Activision Blizzard King joins Microsoft: the contours of this historic acquisition (and what it changes for you)

This time it’s it, Activision Blizzard King finally joins the Xbox family! And suffice to say that this historic acquisition will change a lot of things in the video game landscape, as well as for consumers.

We were talking to you about it this morning: the British CMA, the last obstacle to Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard King, has finally given the green light to the operation. As luck would have it, it was today that the Redmond firm wanted to announce the news. It is now done, and it is therefore appropriate for the group and the players to now turn their eyes to the future.

Two years and a marriage later

At Microsoft as at Activision Blizzard King, we must breathe a deep sigh of relief. 20 months after announcing the takeover with great fanfare, it finally materialized, not without difficulty, and even far from it. The affair has indeed been the scene of numerous twists and turns vis-à-vis numerous competition authorities. But that’s all a thing of the past now, as Phil Spencer and this video explain.

Not without a certain pride, the boss of Microsoft has in fact sent a message to the whole world in a blog article to announce that, that’s it, the Xbox family is growing significantly by collecting Activision Blizzard King. “ We love video games. We play it, we create it, and are the first to know how important the game is to everyone and collectively, as a community. And today we officially welcome Activision Blizzard and their teams to the Xbox family “, he declares.

“ Together, we will learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people. We will do this in a culture that aspires to encourage everyone to give their best to make the game accessible to all. […]. We’ll create new worlds and stories, bringing your favorite games to more platforms so all players can participate, including mobile, cloud, and more […]. To the millions of fans who love Activision, Blizzard and King games, we want to tell you that today is a great day to play […] », he adds.

A giant leap for Xbox, Game Pass… and the video game industry?

Concretely, what does this mean for the video game industry as a whole, and for gamers in particular? The most obvious first: the next Activision Blizzard King productions will land on the day of their release on Game Pass. In the very immediate future, this should concern a certain Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, expected on November 10th. It could also be that Xbox will take advantage of the opportunity to increase the price of its flagship service, given a catalog which will significantly expand with very big titles in the future.

Does this mean that Activision Blizzard King games will become Xbox One/Xbox Series X|S and PC exclusives? This response will be considered on a case-by-case basis. This will, in any case, not be the case when it comes to Activision’s blockbuster franchise that is Call of Duty…at least for the next 10 years. For others, an exclusive status will be determined by mutual agreement between Xbox and the studio concerned.

As for cloud gaming, however, this will be a loss of earnings for Microsoft. The rights to this land regarding Activision Blizzard King games have been transferred to Ubisoft in perpetuity on games released in the next 15 years. The French giant, via its Ubisoft+ service, thus has exclusive global rights in this area, excluding non-exclusive rights in the European economic area.

Finally, regarding the very lucrative mobile games market, Xbox will be able to benefit from King’s expertise in the field, as well as Activision Blizzard’s growing interest in this area. Remember that Microsoft’s gaming branch has so far barely touched on this media. The addition of Activision Blizzard King to its fold will therefore allow it to make a significant breakthrough in this particularly fertile territory, and especially in Asia.

All this undoubtedly represents a giant step forward for Microsoft, and it is a historic page worth 69 billion dollars that is turning for the video game industry. For good or for bad ? Time will tell. Be aware in any case that Bobby Kotick, the infamous boss of the group, will leave his position on 1^e January 2024 (finally?).

In any case, we are not likely to see an operation of this scale anytime soon, the closest possibly being the takeover of Electronic Arts by Disney… for better or for worse?

Source : Xbox Wire