Microsoft has been gunning for more studios and first-party teams these past few years. One of their most significant acquisitions that came out recently was ZeniMax Media. That came with several big-name studios, including Bethesda. Now, the team at Microsoft has struct gold once again with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. So it’s surprising to find this news circulating online this morning, especially after their past massive purchase.
The announcement came directly from Microsoft, who alerted fans of the latest deal. It’s not finalized just yet. Much like the previous deal mentioned, the studios are working independently until everything is officially completed with the purchase. From there, we’ll see several of these studios transition over to being directly owned by Microsoft. If you’re an Xbox owner, this is very good news. However, Sony fans might find the announcement rather sour.
This means franchises like Overwatch, Diablo, Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and StarCraft will go on to being exclusives to Xbox consoles along with the PC platform. Likewise, it will be interesting to see what projects studios like Raven, High Moon, Beenox, Toys For Bob, Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games, and Demonware might end up bringing out next.
Regardless, this is an exciting time for Microsoft. We’re not sure just when the close will happen, and everything will be finalized. But, this means that we should see quite a few Activision Blizzard games pop up on the Xbox Game Pass. With that said, we’re certainly wondering just how massive of a blow this might be for PlayStation 5 moving forward. After all, Sony doesn’t even have an Xbox Game Pass competitor service yet, and now we’re going to see more incredible franchises and video games pop up on the Xbox Game Pass service right at launch.
