Microsoft Games - Will buy Activision Blizzard

Microsoft plans to aquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion:

Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming

Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more join Team Xbox

As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the most vibrant and dynamic form of entertainment worldwide and we've experienced the power of social connection and friendship that gaming makes possible.

As we pursue that mission, it is incredibly exciting to announce that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard.

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.

[…]

More information.

First!

@danutz_plusplus was first

Doh!

I look at those list of games and realize the only one I've even ever played are somewhat older games. I won't miss Blizzard in the slightest yet I'll be mourning Activision, because a few decades ago they were really something to behold.

A bit of a non-event, IMO. Just the ownership shuffle of megacorps with literally too much cash.

Bit of a shame all those tens of billions of dollars weren't invested in whole new studios and franchises.

Finally we can see Diablo games in Steam I hope.

… I suddenly have a bad feeling with this …


However, there might be greedy profiteers in that …

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
Finally we can see Diablo games in Steam I hope.

From your mouth to gods ears.

That's also the thing I'm most excited for. The possiblity of Blizzard games outside the battle.net client.

I also hope this might mean the great possiblity of Starcraft being picked up again for a sequel. Since Microsoft is already involved with Age of Empires, maybe they'll also push for a SC sequel. It would a fantastic shame to not do something proper with all the Blizzard IPs. A real shame. I hope MS knows what they have. I mean, it would be stupid to put down 70 billion and not maximize that investment.

Sounds strange to say it but when you compare the Activision and Blizzard of those last years and how Microsoft has managed the gaming companies they bought, it’s actually not a bad news.

I think this is good news.
But, as always, time will tell.

Arcanum 2 plz tnx.

Good news for me. If Diablo 3 comes to game pass, I will finally play it.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
… I suddenly have a bad feeling with this …

I have a good feeling instead.

Originally Posted by forgottenlor
Good news for me. If Diablo 3 comes to game pass, I will finally play it.

It's a pretty good action rpg. Excellent feeling in the combat, but in my opinion they regressed when it comes to character building and progression. Well worth a play through.

This really surprised me. Hopefully this can lead to both new and good games, as well as a better company culture at Activision Blizzard.

Originally Posted by SveNitoR
This really surprised me. Hopefully this can lead to both new and good games, as well as a better company culture at Activision Blizzard.

Not sure how much of a guarantee this is to be an improvement in culture at Acti-Blizz. If the rot is mostly with senior management, they need to be let go for this to improve. If management remains mostly the same it'll just be mostly the same thing, just under a new financial umbrella.

I was part of company purchase in one of my previous jobs, and while the culture wasn't bad, it remained pretty much the same as it was before the purchase. We were almost like a company within a company, until most of the people left and were replaced by new people. So if the rot is still there, it'll stay there. It has to be removed intentionally. But then it gets complicated to prove who's ok and who's not. My feeling is the company culture will be mostly the same, maybe with some effort put in at the start and then abandoned.

The video game industry has been around a while. It is part of the lifecycle of industry that mega corps start buying up the market share. This is either to gain assets or to eliminate the competition. The game industry is just aging into this part of the life cycle. It's normal.

Lue.

Originally Posted by danutz_plusplus
That's also the thing I'm most excited for. The possiblity of Blizzard games outside the battle.net client.

I also hope this might mean the great possiblity of Starcraft being picked up again for a sequel. Since Microsoft is already involved with Age of Empires, maybe they'll also push for a SC sequel. It would a fantastic shame to not do something proper with all the Blizzard IPs. A real shame. I hope MS knows what they have. I mean, it would be stupid to put down 70 billion and not maximize that investment.

A revival of Starcraft would be cool. I loved the first game but was somewhat disappointed with Starcraft 2.

Other than that though, I can't say I'm overly excited about the deal. I'm not a big fan of Diablo, I couldn't care less about WoW, and all the Call of Duty games that are worth playing are already on Steam.

Originally Posted by Thiraury
First!

Can you please stick to Youtube with this sort of thing? It's pointless spam. If you have something to contribute and you're the first one to do it, great. Otherwise, keep it to yourself.