There was quite a bit of excitement this year when Microsoft started to venture toward the purchase of Activision Blizzard. The company purchase was also a massive one, costing Microsoft over $60 billion. So, that naturally made quite a few headlines online over the year. Regulators were involved in court battles to prove that Microsoft wasn’t hurting competition in the video game industry. It was quite a lengthy process, but Microsoft came out on top and managed to secure the deal. We’re still fresh into this deal, but recently, IGN had the chance to speak with Mike Ybarra, the president of Blizzard.
The recent video upload offered a few statements from Mike about the recent acquisition. As you can imagine, there wasn’t too much that Mike could offer as we’re still so early into this acquisition. However, it does look like Mike is confident that Blizzard will continue to thrive under Microsoft’s Xbox division. Mike noted that through Phil Spencer, there is still the push to allow creatives to come up with ideas and concepts for video games. As a result, we will continue to see franchises we know and love continue on, along with some new projects.
Furthermore, Blizzard is always looking to find ways to broaden their franchises and connect with more individuals. While there wasn’t anything Blizzard was able to unveil yet, it does look like there’s a possibility that we’ll see films and animated series emerge. These are massive franchises that span across decades under Blizzard, so adapting them to additional cinematic experiences could reach fans who are not necessarily gamers.
Additionally, there’s also the possibility that Blizzard may lend out some of their IPs to other Microsoft-owned first-party studios. That might make for some new thrilling video games from these franchises under Blizzard. Likewise, the same could be said for Blizzard, as they very well might acquire other Xbox IPs to develop a new video game installment. While we don’t have anything new to unveil, it does look like the future is bright for Blizzard under this deal, and we’ll have to keep a close eye as to what new projects could be coming from this company now that they are established under Xbox. For now, you can view the full interview between IGN and Mike Ybarra in the video below.
