On Jan. 18, Microsoft announced their plans to acquire longtime video game development and publisher Activision for $68.7 million.
This will shake up the gaming landscape because for over 40 years now Activision has been seen as a multiplatform gaming company providing some of gaming’s biggest franchises such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush and Overwatch.
Along with the acquisition of Activision comes Blizzard, which is well known in PC gaming for series’ like World of Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft.
But one of the biggest questions with this acquisition is will Microsoft/Xbox allow Activision to continue to develop and publish games for other platforms? Back in 2014, Microsoft had purchased Mojang, which is well known for producing the modern classic Minecraft, allowed other platforms such as PlayStation and Nintendo to sell Minecraft on their respective consoles.
It would be hard to imagine classic franchises like Call of Duty to be exclusive to only Xbox rather than PlayStation which is where the majority of their player base is and the possibility of those big named franchises not being widely available on other platforms might just hurt both Microsoft and Activision.
This decision can honestly go both ways – one where Microsoft allows Activision to develop and publish video games, as well as for other platforms, and maybe even provide resources to help with development. It could even be one where Microsoft takes a gamble and makes Activision develop and publish video games exclusively for Xbox and perhaps even PC.
Another major concept that might be subject to change is cross platform gaming, which allowed other gaming platforms like PlayStation and Nintendo to play online with each other without any console restrictions, games that primarily feature are Fortnite, Call of Duty, Overwatch and Diablo.
Many gamers fear that Microsoft might put a stop or do some type of monetization of cross platform gaming, but I believe it would reinforce the idea that video games should not be bound to only be played on one platform and dividing player bases, but rather be played among all other platforms and connect the gaming community together.
One more thing to note is how this will affect Microsoft in their biggest platform Xbox, and not just Xbox but their current subscription based streaming service of video games which is known as Xbox Game Pass which allows subscribers to download, stream and play a vast library of video games new and old on Xbox, PC, and mobile device’s.
This acquisition will more than likely see Microsoft add some of Activision and Blizzard’s library of video games onto Xbox Game Passes expansion library of video games which in turn may reel in a larger fan base with these possible new games being added to Xbox Game Pass.
Although it may seem Microsoft is hogging up all these gaming studios, it’s believed by people that this is a great acquisition by Microsoft and it might just send a clear message to gamers that Microsoft is more than happy to help make the gaming industry stronger together and maybe even tease potential to acquire other gaming giants.
