The team over at Microsoft has been working hard to ensure they can proceed with acquiring Activision Blizzard. This is a move that’s been in the works for a little while now as Microsoft made the bid for $69 billion. That’s a massive number that reflects the worth of Activision Blizzard. But a few holdups are preventing Microsoft from going forward with this purchase. Some regulators have been vocal against this deal, and Microsoft has been battling it out in the courts this week against the FTC.
But thanks to this legal battle, we’re getting some new additional insights from the Microsoft team. For instance, we know when the company feels the next-generation consoles will launch. Thanks to IGN, we’re finding that this topic came up when the Call of Duty franchise came into play. Microsoft has expressed that they have no plans to make Call of Duty exclusive to the line of Microsoft consoles or PC platforms. Yet this is one area that Sony and regulators have scrutinized. Microsoft apparently recently stated that Call of Duty games will remain on competitor platforms beyond the expected starting point for the next generation of video game consoles.
According to Microsoft, the next-generation video game consoles will be coming out sometime in 2028. So you still have a long time right now with the current-generation console platforms. To some, it might feel like these latest consoles just launched into the marketplace. After all, both the Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 launched at a very problematic time in history. We had a worldwide pandemic that made consoles difficult not only to manufacture but also to ship.
Then we had a real problem with scalpers as they bought up stock as soon as it landed in the marketplace, as they could flip these units online for an inflated price. But now the console platforms are easily obtainable, so we’re still seeing plenty of adopters for both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Regardless, we’re certainly hopeful that by the time the next Xbox console launches along with the PlayStation 6, we’ll be far better in the world than when we saw the current-generation console platforms launched within.
Meanwhile, we’ll have to continue waiting for the results from these legal battles and if Microsoft can acquire Activision Blizzard. In other news related to this topic, it was recently noted that Sony has no plans to share information regarding the PlayStation 6 with Activision Blizzard if Microsoft acquires the company.
