There’s been a ‘gold rush’ over the last several years involving two of the three console publishers. Microsoft and Sony have been buying up all the 2nd and 3rd party developers they can in order to make their own libraries stronger. Some of these companies include Bethesda, Bungie, and the one we’re focusing on currently, Activision-Blizzard.
Many have been wondering how that particular merger would work given that a lot of Activision-Blizzard’s titles are multi-platform by design. Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty did alleviate some fears on that front by noting that while they are bringing in the company, their titles won’t immediately be made exclusive to Microsoft systems.
“Ultimately what our goal is, is to make gaming more accessible to players and more accessible to creators. If we acquire a game that comes with a big community across a number of platforms, the last thing we want to do is take something away,” Booty said. “If anything, we feel that it’s our job to be caretakers, to be shepherds, to continue to build and nurture that community, not to cut it up into pieces and try to take some of it away.”
GM for programming and events Tina Summerford added in though that exclusivity was on the table for certain projects:
“We want to put as many titles as possible from Activision Blizzard into Game Pass when they join us,” Summerford said.
If you’re worried about titles that are out right now prior to the merger, Microsoft won’t do you dirty. But not unlike the Bethesda buyout, that could very well change in the future.
Source: GameSpot
