Microsoft acquires Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion

In a move that shocked the industry, Microsoft confirmed that it will be achieved Activision Blizzard in a deal with costs around $68.7 billion USD. The Call of Duty publisher is one of the largest and most successful AAA companies in the gaming industry. It owns many popular brands such as Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, StarCraft, and Candy Crush. All of these will become the property of Microsoft once the agreement is completed.

Microsoft said in its statement that the deal will help “accelerate the growth” of its business plans across PCs, mobile devices, and the cloud. Additionally, this acquisition will make Microsoft the third largest gaming company by revenue, behind only Tencent and Sony.

In one follow-up email shared by trusted Call of Duty Leaker CharlieIntel, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has verified that Microsoft won’t finalize the deal until sometime in its 2023 fiscal year. Until then, Activision will continue to operate as an independent company. Furthermore, Bobby Kotick is expected to remain CEO, though many accusations came to light during his tenure. However, he will have a new boss in the form of Phil Spencer as the CEO of Microsoft Gaming.

The deal could still go through if authorities raise concerns about a possible monopoly. After all, this acquisition comes after the equally massive move of acquiring Bethesda that Microsoft completed last year. Consecutive acquisitions of this size are unprecedented in the gaming industry, so it is difficult to predict what will happen.

The futuristic home of the Activision game

The question for many: what does this mean for Activision games? Will Microsoft make all Activision Blizzard titles PC and Xbox exclusives in the future? While we don’t know for sure, that seems unlikely given the language used in the announcement.

Microsoft emphasized that this acquisition will “bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, on any device.” However, similar concerns have been raised about the Bethesda acquisition and the end result of that being Xbox’s Chief Financial Officer. Tim Stuart says that the Bethesda game would be “first or better” on the Microsoft platform. What does this mean for Activision’s future, though?