The announcement of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, which arrived only a few hours before its official announcement, must certainly have been a surprise for the very large majority of the group’s employees and the impact of this event has not yet been fully measured. If you’ve been waiting for Diablo 4 and have any concerns about it, you’ve come to the right place. We will do our best to analyze and explain the situation. It should be noted, however, that these are only forecasts, and it is never possible to predict the final turn of events with certainty. For example, who could have anticipated the Covid epidemic before it started and its impact on the development of many games? Microsoft’s precise strategy has yet to be determined.
Editing : Some points of the article have been updated with the latest information.
Update on the situation of Diablo 4 before the takeover
Officially announced at the end of 2019, Diablo 4 had already been in development for a few years before. According to the latest information, it should not be released in 2022 for several reasons, first of all, the loss of its two figureheads, game director Luis Barriga and game designer Jesse McCree. The latter being directly involved in the scandal concerning the various forms of harassment within the studio. Combined with the scandals that have been traced back to Bobby Kotick, and the questionable practices of the group vis-à-vis its employees, it seems that the Diablo IV team has a lot of trouble recruiting competent developers. You can take a look at our 2021 fails file for more details. In any case, it’s a particularly painful combo for a game whose development was inherently difficult, between the creation of a real open world and the attempt to reconcile the players of Diablo 2 and Diablo 3, who often have different expectations. .
We don’t know if the game will live up to its promises or not, but it’s clear that Activision Blizzard’s current reputation would have a negative impact on sales, although there’s some debate over the true extent of the boycott from gamers. players.
What Microsoft’s takeover of Activision Blizzard may (or may not) change
The first important point to note is that the takeover will probably not materialize before the course of 2023, before June according to Microsoft’s current forecast. It is possible that the deal will not be made if the body in charge of the fight against monopolies in the United States decides that it violates antitrust laws. We can assume that Microsoft consulted experts, even the organization in charge beforehand, since it would still cost them 3 billion dollars in penalties if the operation does not succeed, but you never know.
Bobby Kotick, who is also directly involved at the highest level in the scandal, will remain the CEO of Activision Blizzard until the takeover at least a year and more.. The board is behind him, so he’s not ready to move. In addition, his own future was certainly a point discussed during the negotiations. Phil Spencer, the CEO of Microsoft Gaming will be at the head of the group, and Bobby Kotick should leave on his own after the takeover, with a comfortable golden parachute of 350 million dollars all the same, which has something to cringe. teeth of his detractors. His departure is a key point to offer a strong message to employees as well as consumers in any case, since this will mark the end of an era, and questionable practices that go with it at least on paper, since Kotick is the scapegoat, and getting rid of it would be a good way to get a good publicity stunt.
Officially, according to the words of Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s philosophy behind these multiple takeovers is to help the acquired studios to be more successful in what they do, and therefore to be more profitable while preserving their identity, and not to ask them to develop something else for the parent company. Ironically, Activision is notoriously known for doing the exact opposite, with all of its studios moving on from developing Call of Duty, or Vicarious Visions being forcibly incorporated into Blizzard. Assuming Diablo 4 doesn’t come out before the takeover closes in 2023, it may receive technical and human support from Microsoft., which would obviously not be a luxury with its personnel problems.
One of the points on which there is little doubt is the addition of Diablo IV to the famous Gamepass upon its release, or after the redemption. This only benefits everyone except the competition.
During BlizzCon 2019, Diablo 4 was announced on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, its release on new consoles is implied. There is a possibility that Diablo 4 may not be released on Playstation consoles, but it is not something that can be confirmed or disproven at this time.. It highly depends on the agreements and contracts made with Sony, as well as the progress of the game and its PS4 and PS5 versions. This will remain a big question mark until the studio communicates on it, for example by announcing a release date with a list of platforms. Microsoft has indicated that some games will be released on all platforms, others will be exclusive to their platforms. It remains to be seen which category Diablo 4 will fall into.
In summary
The Activision Blizzard takeover could be a good thing for Diablo 4, especially if the project is in as bad a shape as it looks. The reasons being that it would put the scandal in the background, while providing the means that the team in charge of the game needs to complete development. Gamepass integration can only be a good thing, at least in terms of popularity. The main concern to have is the availability of Diablo 4 on Playstation consoles, which will certainly depend on its release date.. That’s a lot of unknowns, and ultimately few answers to offer you. It will therefore be necessary to monitor the evolution of the situation in the months (and years?) to come.