Microsoft Takeover of Activision Blizzard: 10 Unanswered Questions


The takeover of Activision Blizzard King by Microsoft has had the effect of a real earthquake in the video game industry. Some repercussions still raise questions. Let’s do a check in.

Source: Microsoft

Source: Microsoft

An announcement that was not preceded by any leaks and to everyone’s surprise: Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard King for 68.7 billion dollars. With this takeover, Microsoft is still gaining weight in the video game industry and integrating a collection of more than 30 internal studios. Such an event necessarily generates many questions, the answers to which we will sometimes not obtain for several years. It should be noted that the conclusion of the takeover is not expected before a period from July 2022 until June 30, 2023.

Will the takeover really succeed?

Will Microsoft really be able to buy the Activision Blizzard group? The firm will have to overcome a number of obstacles. In particular, the various agencies monitoring the good state of competition in the market around the world. Since the election of Joe Biden to the White House, the American authorities have been more vigilant regarding the size of the major tech groups, including Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Google. Following Microsoft’s announcement, some elected officials quickly let it be known that the takeover will be closely watched.

However, there are several reasons to suggest that this takeover should indeed succeed. Once Activision Blizzard is integrated, Microsoft would only be third in the market in terms of turnover behind Sony and Tencent. The firm will be able to argue that it is neither the leader in the world of consoles (Nintendo and Sony sell more), nor of video game services (the PS+ has more subscribers) and that this acquisition will still leave a lot of room for competetion.

Will Call of Duty become an Xbox exclusive?

Another question that is important, especially for players of call of duty on Playstation. It is undoubtedly the most powerful video game license with Fifa. Future episodes of call of duty will they be released on PlayStation? At Sony, we also asked ourselves the question, recalling that certain contracts in progress with Activision will have to be honored. After a few answers in the press releases, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, provided a clearer answer.

Had good calls this week with leaders at Sony. I confirmed our intent to honor all existing agreements upon acquisition of Activision Blizzard and our desire to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation. Sony is an important part of our industry, and we value our relationship.

—Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) January 20, 2022

In a tweet, he promises that “ our intention is to honor all existing agreements at the time of the Activision Blizzard acquisition and our desire is to leave Call of Duty on PlayStation”. It will be necessary to wait for the conclusion of the takeover so that Phil Spencer is really in charge of the company and can further clarify the strategy. However, it would seem that call of duty will remain, at least in part, a cross-platform license.

Will Bobby Kotick stay on as Activision boss?

The company Activision Blizzard King acquired by Microsoft is a company in turmoil. The press revealed during the year 2021 how the company was structurally crossed by problems of harassment and sexual assault, until the opening of an investigation against Blizzard by a Californian authority. A survey of wall street journal more specifically questioned the management of the group by Bobby Kotick, notably accused of having threatened one of his subordinates with death.

Therefore, one can wonder what is the future of Bobby Kotick within the company. Several tracks today suggest that the CEO of Activision Blizzard should remain in office until the conclusion of the contract, then be quickly thanked after the takeover of Microsoft.

Will Microsoft change the culture of Activision?

Beyond Bobby Kotick, will Microsoft change Activision’s internal culture? In the press release announcing the takeover, Phil Spencer promises an integration of the group into the Xbox culture ” proactive inclusiveness “. In an interview with the washington post, he recognizes the challenges that lie ahead for the integration of such a large group in the midst of such scandals. Until then, it should be remembered that Microsoft touched the culture of the acquired studios as little as possible to leave them as autonomous as possible. It’s an approach the firm won’t be able to take with Activision Blizzard.

Asked about the trade union movements (workers in the video game industry are very little unionized) at Activision Blizzard King, Phil Spencer, however, kicked into touch.

I’ll be honest, I don’t have much personal experience with unions. I’ve been at Microsoft for 33 years (Editor’s note: Microsoft has no employee union). So I’m not going to try to portray myself as an expert on this, but I would say we’ll have conversations about what enables them to do their best work, which, as you can imagine in a creative industry, is the most important thing for us.

Beyond the corporate culture, will Microsoft change the organization of the studios? Will Blizzard become the equal of Activision within the Microsoft Gaming group, or will the group be supervised by a single head like today?

How can Sony and Nintendo react?

With this takeover, Microsoft will become a video game giant at the head of more than thirty studios and in control of some of the biggest franchises.

The size of Microsoft Gaming after the Activision Blizzard King takeover

The size of Microsoft Gaming after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard King // Source: @_XboxNews

Faced with such a colossus, how can Sony and Nintendo react? First of all, it should be remembered that this takeover does not have much impact on Nintendo’s activity: Activision Blizzard published few games on the Nintendo Switch. For Sony, all eyes are on the launch of “Spartacus”, the code name of a new version of its PlayStation Plus subscription that would bring it closer to Xbox Game Pass.

The firm will have to find solutions, despite its size and its lower investment capacity than the giant Microsoft, so as not to lose interest among players. Following the announcement of the takeover, the action of the Japanese group lost 12% of its value, a drop in capitalization of 20 billion dollars all the same.

One could imagine major agreements, but all the same less expensive than the takeover of studios, in particular the signing of exclusives as were death loop Where Final Fantasy XVI.

Will Activision reconnect with creativity?

Over the past few years, Activision has refocused its licensing strategy call of duty to the point where all the internal studios found themselves forced to work on the franchise. With Microsoft at the helm, another bet could be made, that of diversity. call of duty could leave its annual cycle and studios like Toys for Bob could again work on licenses like Crash Bandicoot Where Spyro The Dragon.

Crash Bandicoot 4

Crash Bandicoot 4 // Source: Activision

Also in an interview with the washington postPhil Spencer mentioned several licenses abandoned by Activision: Guitar Hero, Starcraft, Hexen or even King’s Quest.

Is Blizzcon going to disappear?

Blizzard fans used to gather every year for a very important event in California: Blizzcon. To talk about the future of World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo or Overwatch, Blizzard has made this event the nerve center of its communication and a moment of reunion with its biggest fans. With the pandemic, like many events, Blizzcon has been roughed up, sometimes canceled, sometimes switched to an online event.

Does the event have a future at Microsoft? Impossible to give a definitive answer at this time. We can still indicate that Microsoft has kept Quakecon as an event in 2021, after the acquisition of Bethesda. In addition, an important element of the takeover of Microsoft is the acquisition of the 400 million active users of the group’s titles. This new audience, which also covers players of candy Crush (King) and Activision games, Microsoft will no doubt want to pamper it through dedicated communication. For Blizzard players, Blizzcon seems to be an ideal vehicle.

What will become of Battle.net? Will the games be coming to Steam?

Of the 400 million active users Microsoft gets its hands on, there are plenty of PC gamers. These now go through the Battle.net launcher to access Blizzard and Activision games. It made sense for Activision’s strategy, but maybe not for Microsoft. Therefore, what future can we imagine for Battle.net. First, we can indicate that the Bethesda.net launcher is still active despite the acquisition of Bethesda by Microsoft.

In the long term, however, we can imagine Microsoft wanting to fully integrate the Battle.net network into PC Game Pass and the Xbox application. It is hoped that Microsoft can recover the excellent game distribution technology that makes it possible to download Blizzard games very quickly, to replace the Microsoft Store which does not work as well.

The games could also land on Steam. Indeed, Microsoft has chosen for several years to offer all its titles on Steam, which brings it a significant additional source of income. Next to a Halo Infinite or a Forza Horizon 5one can easily imagine Microsoft will choose to publish Diablo 4 and call of duty on the Valve store.

Who will be the next to be redeemed?

If the takeover of Bethesda had already had the effect of a small earthquake, that of Activision Blizzard is reshuffling the cards. When a firm is willing to spend nearly $70 billion on a takeover, anything becomes possible. It’s simple, most video game publishers have a stock market value well below this amount.

Therefore, many analysts have wondered: who will be the next to be redeemed? Because the video game industry has been in full concentration for several years. In this month of January alone, we are talking about 80 billion dollars invested to buy companies by integrating the announcement of Take Two for Zynga.

If you are wondering about other big game companies that could be acquired, here’s who remains (market caps):

-EA: $38B
-Take Two: $18B
-Nexon: $15B
-Bandai Namco: $15B
– Embrace: $10.8B
-Netmarble $7B
-Ubisoft: $7B
-Konami: $6B
-Square Enix: $5.6B
-Capcom: $4.9B
-Sega: $3.6B

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) January 19, 2022

This is a question that does not really call for an answer, but rather a question: who will be the next publisher to be chewed up. Will this movement by Microsoft provoke a reaction from another giant like Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google or even Disney and Netflix? Ownership of the most popular licenses has become the sinews of war. Therefore, can we imagine Take Two (GTA, NBA), Square Enix (Final Fantasy, DragonQuest) or Konami (silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid, Castlevania) remain independent firms. Can we even imagine Sony or Nintendo being bought out?


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