Microsoft buys Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard for $70 billion

Microsoft appears to have taken another step towards competing with Sony in its own game development and acquired Activision Blizzard for $95 a share in a $68.7 billion cash deal, including Activision Blizzard’s net cash.

Activision Blizzard has gone through quite a turbulent period over the past year as a result of numerous reports of sexual harassment and discrimination. According to the announcement, Bobby Kotich will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard despite heavy criticism from the gaming community at large over the past year.

“Bobby Kotick will continue as CEO of Activision Blizzard, and he and his team will remain focused on efforts to further strengthen the company’s culture and accelerate business growth,”the report said. “After the deal closes, the Activision Blizzard business will report to Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming.”

Acquisition of Microsoft Activision Blizzard: Details

Microsoft has made waves in the industry by acquiring ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda, one of the largest studios and publishers in the industry. The acquisition of ZeniMax cost Microsoft a whopping $7.5 billion in cash. As a result of the deal, many games from Bethesda’s library ended up on the popular Xbox Game Pass.

And now the Activision Blizzard acquisition, as this Bloomberg report confirms, is the absolute biggest deal in the gaming community and by far the biggest gaming acquisition in the history of the industry. Journalist Jason Schrier shares the sentiment of many players and analysts that this could easily raise antitrust concerns. The announcement confirms that Game Pass will indeed be backed by the launch of Activision Blizzard games on the service.

“Today, games are the most dynamic and immersive category of entertainment across all platforms, and they will play a key role in the evolution of the Metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft. “We are investing heavily in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to everyone.”

This will easily raise antitrust concerns in the gaming community, and it will be interesting to see how other big players in the industry react. Obviously, platform owners and the rival PlayStation may have their say on this, as do many other major publishers in the AAA gaming industry.