Microsoft announces acquisition of Activision Blizzard

Microsoft announced this morning the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, its biggest acquisition to date.

Previously, the title of biggest acquisition made by Microsoft belonged to the purchase of LinkedIn, a deal worth 26.2 billion dollars, but the purchase of Activision Blizzard for 68.7 billion dollars easily took first place.

Activision Blizzard was in the middle of a troubled period because of allegations of harassment and threats involving key executives of the company, and now with the purchase by Microsoft, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has already stated that at the end of the transaction process, all Activision Blizzard staff will report directly to him, making clear that current CEO Bobby Kotick will be asked to step down from his current position.

With this, Microsoft becomes the owner of giant gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot, Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero and many others.

Text of the top of the image Reads “ Xbox + Activision/Blizzard/KING” with cover art from Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush, and Starcraft places below. At the very bottom of the image, the logos from the studios Treyarch, Raven, High Moon, Beenox, Sledge Hamer Games, Infinity Ward, Demonware, and Toys for Bob.

Phil Spencer took the opportunity to release updated Xbox Game Pass subscriber numbers: 25 million subscribers.

The last official count had been released in January 2021, when the service had 18 million subscribers.

Now counting more than 30 studios and several development teams, the future is promising for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, who will have access to the games developed by these teams on launch day at no additional cost.

Source: Xbox Wire in Portuguese