Microsoft Now Officially Owns Activision Blizzard King

Microsoft now officially owns Activision Blizzard King, and the biggest acquisition in the history of the gaming industry has closed, and suddenly it’s a new day in the industry.

As suddenly as it can be when this deal was first revealed at the beginning of 2022, only for it to go through months of ups and downs of will it or will it not go actually get approved.

The final obstacle in front of the deal, the UK’s Competitive Markets Authority (CMA) agreed to approve the deal based on the changes Microsoft made, notably its move to give Ubisoft ownership of cloud streaming rights for ABK games.

Now, this means Microsoft owns a whole new wealth of IP, including Call Of Duty, World Of Warcraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga, Tony Hawk, Crash Bandicoot, Diablo, and many more.

It also means for PlayStation, the landscape of the industry is forever changed, and it’ll potentially need to make some changes, and be an even more aggressive competitor if its to keep up.

While the acquisition has finally closed, now comes the real work for Microsoft, when it comes to integrating Activision Blizzard King under the Microsoft and Xbox wing.

Shawn Layden even points this out on Twitter, calling the “integration” part of the process more difficult “by a factor of ten.”

Activision Blizzard had been under a lot of scrutiny for its toxic work environment and culture, with employees staging walk-outs and unions forming in the hopes to enact change.

How Microsoft handles this integration period will be a key part of how well this acquisition actually turns out.

“As one team, we’ll learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people.” said Phil Spencer while announcing the news.

“We’ll do this in a culture that strives to empower everyone to do their best work, where all people are welcome, and is centered on our ongoing commitment of Gaming for Everyone.

We are intentional about everything we do at Xbox – from our team to the products we make and the stories we tell, to the way players interact and engage as a wide gaming community.

Together, we’ll create new worlds and stories, bring your favorite games to more places so more players can join in, and we’ll engage with and delight players in new, innovative ways in the places they love to play including mobile, cloud streaming and more.”

Source – [Xbox]