It was a long battle for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard. The video game industry had been watching this deal closely ever since Microsoft made the bid to merge the company under the Microsoft brand for an astonishing $68 billion. This deal brought massive numbers, but it wasn’t a smooth process. The regulators in various markets had to cover this deal closely, with the CMA being the last to give their approval. We knew that approval was coming in a matter of days as we entered this month. The approval was given today, and now we’re seeing the reactions.
For instance, one of the key members of the Xbox team is Phil Spencer. Thanks to The Verge, we have the internal memo that was apparently released to employees across Activision Blizzard. The memo is essentially a welcome to the Microsoft team while noting Activision Blizzard’s incredible accomplishments in the video game industry. We’ve seen several franchises really thrive in the marketplace, and we’re sure that this trend will continue now under the umbrella of Microsoft. Meanwhile, we know that the CEO of Activision Blizzard, Bobby Kotick, will be sticking around until the end of this year.
Phil Spencer notes that Bobby will continue to work in order to ensure the transition is as smooth as possible. From there, we’ll see Phil Spencer, among other team members from Xbox, visit the various offices of Activision Blizzard. Of course, for players, this means that we’ll eventually see titles land on the Xbox Game Pass subscription service. It should also give the games an even more extensive reach, with new players getting a chance to try some of their past titles or new upcoming releases due to the games landing on the popular Xbox subscription service.
With all that said, it will take some time before we start seeing games land on Xbox Game Pass. This deal just went through today, so we’ll likely see more news emerge about Game Pass additions or new game announcements from the development teams as we head into the upcoming year. In the meantime, you can view the memo published under The Verge below from Xbox’s Phil Spencer.
Phil Spencer’s Memo
Today is a good day to play. We have completed the acquisition of Activision Blizzard and are welcoming Activision Blizzard and its businesses to Microsoft Gaming.
Activision, Blizzard, and King publish some of the most played and most beloved franchises in gaming history, from Pitfall to Call of Duty, Warcraft to Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga to Farm Heroes Super Saga. By combining Xbox with Activision Blizzard’s skill, knowledge, and amazing legacy of games, we will bring the joy and community of gaming to even more players around the world.
We are eager to learn from their creativity, exchange insights and best practices, and empower our new colleagues to bring their visions to the widest possible audience. And today, we officially start the work of bringing more groundbreaking games to more players than ever before and across new platforms from mobile to cloud streaming. We also begin the work to make Activision, Blizzard, and King’s muchloved library of games available in Game Pass and other platforms — we’ll have more to share in the coming months.
We couldn’t be more excited that Activision Blizzard employees are our colleagues, co-workers, and teammates. Bobby Kotick has agreed to remain in his role through the end of 2023, reporting directly to me, to ensure a smooth and seamless integration. We look forward to working together as a unified team and we will share more updates on our new organizational structure in the coming months.
I‘d like to give a very special and heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make this acquisition possible. We couldn’t have accomplished this without your dedication.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be visiting the Activision, Blizzard, and King offices, along with members of our Gaming Leadership Team. We’ll have the opportunity to welcome our new colleagues at our next virtual all-hands for Xbox employees, and for the greater Microsoft community, we’ll discuss this and more in the November 8 session of the Company Strategy Series.
Together, we can unlock a world of possibilities for players and creators.
Phil
