The landscape of gaming has once again changed thanks to Xbox as Activation/Blizzard is set to join the green side! In a huge announcement made today, Microsoft has acquired Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars.
This groundbreaking deal results in Xbox gaining exclusive rights to record-setting legendary all-time favorite franchises such as Call Of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Overwatch, Warcraft, Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Spyro The Dragon, and more.
The fun doesn’t stop here as numbers add up to Xbox’s already owned studios as the latest acquisition now adds talented and household names like Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer, Toys for Bob, and other names as well like Demonware, Highmoon studios, Raven and Beenox. Safe to say Xbox Game Studios just got even bigger.
More scoop on the whole Xbox/Activision story is that the controversial CEO Bob Kotick will remain to be the man in charge until the deal goes through and is completed by June 2023. Continuing forward, Bob will no longer be the CEO of Activision.
More in today’s crazy day Xbox has revealed new numbers, as of now Game Pass is at a whopping 25 million subscribers thanks to the amazing ecosystem design and a huge catalog of games that include full selections from Iconic brands “Bethesda” and “EA” with now Activision under the green umbrella expect to see a ton of games being added to the already stacked selection.
Will the titles in works and future entries of established franchises be exclusive to Xbox? We don’t have any confirmations on that but what we do know are two things:
1. Phill Spencers quote when asked about Bethesda games being exclusive to Xbox “Bethesda games will ship where Game Pass exists”
2. Activision titan titles such as the new COD Modern Warfare II, Overwatch 2, and others will be available Day One the Xbox Game Pass.
At its core this acquisition is expected to send waves across Xbox’s competition, Call Of Duty alone is Playstation’s most selling franchise. If in the future COD games fall on the exclusive side the competition will lose a drastic amount of sales and players. How all of this unfolds will be seen soon.
However there are stakes, this deal is expected to reach completion somewhere in June 2023, and if for some reason the deal gets blocked or doesn’t get through Microsoft will have to pay Activision $3 Billion dollars.
For more on this and all things gaming, be sure to check in at Gameshedge. For additional details, you can also check out the official announcement by Microsoft.
