Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard

Nobody saw it coming when Microsoft bought Bethesda a few months ago, but when the company announced that it was buying Activision Blizzard yesterday, it caught off-guard absolutely everyone. The announcement was made via an official statement that's very clear about the process. It dropped like a bomb in the gaming community, as Activision Blizzard is one of the most important video game companies worldwide.

Today, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc., a leader in game development and interactive entertainment content publisher. This acquisition will accelerate the growth in Microsoft's gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and will provide building blocks for the metaverse.

It's probably the biggest acquisition of all time in the world of video games, as Microsoft is paying 68,700 million dollars to purchase Activision Blizzard, a sum vastly superior to the 7,500 paid for Bethesda. With this move, Microsoft will get old of over 10,000 employees and iconic franchises like Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush, among others. Undoubtedly, the current internal turmoil that Activision Blizzard is going through since it was the target of a lawsuit due to "numerous complaints about unlawful harassment, discrimination, and retaliation" at the company employees. There have been numerous claims about the directives of the company trying to hide and silence those complaints and the negative reactions that followed the lawsuit. In most cases, these directly point at Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, who will, most likely, exit the company in the future when the acquisition process is completed.

The acquisition might be the best thing that could happen to Activision Blizzard. The solution to the company's internal problems is now in someone else's hands, which can be considered a lifeline for all the employees complaining about the current situation. From the gamers' point of view, it can be viewed as a masterful move that will consolidate Microsoft as the most important video game company. 

What's the future of the company?

It is yet too soon to figure out the effect of the acquisition on specific franchises. Will games like World of Warcraft or Call of Duty Vanguard be included in the Game Pass in the future? Will the launch of Diablo 4 be delayed? What impact will this cause on Sony's strategies? All of these questions will find an answer in the near future, but at least you can be sure that you will continue to find all these games at the best price on our comparator.