Microsoft’s Effort to Acquire Activision Blizzard

Microsoft’s Effort to Acquire Activision Blizzard

It has been a busy and eventful year in the gaming industry. Microsoft has plans to acquire Call of Duty’s publishing company, Activision Blizzard, also known for making Candy Crush, Overwatch, and Warcraft.

In January 2022, Microsoft announced that it would be acquiring Activision Blizzard for a total of $68.7 billion, or approximately $95 per share. This news led to Activision Blizzard’s stock price skyrocketing by 40% that day.

If the deal goes through, it would allow Microsoft to have complete control over game placement, even if that means stripping the game away from rival Sony PlaySation. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has already begun an investigation and has made predictions on what could be the effects of the acquisition, including reducing competition between console makers.

In an effort to reduce the likelihood of antitrust proceedings, Microsoft executed a 10-year deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to the Nintendo Switch.

On December 6th, 2022, Brad Smith, Vice Chairman of Microsoft, tweeted, “Our acquisition will bring Call of Duty to more gamers and more platforms than ever before. That's good for competition and good for consumers. Thank you @Nintendo. Any day @Sony wants to sit down and talk, we'll be happy to hammer out a 10-year deal for PlayStation as well.” 

Despite this announcement, The Federal Trade Commission announced on December 8th that they were suing Microsoft in an effort to block the deal from going through. The FTC reminded the courts of Microsoft's history of "acquiring and exploiting valuable gaming content to suppress competition from rival consoles." 

In the past, Microsoft deals have led to games becoming exclusive to Microsoft alone. If Microsoft does acquire Activision Blizzard, it would instantly make the company the third-largest gaming corporation in the world after Sony and Tencent. The deal could give Microsoft a large jump ahead of Sony.

Will Microsoft pull another fast one and take the Call of Duty franchise away from its competitors? The FTC mentioned when Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion and how franchises like The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Wolfenstein, and more became exclusive to Microsoft. If Call of Duty becomes exclusive to Microsoft, it won’t be long before fans of the game turn to Xbox consoles to continue to experience their favorite games. 

There may be some fear coming from competitors in this space. In order to calm down the uproar, Microsoft provided the benefits of Xbox and Activision Blizzard coming together. They state that more games will be available on more devices, including the PlayStation, PC, and mobile devices. To win over game creators, they said this collaboration will allow games to get in front of more players because of support, investment, and better access.

It will be interesting to see how these lawsuits unravel this upcoming year. Although the gaming community is large, the list of high-value games is short. Call of Duty is one of the most popular games of all time. The main question gamers and developers have is: if obtained by Microsoft, will Call of Duty still be available on competing consoles?



The cookie settings on this website are set to 'allow all cookies' to give you the very best experience. Please click Accept Cookies to continue to use the site.
You have successfully subscribed!
This email has been registered