They paid HOW much?

What a week in gaming this has been. The world of gaming has been rocked by one of, if not the biggest ever story.

Microsoft is buying Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 Billion dollars! That is not a typo, almost 70 BILLION dollars in order to buy up Activision-Blizzard lock, stock and barrel.

This is of course not something that one does easily, it's not a carton of milk and a bag of oranges. It was different when Microsoft bought Zenimax Media with Bethesda Game Studios for $7.5 billion, as Activision-Blizzard is publicly traded. Zenimax was privately owned and even then, there was a lot of scrutiny by regulatory bodies to make sure everything was done right. With Activision-Blizzard being public, there is even more red tape to wade through. The deal is expected to to be finalized during the summer of 2023.

In case you are wondering how they can afford this, Microsoft is loosely valued at over 4 trillion dollars, so even though it is an astronomic amount of money, they have the cash to get the job done.

Of course this has given rise to an enormous amount of questions some of which have been answered.

What does this mean for the disgraced President and CEO of Activision-Blizzard, Bobby Kotick? Well, he will stay in charge until the deal is final after which he “will remain available” in his own words. Phil Spencer the CEO of Microsoft Gaming has said that Activision-Blizzard will answer to him directly, so that probably means Kotick is being booted, probably with a golden parachute. Many insiders agree that Kotick is being let go, particularly since his name is too tarnished, especially with the many scandals that have rocked Activision-Blizzard lately, and his complicity and/or failure to do something about them.

Why are they selling? This is speculation territory, but Kotick did already ask Facebook if they would be interested in buying but got turned down. The most likely answer is that Kotick wants to go out on a high, and a big deal like this looks good on his resume should he choose to go elsewhere. Due to the scandals there has been more talk than usual to kick him out and even Coca-Cola has been talking of removing him from their board. With the scandals in mind, Microsoft probably got a good deal.

How will this affect gaming in general? Impossible to say at this stage. What is known is that Sony, the owners and creators of the Playstation, the biggest rival to Microsoft's Xbox, lost 20 billion in market value in one day. The stock price is climbing already, but it must have been quite a shock to them.

As for games on the Playstation, Spencer has stated that they will honor ongoing deals, which means that games slated for release on the Playstation will still do so, but whether Microsoft will continue to sell their games on the competitors console remains to be seen. This might force Sony to become more PC friendly, but again, it is too early to tell.

So what are they buying for all that money? Well the list is too big for this post, but to skim the surface; Activision-Blizzard, Infinity Ward, King, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games and more. Concerning games; Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush, all the old Sierra Games, Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and much more. The last two are very ironic as both Crash and Spyro were Playstation 1 mascots.

Phil Spencer has expressed a love and interest for many of the older titles included in the buyout, and I for one would welcome remasters of the old Sierra adventure titles. Whatever this mega deal will mean in the future we can't yet say. Will World of Warcraft come to the Xbox? Will it be on their Xbox and/or PC Pass? We don't know. What we do know is that although monopolies are bad, Activision-Blizzard has been in such a sorry state for so long that for them and their titles, this can only be good. The other thing we can say for certain is that this has catapulted Microsoft to the top of the gaming world.

When I learn more I'll let you know, but that's enough for today. Join me again next time, and until then have a great and safe week!