Nearly two years to the day that Microsoft announced that it would be buying Activision-Blizzard for $68.8 billion, the deal has been finalized. It's official: Microsoft now owns Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, Spyro the Dragon, Overwatch, Candy Crush, and many more. The acquisition was hotly contested by both the United States' Federal Trade Commission and United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority, but Microsoft altered the deal slightly, argued its case in court, and won. This deal solidifies Xbox as the third biggest gaming brand in the world, only behind Tencent and Sony.

According to Xbox's Phil Spencer, the next step is to bring many of Activision and Blizzard's game lineup to Xbox Game Pass.

Players have always been at the center of everything we do. And as we grow, we’ll continue to keep players at the heart of it all. We’ll continue to listen to your feedback, build a community where you can be yourself, where developers can do their best work, and continue to make really fun games. As promised, we will also continue to make more games available in more places – and that begins now by enabling cloud streaming providers and players to stream Activision Blizzard games in the European Economic Area, a commitment made to the European Commission. Today we start the work to bring beloved Activision, Blizzard, and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms. We’ll share more about when you can expect to play in the coming months. We know you’re excited – and we are too.

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[pedro702]

Hopefully regulators can actually flip this around to use against anymore buyouts. "You already bought this much."

Anyway, maybe we can get another Spyro game now. Also, I wonder how fast Nintendo can get COD.

yeah because when microsoft got rare we got new banjo and conker platformers, oh wait...

imo microsoft doesnt wont push that agenda imo. we will have 2 more mascots that will de dead and buried.

 

[subcon959]

Good stuff, company was being mismanaged to hell and back. Maybe now we can get a proper WC3 remaster and/or WC4.

All that will happen is the old games will be on GP. That's the only thing they care about.

 

[Xzi]

All that will happen is the old games will be on GP. That's the only thing they care about.

It's new releases on Game Pass that drive subscriptions much more than old ones, though. Most of the old catalog will be on Steam before Game Pass at this rate.

 

[Bladexdsl]

welp it's not that actbliz made good games in the first place

 

[shaunj66]

Yay for corporate monopolies!

 

[InsaneNutter]

From Microsoft's view its probably worth it for Call of Duty alone and all the mobile games from King.

As an Xbox gamer I can't help but think they have purchased a lot of game franchises that have already been milked to death, run their cause or are simply just of no interest to me personally. I guess they probably would appeal to newer generations of gamers however.

I think the only franchises that potentially interest me are:

• The Lost Vikings
• Geometry Wars
• Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
• Crash Bandicoot

The Lost Vikings i'd certainly be interested in seeing a new game of, I'm not really sure it would do well today though, I feel it would be more of an indie game / arcade game from the 360 era.

Geometry Wars I think has run its cause with three games already. The first two in particular we're really good however.

Tony Hawks already got milked to death in the 2000's, a full proper remaster of Tony Hawks 3 would potentially interest me however.

I only ever really played the original three Crash Bandicoot games from the PlayStation era, the games after that never felt the same to me.

 

[yoyoyo69]

Ah, nah. That was what made AB want to sell but this was done for market consolidation and monopoly convergence.

This to remind ourselves folks that a deregulated market (or when you bypass regulations) tends to monopoly and therefore isn't truly free.

So true. It's hard to tell, as there are many, many dumba and/or young users who will blindly defend a brand, but I suspect Microsoft very heavily whitewashed and botted any negativity regarding this process.

They also can afford the very best in legal representation. The entire thing has been an absolute sham and not one ounce of common sense has been applied.

What we're left with us the destruction of an already eroded gaming sector, only corporate greed remaining.

On thus matter, or kind of, shouldn't Microsoft and Sony allow other storefronts on their platform (I'm well aware how crazy and nonsensical this will be interpreted as). Steam on Xbox console?

GOG on Xbox Series and PS5?

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

XBROS!!!..... WE DID IT!!!

 

[RAHelllord]

Get ready for the same thing to happen here with that's happening in Hollywood.

You think Skyrim re-releasing a dozen times was bad? They're going to just crank up the recycling of existing IPs and games, as well as push out more and more corporate dictated generic slop that's played safe and by the numbers to maximize profits over any sort of enjoyment.

Also looking forward to seeing how many employees get terminated or "let go" in the ensuing reshuffling to recoup the costs of the buyout. A lot of people are going to be updating their resumes I suspect.

 

[Xzi]

So true. It's hard to tell, as there are many, many dumba and/or young users who will blindly defend a brand, but I suspect Microsoft very heavily whitewashed and botted any negativity regarding this process.

Nah, there just wasn't much push-back because ActiBlizzard was being run into the ground by its existing owners/managers. Only Playstation players obsessed with CoD were adamantly against the acquisition, but Microsoft isn't fool enough to leave that money on the table. They'll even be bringing CoD to the next Nintendo console.

 

[SDA]

Well, I knew this was going to happen in the end. To think a person whom I follow on DeviantArt posted a status update saying they were happy Microsoft did such a thing!

You all don't know how much I hate company acquisitions.

 

[Spring_Spring]

It's funny that Candy Crush is even being talked about like its in the same league as any of those others.

 

[shaunj66]

It's funny that Candy Crush is even being talked about like its in the same league as any of those others.

In terms of revenue it probably is

 

[DragonMals]

It's official: Microsoft now owns Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, Spyro the Dragon, Overwatch, Candy Crush, and many more.

I thought they already owned these franchises? It's probably my fuzzy mimz coming in again...

But tbh, I honestly don't know what to say about this. They took Rare and dissolved it, and now they've finally gotten Blizzard after all of this time. Maybe they're able to fix Overwatch 2 or something... Or bring back the originals...? Whatever. I don't follow modern gaming enough to understand what could be resolved between the backlash of the 2jd overwatch game or anything.

All I hope for this acquision is that it improves the quality of content Microsoft puts out instead of leaving many franchises into obscurity.

 

[mightymuffy]

I know it's ancient news, but M$ utterly destroying rare will always make me extremely suspicious of them acquiring studios

The rot had already set in at Rare before MS bought them, and I'm still sure the whole thing was simply a sweetener towards Nintendo in the first place, who probably wanted to get rid of Rare and the drivel they were starting to make by that point.
..Not to say MS are the heroes there of course - outside of Rare Replay (which is kind of ironic!) they've done almost nothing to bring back their back catalogue/IPs, so why are people thinking it'll be different with ABK..?

 

[lordofcombo]

Stop talking about garbage rareware.the studio is lame and never have been relevant.Microsoft pumped millions in them and they were unreliable,uninspired and did nothing.The same when Bezos gave a billion for those feminists woke idiots of Rings of power.A pig is always a pig,whether its wearing armani or not.

 

[LightBeam]

Good
Can't be worse tbh, at the very least it means more games on gamepass. And finally things will change a bit.

 

[diggeloid]

The FTC isn't done fighting this though. Idk what would happen if they win an appeal after the acquisition was completed, but it'll probably be a fun news day. EDIT: slightly better link

 

[x65943]

Stop talking about garbage rareware.the studio is lame and never have been relevant.Microsoft pumped millions in them and they were unreliable,uninspired and did nothing.The same when Bezos gave a billion for those feminists woke idiots of Rings of power.A pig is always a pig,whether its wearing armani or not.

Never relevant???

GoldenEye, DKC, Banjo, Conker?

You must be either very young or don't like fun

 

[Tiger21820]

I don't really mind, Activision doesn't have anything I want