Microsoft spends 68.7 billion dollars, just over 600 billion kroner, on buying up the game studio Activision Blizzard.
It reports the technology website The Verge.
Activision Blizzard is behind gaming phenomena such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo, and is according to Microsoft the world’s third largest gaming company in terms of turnover, only beaten by Tencent and Sony.
The catalog of Activision will be rolled out on Xbox’s subscription services Game Pass as soon as possible, writes The Verge.
The acquisition is the biggest entry Microsoft has ever made in games. In comparison, Microsoft bought Linkedin for 26 billion dollars, around 230 billion kroner, in 2016.
The acquisition is carried out after several months marked by accusations of a corporate culture that facilitates sexual harassment in Activision Blizzard. The game studio has gone through several rounds in court, and last autumn entered into a settlement with the US Commission for equal opportunities for employees of 18 million dollars. However, the settlement has been appealed, and according to The Verge, a number of Activision employees have left the company since the summer.
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