Microsoft is making some big headlines. After the ZeniMax Media deal, which gave Microsoft control of studios like Bethesda, it didn’t seem we would have another significant acquisition already. However, Microsoft is moving in and getting another massive deal out of the way. I don’t think any of us expected to wake up to the news that Microsoft was purchasing Activision Blizzard yesterday, but that’s what we got. Now, fans eagerly anticipate seeing just what this may mean for Sony in the future.
With that said, this announcement might have already hurt Sony a bit. If you didn’t catch it, the market closed for the NYSE showed Sony’s stock took a dive. There was a 13% drop, according to a report by VGC. It doesn’t sound like much, but that big drop came at market open. This was shortly after Microsoft’s announcement regarding their acquisition deal. Now, that deal is not finalized, but the news alone might have already affected Sony’s stock, so it should be interesting to see where the company closes today.
Microsoft had made it clear that they did not want to pull communities away from each other. There’s also some hope that some franchises will continue seeing releases come out for Sony’s PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 platforms. However, this is also news we’ve heard before with the Bethesda purchase. Certain games continued to see support. Although it was also unveiled, some of those big-name upcoming titles are now exclusives.
That could be the case for the latest acquired franchises like Call of Duty. But, really, only time will tell before we’re able to see just what Microsoft ends up offering. Although, whatever the case might end up being, this deal just made Xbox Game Pass more enticing as all the first-party games will instantly be day one launches for the service.