It’s official: Microsoft has bought Activision Blizzard for an incredible $69 billion. It’s the biggest buyout in video game history, and in one fell swoop expands Xbox’s first-party offering to encompass everything from Call of Duty to World of Warcraft.
Thoughts immediately turn to Game Pass and how its library of games may expand. Xbox boss Phil Spencer has already said work has begun on bringing Activision Blizzard games to Game Pass, although he suggested it may take some time for them to show up. Activision Blizzard itself has indicated this year’s Diablo 4 and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 won’t hit Microsoft’s subscription service until 2024.
“Microsoft has clearly missed the 2023 holiday marketing window given how long this approval process has taken,” Gareth Sutcliffe, senior games analyst at Enders Analysis, told IGN. “It’s going to be well into 2024 before we start to see the first signs of joint marketing and other combined initiatives with Activision franchises.”
Whether it’s this year or next, it’s clear a long list of Activision Blizzard games will soon head to Game Pass, which overnight becomes an even better deal for subscribers. Will Microsoft chuck the entire Call of Duty back catalogue into Game Pass? Why not? What about Blizzard’s games? It would make a lot of sense. Xbox owners and Game Pass subscribers are already rubbing their hands with glee at the thought of what’s to come. But it’s worth remembering what this eye-watering transaction is all about: making Xbox competitive again.
It’s no secret that Xbox has struggled ever since the launch of the Xbox One back in 2013. While the Xbox Series X and S have fared better than their ill-fated predecessor, Sony with the PlayStation 4 and now the PlayStation 5 have trounced their bitter rival. And while Game Pass offers a great deal for gamers, Microsoft has admitted subscription growth has slowed. Microsoft has lost the console war. In fact, it lost it a long time ago.
Now? Microsoft surely expects payback for its $69 billion investment, and while Call of Duty will remain on PlayStation, Spencer and co will surely seek to use their new toys to their advantage. Where it once seemed impossible, Microsoft’s comeback in the console war now seems probable. And with a current-gen console refresh supposedly set for 2024, and a next-gen Xbox apparently set for 2028, the gloves are well and truly off.
“Now the acquisition will close, the focus will turn to the real commercial implications of this deal on the broader market,” Piers Harding-Rolls, research director of games at Ampere Analysis, told IGN. “Clearly this strengthens Microsoft’s gaming position, opens up the potential of Game Pass and, based on Ampere’s active users data, means it will challenge EA as the most popular publisher across PlayStation and Xbox combined.”
A cursory glance online shows many Activision Blizzard workers are happy with their new corporate overlord. Controversial CEO Bobby Kotick has announced he is sticking around only until the end of the year, ending a 30-year tenure at the top of Activision. In recent years Activision Blizzard employees have issued a number of complaints about sexism, a toxic work culture, and even walked out over reports Bobby Kotick failed to make the company’s board aware of allegations of rape and other serious misconduct. California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued Activision Blizzard in July 2021, alleging a retaliatory “frat boy” culture. Activision Blizzard has denied the accusations.
But Microsoft’s acquisition has even wider implications for Activision Blizzard staff than watching Bobby Kotick walk out the door with a huge pay packet. Microsoft is set to remain neutral when Activision Blizzard employees express interest in joining a union, providing a clear path to collective bargaining for almost 10,000 workers, according to Communications Workers of America. Activision Blizzard has been accused of fighting union efforts at every turn.
Sutcliffe told IGN Microsoft will need to define an immediate succession plan “given that a toxic culture and leadership was one of the prime reasons why Activision’s stock price was so depressed when Microsoft launched its bid”.
“The replacement of senior leadership starting with CEO Bobby Kotick and Blizzard President Mike Ybarra is inevitable and long overdue,” Sutcliffe said. “It’s difficult to envisage much of the rest of the senior leadership at Activision remaining long term given their compensation was grossly out of proportion to Activision results, and which Microsoft would be wise to recalibrate quickly.”
In order to appease regulators, Microsoft had to sell off its cloud gaming rights to Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority had expressed concern that Microsoft would gain too strong a foothold in this nascent market if it had bought Activision Blizzard. Has Microsoft weakened its position in cloud gaming in exchange for Activision Blizzard?
Harding-Rolls said that’s unlikely. “While Microsoft has put a lot of focus on how streaming of games will allow it to reach a broader audience, the commercial reality of the cloud gaming market and the slow adoption of this distribution technology means the carving out of Activision’s game streaming rights is unlikely to damage the company,” he said.
There is another angle to this buyout, one that has flown under the radar even when the deal was subject to the most intense scrutiny from regulators. Microsoft doesn’t just now own Activision Blizzard, it also now owns King, maker of one of the biggest mobile games in the world: Candy Crush.
Xbox’s mobile efforts have failed to make an impression so far, with cloud gaming on smartphones a small slice of the overall gaming pie. All that changes now King is part of Xbox, and given Microsoft’s mobile game ambitions, the likes of Google and Apple may be looking over their shoulder.
That’s because Microsoft wants to build its own app store, taking on the App Store and Google Play and anyone else who might challenge its gaming ambitions. Microsoft knows PC and console gaming alone won’t secure Xbox the reach it needs to bring in even more billions of dollars. It needs mobile game money, and King ignites that strategy.
In the short term, however, little here will change, Harding-Rolls suggested. “The acquisition of King is a great foundation for Microsoft’s future mobile gaming business, which I think has more immediate relevance to Game Pass rather than a mobile app store strategy,” he said. “Sure, Microsoft would probably jump at the chance of competing more significantly with its own app store, but I would consider that a longer-term goal. Microsoft is using Game Pass as its spear to attract new audiences. Originally it was quite wedded to the idea of Game Pass and app store rolling out together across platforms, but that is no longer the case.”
Game Pass, Game Pass, Game Pass. Expect to hear that a lot over the coming months as Phil Spencer gleefully announces eye-catching additions to the subscription. Meanwhile, Xbox fans are having fun theorycrafting the revival of dormant franchises Activision Blizzard left behind a long time ago. Bobby Kotick has hinted at a Guitar Hero revival multiple times already. Xbox’s Sarah Bond dared to mention StarCraft at the Tokyo Game Show. But I’m rooting for Raven Software’s Hexen to make a comeback. Perhaps Phil Spencer agrees.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.