The Xbox maker announced before the market opened today that it intends to buy the Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher in a $68.7 billion deal – the game industry’s biggest ever by some distance.
Microsoft reportedly plans to keep making “some” Activision Blizzard games for PlayStation consoles following the takeover’s expected completion in 2023, and Xbox head Phil Spencer has claimed that “it’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform”.
It’s worth noting however that Spencer made similar comments prior the completion of Microsoft’s $7.5 billion takeover of Bethesda parent company Zenimax.
While previously released Bethesda games such as The Elder Scrolls Online continue to be supported on PlayStation platforms, and pre-existing exclusivity deals for Deathloop and Ghostwire Tokyo have been honoured, Microsoft has since confirmed that the company’s big future games such as Starfield, Redfall and The Elder Scrolls 6 will be exclusive to Xbox and PC.
While the direct impact of the Activision Blizzard news on Sony’s share price is unclear, it suffered a significant decline on Tuesday. The company’s shares ended the day down 7.17% on the New York Stock Exchange, marking their lowest close since late October 2021.
“Long-term this shows Microsoft is operating at an entirely different level than Sony and Nintendo,” DFC Intelligence said of the Activision Blizzard deal in a research note.
“Sony and Nintendo have huge presence in the existing game business, but those two smaller Japanese companies struggle to play in the higher strategic space the industry is heading.
“This is more about Microsoft competing with Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and others. This acquisition would immediately put Microsoft in a solid strategic position.”
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Source: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/sony-shares-fell-7-following-news-of-xboxs-activision-blizzard-deal/
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