Microsoft Announces Billion-Dollar Takeover of Activision

Gaming hits now owned by Microsoft

Earlier this year we reported on the delay in the acquisition of 888 Holdings from William Hill. Today's article, however, is about a takeover of a completely different caliber, because as Microsoft announced on Tuesday, the US game developer Activision Blizzard is being taken over by the tech giant. The takeover sum is said to amount to a whopping USD 68.7 billion (EUR 60.5 billion). This makes it one of the most expensive company takeovers in history. This is an incredibly strong deal for the manufacturer of the Xbox video console series. The game developer generates annual revenues of over USD 6 billion, but the tech giant is hardly aiming for this.

Rights for gaming purchasers

The US game developer's annual sales are immensely high, but this is only considered secondary to Microsoft. Rather, it is assumed that the tech giant is interested in pushing its own products with games from Activision, while at the same time trying to outdo major competition. When it comes to gaming consoles, Playstation has always been ahead, but the purchase of Activision Blizzard could bring about a big change.

With Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, Microsoft will have the rights to two of the most popular games in the world in the future. This also gives the company access to the know-how of the development studio, which developed well-known games such as Starcraft, Overwatch and Candy Crush. Microsoft was therefore able to score a major coup in the gaming category and significantly increase its in-house offering with attractive game hits. At the same time, there is also the possibility of significantly weakening the competition from Japan due to the withdrawal of rights.

Call of Duty soon to be an Xbox exclusive?

Many Playstation 4 and 5 owners are certainly starting to worry that they won't be able to access titles like Call of Duty and Diablo 4 on their console in the future. However, the head of Microsoft Gaming, Phil Spencer, has already commented on the fears of Playstation owners and has given the all-clear for now. The takeover of the development studio is by no means about luring players away from the Playstation platform. Rather, in the future, these games will continue to be available for Sony consoles, while Xbox-exclusive content and bonuses will appear. In addition, the main focus will be on its own product, Xbox Games Pass, while cloud gaming will be further promoted.

Insiders and experts even rule out that hits like Call of Duty, Diablo 4, Overwatch and Co. Will soon be Xbox exclusives because they generate too much sales on the Sony platform. If Sony were no longer given the rights to such games in the future, there would be a massive drop in sales on both sides, while a large number of players and fans would be very upset. As a result, the games will continue to be available on Playstation in the future. The prerequisite for this, however, is that the two tech companies do not come into massive conflict. This year, CoD fans have 100% nothing to worry about, as the full takeover of Activision Blizzard is not scheduled until the upcoming 2023 financial year.

Microsoft announces billion-dollar takeover of Activision Blizzard