On January 18,Microsoftmade the shock announcement that it was going to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion, marking the largest deal of its kind in the history of the gaming industry. This landmark deal will bring Activision Blizzard, its studios, and the gaming franchises associated with them under theMicrosoftumbrella, giving Xbox significant control over some of the world’s biggest games in the process.
Activision Blizzard, more accurately Activision Blizzard King, has published many games over the years, and thanks to mergers and acquisitions of its own, has numerous franchises that it owns. However, not all the games published by Activision are necessarily coming with the Microsoft deal. For example,Sekiro: Shadows Die Twiceis not owned by Activision despite being published by the company, and so Microsoft won’t have control over that FromSoftware game.
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While this is not necessarily a fully comprehensive list, this seems to be at least most of the franchises and games that Xbox will own once its acquisition of Activision Blizzard goes through. There could always be licensing issues and other problems that pop up and prevent the company from ever doing anything substantial with some of the games (like how aGoldenEye 007remaster has never materializeddespite Microsoft owning Rare), so fans should keep that in mind.
Activision
Obviously the crown jewel of the Activision contributions is theCall of Dutyfranchise, which remains an unstoppable juggernaut in the industry. Even whenCall of Dutygame sales are down, its annual releases still tend to be the highest-selling video games of the year. Case in point,Call of Duty: Vanguardwas the best-selling game of 2021despite it earning low review scores and reportedly selling much worse than its recent predecessors like 2019’sCall of Duty: Modern Warfareand 2020’sCall of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.
Xbox having control over theCall of Dutyfranchiseis huge because it potentially gives the company significant leverage over PlayStation.Call of Dutyis consistently the top-selling game year after year, and a significant chunk of those sales happen on PlayStation. Theoretically, Xbox could take theCall of Dutybrand and make it Xbox exclusive moving forward, forcingCoDfans on PlayStation to buy an Xbox or PC or get left behind. Alternatively, Xbox could keep sellingCall of Dutyon competing platforms, like what it does withMinecraft, but give Xbox gamers extra perks like being able to play each new game through Game Pass instead of having to buy them outright.
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Getting control of theCall of Dutyfranchise is huge for Xbox, but there are other notable series it’s acquiring through the Activision acquisition. 3D platformers may not be the industry-leading games they once were, but they still earn acclaim and sell well, especially if they’re new entries in established franchises likeCrash BandicootandSpyro the Dragon. It was looking like Activision was getting ready to hang up theCrashandSpyrofranchises, but Microsoft could now revive them. Not only that, but it would be a serious flex to takecharacters that were once PlayStation mascotsand make new Xbox exclusive games about them.
There may be some licensing issues to work out with theTony Hawk’s Pro Skatergames, but making those Xbox exclusive would also be huge for the brand and would have potential to seriously hurt PlayStation. But whileTony Hawk,Crash,Spyro, andCall of Dutyare likely the biggest “gets” out of the Activision acquisition, when it comes to the Activision side of it anyway, Microsoft could also look into remastering or rebootingother titles likePrototype,Gun, or any of the Sierra franchises that Activision acquired when it merged with Vivendi.
On top of all these games, the Activision acquisition also gives Microsoft access to some of the bigger “fad” games of the past couple decades, namelymusic/rhythm gameGuitar Heroand toys to life phenomenonSkylanders. While interest in both of those franchises has waned significantly in recent years, they can always make a comeback. In fact, a nostalgia-laden marketing push forGuitar Herowould likely be huge in today’s gaming climate.
Blizzard
While the Activision wing may have more franchises under its belt, the Blizzard wing has taken a quality over quantity approach. Blizzard doesn’t release games regularly and doesn’t constantly pursue new IP, but what it does have are some of the most popular series of all time. And not only that, but some of Blizzard’s biggest franchises have new titles in active development that could now very wellbecome Xbox exclusivedepending on when the deal goes through.
Titles likeDiablo 4andOverwatch 2have been in development at Blizzard for years, and while they have faced some serious development setbacks, one has to imagine that they’re getting relatively close to release. There once was a time when fans expected to play both games this year, and while that seems highly unlikely,2023 release dates forDiablo 4andOverwatch 2don’t seem out of the question.
Diablo 4andOverwatch 2being day one Xbox Game Pass games will be huge for Microsoft’s subscription service. Meanwhile, the Blizzard acquisition could go a long way in giving Microsoft a much bigger foothold in the PC gaming market. Games likeStarCraftandHeroes of the Stormwill now be Microsoft-owned, not to mention the incredibly popular MMORPGWorld of Warcraft.
World of Warcraftis an especially interesting case. It’s possible that Microsoft will leaveWorld of Warcraft’s current pricing modeluntouched, but it’s also possible that it will make the game available to play through PC Game Pass. This would potentially mean radical changes for the MMORPG, though fans will have to stay tuned to see what happens.
King
Mobile game developer Kingis also part of Activision Blizzard, and while it seems to be getting overlooked compared to other aspects of the deal, one shouldn’t underestimate it. Just as acquiring Blizzard could help Microsoft increase its foothold in the PC gaming space, acquiring King could give the company a massive push into the mobile games market.
King’s main product isCandy Crush Saga, a puzzle game that it has since spun-off into countless other games with the word “Saga” attached to them.Candy Crush Sagais huge in the mobile gaming world, and so Microsoft acquiring King is one of the more notable aspects of the acquisition.
Microsoft acquiring Activision Blizzard’s studios and their franchises is one thing, but it’s another matter entirely if it’s able to capitalize on this IP and do something special with it. Microsoft has a mixed track record when it comes to this, doing little to take advantage ofRare’s franchiseswhile in more recent years doing a relatively great job of supporting the studios it’s acquired and helping them produce high quality games. Xbox fans and fans of these franchises will just have to wait and see what happens.
