Microsoft has just completed its whopping $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard!
This means they've now got Call of Duty, Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, and even Candy Crush under their Xbox umbrella.
This is Microsoft's largest-ever acquisition, making the $26 billion they spent on LinkedIn and the $7.5 billion for Bethesda seem like pocket change. It's a gaming empire they've built, and they've even got Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick sticking around to help with the transition until the end of 2023. They're really flexing their gaming muscles here, aiming to become the third-largest gaming company by revenue, right behind Tencent and Sony.
Microsoft plans to add loads of Activision Blizzard games to the Xbox Game Pass, which is a huge win for subscribers. Though, sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but don't expect Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo IV to hit Game Pass this year. And just a fun fact for you: they're now packing more than nine game studios from the Blizzard side and a bunch of mobile gaming studios from King.
Let's see what Microsoft has in store for the future of gaming.
