It’s a record. Never before has such an amount been spent in the video game sector for a company buyout. Microsoft therefore purchased Activision Blizzard King for $68.7 billion, a tidy sum which will allow Xbox to benefit from some of the biggest licenses in video games. What are the impacts? What does this mean for Xbox Game Pass? And for the group’s employees? We answer all that!
Xbox will have to digest a large number of studios
After the acquisition of Bethesda, Microsoft took years before truly integrating the company, and there are still some wheels to oil today between the two entities, more than two years after the actual acquisition.
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It is already not easy to integrate a company which has its own codes and habits, and it will undoubtedly be a little more difficult with Activision Blizzard King, three companies in one, each with its strong identities.
As with Bethesda, Activision Blizzard King should evolve rather autonomously within the Xbox ecosystem. In the short term, this will obviously not change anything for the different studios and their teams; Microsoft will not want to disrupt the projects in development.
Greater creative freedom for Activision Blizzard Studios
In the medium term, Microsoft will be responsible for projects that come out of the studios, and will be able to validate or invalidate games. We know Microsoft for its ability to leave its teams rather free and responsible for what they produce, this could give rise to greater creative freedom at Activision Blizzard King.
We also know that Phil Spencer, boss of Xbox, shared his wish to see the revival of historic licenses from Activision Blizzard. He spoke about it just after announcing the intention of the buyout.
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“I was looking at their list of franchises, and I said, let’s do it! King’s Quest, Guitar Hero, … I should know, but I also believe they have HeXen.
We hope we can work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have the resources to work on the franchises that I love from my childhood, and that the teams really want to do.
I look forward to having these conversations. I really think it’s about adding resources and increasing capacity.
In other words, there will be a breath of fresh air blowing from the historic Activision Blizzard King studios. With more resources and synergies to be put in place with Xbox and Bethesda studios, there is no doubt that Activision studios will no longer really be like before.
When will Activision games come to Xbox Game Pass?
This is certainly one of the questions you’ve asked us the most in recent months: When will Activision games be available in Xbox Game Pass? The answer to this question is not simple since not all games will be available at the same time and all at once.
First, the Call of Duty issue is complex. PlayStation has a contract with Activision which runs until 2025 and the CMA itself said that Call of Duty would not arrive in Xbox Game Pass before 2025. But be careful, there is a good chance that this contract does not concern only the new episodes, and not necessarily the old ones. It is therefore very likely that some Call of Duty games will join Xbox Game Pass before a habit is created with a Day One release in the service.
As for the other Activision Blizzard King games, the publisher rather mentioned the year 2024, which was later confirmed by Phil Spencer, the boss of Xbox. No Activision Blizzard games will be available in Game Pass in 2023, and don’t count on any “surprises”, it won’t happen.
When the takeover of Bethesda by Microsoft was announced, it took barely three days for 20 games to land in Game Pass at once.
- September 21, 2020 : Microsoft announces its intention to buy Bethesda
- March 9, 2021 : the buyout is officially effective
- March 12, 2021 : 20 Bethesda games are coming to Xbox Game Pass
As usual, count on Xboxygen to keep you informed of new and future arrivals in the Microsoft service. You can check out the list of all upcoming Xbox Game Pass games in our dedicated folder which is constantly updated. The year 2024 already promises to be extremely rich.
Will PlayStation be deprived of Activision Blizzard games and Call of Duty?
The answer to this question is not simple and the outcome will most certainly be similar to what happened with Bethesda. That is to say that Microsoft will logically cancel current PS5 projects to create exclusive games; remember that Starfield was initially supposed to be released on PS5.
Then it will probably be case by case, but we already know that Call of Duty will continue to be released on PlayStation for at least ten years, Sony having accepted the agreement proposed by Microsoft.
It’s difficult to predict the future today, but when we look at the Bethesda games released since the takeover by Xbox, we notice that Xbox tends to avoid releasing its games with its competitors. The latest examples, Deathloop and Starfield are only available on Xbox and PC and the next juggernaut The Elder Scrolls VI will follow the same path, just like Indiana Jones which should be released in 2024.
What impact for Activision employees?
Microsoft is known as a rather liberated and open company. The question of employee well-being therefore quickly came to the table when the desire for a buyout was announced, especially since Activision was caught up in harassment cases. In May 2022, Activision management asked its shareholders to vote against a report on harassment that was to be made public. Activision then doubted that this proposal from the state of New York “either in the best interest of the company or its shareholders. ».
Activision was in conflict with certain groups of employees, particularly those at the Raven Software studio who had decided to unionize. The latter then sent a letter to Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, to find out his position on unionization, which is not widespread in the United States. Good news for them, Microsoft management is rather flexible on the subject.
Microsoft will not object to Activision Blizzard recognizing a union. Microsoft respects the right of Activision Blizzard employees to choose whether or not to be represented by a labor organization and we will honor those decisions.
A few months later, Xbox boss Phil Spencer announced that he would support this initiative.
Linda Norman and I spent a lot of time learning about unions. We absolutely support the right of employees to organize and form unions.
Once the deal is reached, we will absolutely support [une] employee organization in place. We believe it is an employee right and something that can be part of a relationship between a company and the people who work at the company.
To date, there are at least three unions within Activision Blizzard King Studios. The Game Workers Alliance, that of Blizzard Albany testers and those who joined Communication Workers of America.
Will Bobby Kotick stay at the helm of the company?
Bobby Kotick is an iconic boss, as much known for making Activision a world leader in the video game industry as for having supposedly covered up, if not turned a blind eye, to various cases of harassment within his company.
The Wall Street Journal revealed that Bobby Kotick knew about allegations of sexual misconduct at his company for years and a complaint accused him of accepting the Microsoft buyout to avoid responsibility.
In all likelihood, the character does not really seem to fit the image that Microsoft wants to give, so it is legitimate to wonder if Bobby Kotick will still remain at the head of the company in the short term.
Officially, the contract that binds Bobby Kotick to Activision runs until April 2024, he announced it himself on CNBC. But he will end his mandate before then since he announced that he would stay in office until December 2023. After that, another person will take his place from January 2024, but we do not know who again. Bobby Kotick will therefore leave Activision at the start of next year, and will leave with several million dollars in compensation and the shares of the company he owns.
Which studios are picked up by Xbox?
With this acquisition, Xbox also acquires numerous studios and licenses, some of which are even the most renowned in Western video games. Here is the list.
List of Activision Blizzard King studios
- Treyarch
- Raven Software
- High Moon Studios
- Beenox
- Sledgehammer Games
- Infinity Ward
- Demonware
- Toys for Bob
- Digital Legends
- Blizzard Entertainment
- King
- Solid State
List of Activision Blizzard King licenses and games
- Aces of the Galaxy
- Arkadian Warriors
- Blackthorn
- Blur
- Bubble Witch
- Caesar
- Call of Duty
- candy Crush
- Crash Bandicoot
- Diablo
- DJ Hero
- Empire Earth
- Farm Heroes
- Gabriel Knight
- Geometry Wars
- Guitar Hero
- Gun
- Hearthstone
- Heretic
- Heroes of the Storm
- Hexen
- Interstate ’76
- King’s Quest
- Laura Bow Mysteries
- The Lost Vikings
- Metal Arms
- MTX Mototrax
- Overwatch
- Pet Rescue
- Phantasmagoria
- Pitfall
- Police Quest
- Prototype
- Quest for Glory
- Singularity
- Skylanders
- Soldier of Fortune
- Space Quest
- Spyro the Dragon
- StarCraft
- SWAT
- Switchball
- Tenchu (old games, FromSoftware bought the rights in 2004)
- TimeShift
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
- True Crime
- Vigilant
- Whirl Tour
- World of Warcraft
- Zork
The effective acquisition of Activision Blizzard King by Microsoft is only the first step in a major upheaval for Xbox. Absorbing so many studios and licenses is not easy and it will take years for Xbox to fully integrate this pool of talent and licenses into its activities.
One thing is certain, Microsoft is drastically strengthening its game to become one of the leaders in video games globally, and it is certainly not over yet.