Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard: How will this affect the video game industry?

In what would be an unprecedented purchase in the industry of video game, the company Microsoft announced plans to acquire the firm for $68.7 billion. Activision Blizzard, responsible for well-known titles such as “World of Warcraft”, “Call of Duty” or “Candy Crush”. If this move materializes, it will exponentially accelerate the growth of Microsoft’s gaming business, both on mobile devices and on PC, consoles and in the cloud. Also, this may cause changes in the theme of the exclusivity of certain video game franchises.

huge ambition

“Since 2018, Microsoft started buying studios [de videojuegos], Y . The purchase of Activision Blizzard It is an unprecedented blow on the table”, said to Trade Eduardo Marín, senior editor of Gizmodo en Español.

For Phillip Chu Joy, an expert in video game and host of the program “Tec”, one of the most impressive aspects of this purchase intention is without a doubt the enormous amount.

“In the past week, Take-Two –developer and distributor of video game– announced that he bought Zynga for about 12,000 million dollars. That was the record held until today. […] . By far the largest purchase.”Chu Joy commented.

The impact

by absorbing Blizzard Activision, . The American company would only be surpassed by the Chinese Tencent and the Japanese Sony.

. However, said Chu Joy, this is a medium and long-term project. For this reason, it is not yet possible to predict the real impact of this potential purchase.

“We will see the results of all this in a couple of years. But . Sure Microsoft will make some play, but I doubt very much that ‘Call of Duty‘ stop going out in PlayStation [de Sony]”, he opined.

“There is no detail about exclusivity. Nevertheless, Microsoft You will own these franchises, so you can do whatever you want with them. For example, . Or they can do what they advertised when buying Bethesda, that his new games, like Starfield Y The Elder Scrolls VIThey will be exclusive to Xbox and PC., he added.

For his part, Marín recalled that currently Activision Blizzard has been mired in controversy over accusations of sexual and labor abuse. Because of this, Microsoft will definitely have to improve the image of that firm.

“Microsoft It will be under the gaze of the public, analysts, journalists and its employees directly, due to the complicated situation that is happening Activision Blizzard, [ambiente tóxico, misoginia y abuso laboral].It will be necessary, yes or yes, to do a facelift [de Activision Blizzard], improve the image of the company”Marin maintained.

“, but the company has refused to fire him. now down Microsoft, it appears that he will continue in his role as CEO until further notice. Yes Microsoft has promised to work for inclusion and improvements in working conditions for all studios that are part of Xbox Game Studios, this is something that they will have to do to improve the image before the public and, above all, before the employees of Activision Blizzard, who today, according to some reports, feel that they have not been heard or taken into account. We will see what happens when the acquisition is finalized in June 2023″, he added.

The data

• This potential purchase is equivalent to S/ 275,000 million, that is, 1.4 times the budget of Peru.