Activision Blizzard bought by Microsoft

[MasterBlaster]

Microsoft just confirmed buying Activision Blizzard, with the deal being said to be around 70 billion dollars.

Welcoming the Incredible Teams and Legendary Franchises of Activision Blizzard to Microsoft Gaming - Xbox Wire

Creators of Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and more join Team Xbox As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet. We all know that gaming is the...

news.xbox.com

Of course, it will take until fiscal year 2023 to close the deal and until then both companies will operate separately, including Bobby Kotick keeping his position as the CEO of Activision Blizzard. After the purchase is completed, though, Phil Specer, the head of Microsoft Gaming division will take charge. Whether this means that Bobby Kotick (who has recently been involved in a lot of controversies) is on his way out remains uncertain.

As for what this means for Blizzard games... Well, the good news is that the biggest RTS game of recent years, Age of Empires IV, was funded by Microsoft and the last I've heard, it was a financial success. And given that Warcraft and Starcraft are one of the top RTS franchises, I'd say that there's a chance that either Warcraft 4 or Starcraft 3 might eventually be given a green light from Microsoft, even as a titles meant primarily for Game Pass.

Which brings us to another important announcement - Activision Blizzard games will be coming to Game Pass. I don't know what it means for WoW since it operates on its own subscription, but pretty much everything else is pretty likely. Other than that, there are also plans for metaverse and cloud gaming.

Finally, with Bethesda, Mojang and Activision Blizzard now under the same umbrella, one could only wonder what crossovers we'll see in the future.

 

[Stefan.K]

Hopefully those are good news for us and for the WarCraft 3.

 

[Shar Dundred]

Let's wait and see.
Could be good, could be bad, could change nothing.
Only one thing is certain:
Arkain rules supreme.

 

[InsaneMonster]

I think this is an amazing news for the franchise!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Hopefully those are good news for us and for the WarCraft 3.

Given everything that has been happening at Blizzard and the dramatic decrease in quality of their products, I can only say that pretty much any change is welcome. I mean, let's be honest, it can't really get much worse than it already is and there's always hope that things will get better.

As for what this means for Warcraft 3... I think it largely depends on whether Microsoft will want to put it on Game Pass. If the answer is yes then I can see some additional funds being allocated to improve the game first and get some fairly easy PR points. But then, I think this is more sigificant for the future - as I've said: Microsoft invested in Age of Empires IV recently and apparently it sold well, so maybe one day we will see Warcraft 4 or Starcraft 3.

 

[stein123]

I mean, let's be honest, it can't really get much worse than it already is

2022 surprise me!

 

[Venombite]

Honestly, concerning Warcraft 3, this doesn't matter at all. Changes absolutely nothing.

 

[ShadowMidas]

Sound Good

 

[Venombite]

Saw these on reddit, and just had to share.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well, since it's been said that Microsoft hopes to build a "Metaverse", here's a very nice video I've found about what a "Metaverse" is:

In simple terms - it's sacrificing each brand's individuality to create one "universe" that comprises all other brands, so that they can constantly cross-over in hopes that if fans of a given franchise will be lured into other franchises, because they are connected. And, obviously, spend a lot of money doing so.

As for what this means for Blizzard games... Well, pretty much that Azeroth, Koprulu Sector, Sanctuary and whatever universe Overwarch is set in would become joined with Call of Duty, Halo and other games owned by Activision and Microsoft, including its subsidiaries and as a result, we'd see a lot more crossovers between the universes, for example we could get an Ender Dragon from Minecraft as a boss in D4.

On the surface, this might sound quite cool if you're into both Minecraft and Diablo, but I must agree with the video that over time this would get annoying and would lead to each individual universe becoming less and less developed and unique, because instead of creating, say, Diablo stuff for a Diablo game, developers would spend time adding various content from the "Metaverse".

But then, think how many extra copies a game like Diablo 4 would sell if it had some content that'd lure in a good chunk of a Minecraft, Halo or CoD fans. It's devilishly clever, that much I'll admit, though looking at the Metaverse from this perspective, my enthusiasm for Microsoft buying Blizzard has diminished.

 

[Retera]

my enthusiasm for Microsoft buying Blizzard

In my personal opinion, it would be ridiculous to think that microsoft would work on or improve Warcraft III: Reforged as a result of buying Blizzard. Now more than ever the "Blizzard brand" is going to be asked to give a return on investment for the ~70 billion dollars. The way to get that return on investment is Warcraft mobile games, not by touching Reforged.

 

[Venombite]

Well, since it's been said that Microsoft hopes to build a "Metaverse", here's a very nice video I've found about what a "Metaverse" is:

In simple terms - it's sacrificing each brand's individuality to create one "universe" that comprises all other brands, so that they can constantly cross-over in hopes that if fans of a given franchise will be lured into other franchises, because they are connected. And, obviously, spend a lot of money doing so.

As for what this means for Blizzard games... Well, pretty much that Azeroth, Koprulu Sector, Sanctuary and whatever universe Overwarch is set in would become joined with Call of Duty, Halo and other games owned by Activision and Microsoft, including its subsidiaries and as a result, we'd see a lot more crossovers between the universes, for example we could get an Ender Dragon from Minecraft as a boss in D4.

On the surface, this might sound quite cool if you're into both Minecraft and Diablo, but I must agree with the video that over time this would get annoying and would lead to each individual universe becoming less and less developed and unique, because instead of creating, say, Diablo stuff for a Diablo game, developers would spend time adding various content from the "Metaverse".

But then, think how many extra copies a game like Diablo 4 would sell if it had some content that'd lure in a good chunk of a Minecraft, Halo or CoD fans. It's devilishly clever, that much I'll admit, though looking at the Metaverse from this perspective, my enthusiasm for Microsoft buying Blizzard has diminished.

Yay! Can't wait for Master Chief to shoot Alexstrasza in her head.