Microsoft announced that it has acquired Activision Blizzard, the studio behind brands like Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, etc.
This news was announced today between rumor that such an acquisition has occurred. It looks like Xbox head Phil Spencer, who wrote blog post published the report, was looking to pick up on said rumors, and now it’s official: Xbox is the new home of Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and all of the other Activision Blizzard franchises. The acquisition price has not been disclosed, but some reports, such as this one from The Verge, said the deal is valued at around $70 billion.
“As a team, we have a mission to extend the fun and community of gaming to everyone on the planet,” Spencer’s Xbox Wire blog post reads. “We all know that gaming is the most vibrant and dynamic form of entertainment worldwide, and we have experienced the power of social connection and friendship that games have to offer. When we were In pursuit of that mission, it is extremely exciting to announce that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard.”
Here are some of the teams this acquisition places in the Xbox family: 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 and Treyarch. Spencer said that Activision Blizzard and Microsoft Gaming will continue to operate independently until the transaction closes (transaction closing date has not been announced).
Activision Blizzard will report to Spencer as CEO of Microsoft Gaming upon the close of this acquisition. Below is information about the Microsoft Game Leadership team (see below). There is no official word on the status of leadership at Activision Blizzard and whether it will be shaken or changed following this acquisition.
“As it closes, we’ll be offering as many Activision Blizzard games as we can in Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog,” Spencer posted. continue. “We’re also announcing today that Game Pass now has over 25 million subscribers. As always, we look forward to continuing to add more value and more great games to Game Pass.”
Spencer said the acquisition will accelerate Microsoft and Xbox’s plans for Cloud Gaming, and the companies plan to support cloud streaming for Activision Blizzard games in the future.
The Microsoft Gaming CEO also touched lightly (without speaking directly to it) about some of the controversy surrounding Activision Blizzard among the reports of harassment, failure in leadership and management, etc. can read about here.
“As a company, Microsoft is committed to our journey to inclusion in every aspect of gaming, for both employees and players. We deeply value each individual’s studio culture. We also believe that creative success and autonomy go hand in hand with treating everyone with dignity and respect. We ask all groups and all leaders to follow our commitment. We look forward to extending our proactive culture of inclusion to great teams across Activision Blizzard.
“Around the world, there’s no better place to play and connect than a video game. And there’s never been a better time to play. As we expand the fun and gaming community, there’s never been a better time to play. To everyone, we look forward to welcoming all of our friends at Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming.”
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