Phil Spencer, chief executive of Microsoft’s gaming division, has confirmed Microsoft’s intention to bring several well-known games from Activision Blizzard to their Xbox Game Pass platform, including Blizzard’s “Overwatch.” , “Diablo” (Diablo), and Activision’s signature shooter brand “Call of Duty” series, however, the biggest premise of this project, of course, is that Microsoft can finally successfully complete this large-scale project. Game publisher acquisition plans.
Phil Spencer confirmed the news in a recent blog post, while re-emphasizing Microsoft’s firm belief that the goal behind their plan to acquire Activision Blizzard is not so-called “anti-competitive”, but rather if the acquisition ends up being regulated If the agency approves, then they can provide the publisher with more resources, so that more players have the opportunity to play the games they develop.
Just in January 2022, Microsoft announced without warning that they were planning to acquire Activision Blizzard for a whopping $68.7 billion, completely shaking the entire game industry and community. At the time, Microsoft also hinted that if the plan went well, they would be able to make a large number of Activision Blizzard games on its Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass platforms, including two of the latest masterpieces in development and already released. old work.
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However, the statement at the time did not specify which series might be available on the subscription platform, and it is only now that Phil Spencer directly mentions “Strike”, “Diablo”, and “Call of Duty”. brand. As for the new work, “Doujin Special Attack 2” will be officially launched in early October this year, and “Diablo 4” will be launched in 2023. As for “Decisive Moment”, it still maintains the tradition of launching a new work every year. , this year’s new work “Decisive Moment: Modern Warfare II” will be launched at the end of October. In addition, there is a lot of news that the free battle royale extension game “Modern Warfare” is about to launch a sequel.
If Microsoft finally successfully acquired Activision Blizzard, this development does not seem to be an unexpected result. After all, almost all first-party works belonging to Microsoft’s studios will be on the Game Pass platform, even the latest ones. The work is also likely to be played by subscribers who directly open the platform on the first day of its release. Therefore, players will of course have the opportunity to see “Battle Strike”, “Diablo”, “World of Warcraft” and “Decisive Moment”. Automatically regard Blizzard’s IP as Microsoft’s home game.
It is worth noting that this sky-high acquisition price of nearly 70 billion US dollars is still under strict scrutiny by market regulators in various countries. For example, regulators from the United Kingdom have recently announced that they will target the “behind the acquisition”. anti-competitive” concerns. In response to this statement, Phil Spencer analyzed in detail in an extended statement why he believes that Microsoft’s acquisition will never affect the overall market competition. So far, Saudi Arabia has become the first country in the world to ratify the deal, while New Zealand will start a trial on September 2.
As for Microsoft officials, they still have full confidence in the progress of this transaction, and they always believe that they can successfully complete it before the end of the financial year in June 2023.