO
Sounds like he’s stepping down once the deal has gone through and been approved.
Aka once he’s made bank off the sale.
They will for sure. The CEO is gone.
The Man of Brisk hit the nail right on the head. Microsoft going the “if you can’t make money for us, you aren’t going to make money for anyone” approach. Spot on. I would give you a like, but not signing up for message board crap.
This is ironic, because Crash Bandicoot was originally developed by Sony, and now it’s being made by Activision. Looks like Microsoft has taken a character from both of their competitors in a way.
This is major news.
I wonder if they’ll try and make some games Xbox exclusive.
Hopefully not, but im sure bethesdas starfield is going to be Xbox exclusive now.
Microsoft and Nintendo have built a better relationship lately, Sony should be worried ( not right now, but what goes up, must come down ).
God im regretting ever buying the original xbox and 360. Microsoft is going to ruin the gaming industry with its DRM-locked systems and just buying up the competition as a means to win instead of using its own IPs, all the while Sony is just dicking around letting it happen, with no major hits on the horizon to strike back with besides maybe Final Fantasy.
I like Nintendo doing its own thing, but kinda hoping their next system comes out of nowhere and just blows both away with sales figures, while also being powerful enough to run most all AAA 3rd party releases.
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s REALLY going on here. The higher-ups in the company are selling it so they can get one last big payday before the Hong Kong crap & the people coming forward with se.x.ual allegations forces them all out, anyway. Not to give these assholes credit but… Bravo! Bra… claps ..fucking.. claps …vo! It’s essentially Toys’R’Us all over again. Just without the bankruptcy part.
Meh, as consumers, this really only affects CoD players. This is a HUGE blow to Sony though, and it’ll finally show if it’s first party games actually do move it’s consoles, or if it’s 3rd parties that help move them. Without CoD a HUGE part of it’s fanbase will move away, whether to PC or XBOX.
That being said, I really doubt any of this will take effect untill closer to next gen. When all of these games will be announced as XBOX exclusives and all the bandwagon fans go back to their original shooter box. As of now, I’m almost certain bigger games will stay multiplat. 🤷
I’m wondering if Sony is going to try and buy up some companies of its own like SEGA or Square Enix to build up its own exclusives. It’s pretty obnoxious on my end since I have to buy an Xbox eventually if I hope to play the next Elder Scrolls game. Really couldn’t care less about the Blizzard IP’s.
Speaking of Sega, it was bound to happen but, this news has surely added more fuel to the ‘rumor’ of Microsoft wanting to buy Sega, which I can only hope doesn’t happen. I rather they (and Sony too for that matter) leave Sega alone.
If they somehow buy SEGA I may have to switch to Xbox as my main console.
Far as franchies are concerned, Crash and Spyro are the only ones under the Activision-Blizzard wing that I personally cared about. I dunno how Microsoft feels about them but I doubt we get a new main Crash/Spyro game anytime soon…so I guess the situation hasn’t really changed that much. -_-‘
(On a kinda unrelated note, I wonder how this affects Crash’s SSB chances. Some would say negative but considering Nintendo and Microsoft being all “buddy-buddy”, for a lack of better wording, nowadays I can see this possibly being a good thing on Crash’s part.)
Anyhow, I get how all this is huge news (this will definitely be remembered as the first “major shock news” of gaming 2022) if nothing else.
Microsoft bought Rare nearly 20 years ago and ain’t did shit with them sense.
Where is Threeie? Where is Fourie? May as well buy some Nintendo Franchises. Nintendo isnt working with those unless its Mario or Zelda.
I been wait 7 years for Pikmin 4.
You do know Microsoft already tried to buy Nintendo once, right? They were literally laughed out of the office. If they couldn’t get the company in full, why would they be able to get even one franchise out of them?
‘sides, Microsoft is one of the last companies I want touching stuff like Mario, Zelda, or F-Zero, just behind EA.
I still believe the theory that Microsoft only bought Rareware because they thought they were going to get Donkey Kong out of it. In retrospect it was a pretty strange acquisition.
HI