Microsoft has the acquisition announced today. Microsoft will pay 68.7 billion dollars (more than 60 billion euros) for the gaming giant.
It is Microsoft’s second major game acquisition. In 2020 nam Microsoft al Bethesda over, the creator of titles like DOOM and The Elder Scrolls. That acquisition was completed last year approved. The acquisition of Activision Blizzard also has to pass the authorities first.
Billions of sales per year
Activision Blizzard has annual sales of $8 billion. With a market value of $54 billion, it is the third largest publicly traded game publisher, after Sony PlayStation and Tencent Games. Activision Blizzard has 10,000 employees.
“Once the acquisition is complete, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, after Tencent and Sony,” Microsoft said. After the acquisition, Microsoft will have 30 internal game studios under it.
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25 million Game Pass subscribers
Activision Blizzard’s games will become part of Game Pass, Microsoft’s game subscription. For a fixed amount per month, players then have unlimited access to a growing range of games. Microsoft does state that “some” of Activision Blizzard’s games will also continue to appear for the PlayStation: how and what is not yet known.
Game Pass has now reached a new milestone of 25 million players, Microsoft also announced on Tuesday. “With Activision Blizzard’s nearly 400 million monthly active players, this acquisition of Game Pass will create one of the largest game collections in the market,” Microsoft said.
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Controversial culture within Activision Blizzard
Activision Blizzard has been in the news negatively for the past few months. More and more female employees came out with reports about sexually transgressive behavior of male managers. Also, women within the company have structurally less prospect of promotion than their male colleagues.
There are now dozens employees fired or left the publisher. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick would have it according to some contributed to a cover-up culture about sexually transgressive behaviour. Nevertheless, Kotick will remain as CEO for the time being, even after the acquisition by Microsoft. Kotick will then come under Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer.
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