Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision Blizzard: A Game-Changer for the Industry

The recent acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft is a game-changer for the gaming industry. This deal, valued at $68.7 billion, marks one of the largest acquisitions in gaming history. The acquisition has significant implications for the future of the industry, and it's clear that scale will play a crucial role in shaping the market moving forward.

The acquisition continues to demonstrate that size is everything in the gaming industry. With this deal, Microsoft is now the owner of some of the biggest names in gaming, including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda Softworks, and King Digital Entertainment. The acquisition also brings together two of the largest players in the industry, with Microsoft's Xbox brand and Activision Blizzard's popular franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.

The acquisition also raises questions about the future of other top-tier AAA publishers. Can they continue to exist as independent companies, or will they eventually be acquired by one of the big players? The answer is likely yes, but at what cost? The gaming industry is already seeing consolidation, with larger companies buying up smaller ones. This trend is expected to continue, with Microsoft and Sony already being major players.

Another acquisition that comes to mind is Disney's purchase of Marvel and Star Wars for a combined $4 billion each. While it may seem like a bargain in hindsight, the move has paid off for Disney, and it's likely that Microsoft will be able to do the same with its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Electronic Arts (EA) is another company that could become an acquisition target, with a market cap of around $39 billion.

Apple and Google are also playing a significant role in gaming, with Apple Arcade and Google Stadia being two notable examples. While neither has had a huge impact on the industry yet, both companies are investing heavily in cloud gaming, which is expected to be a major player in the future. Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard could provide it with a significant boost in terms of exclusives, potentially making Xbox Game Pass a major player in the subscription service space.

NVIDIA, another major player in the gaming industry, is also building its own platform through GeForce Now. The company has invested heavily in cloud gaming technology and is well-positioned to take advantage of the growing demand for online gaming. However, it remains to be seen whether NVIDIA's platform will be able to compete with Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service.

Cloud gaming is expected to play a major role in the future of gaming, and Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has significant implications for this space. The technology behind cloud gaming is still evolving, but it's clear that server-side gaming, where games are played on remote servers rather than local hardware, is the future. Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service is just one example of this trend, and it's likely to be a major player in the market moving forward.

The implications for gamers like us are significant. With more exclusive titles being added to subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Now, there will be pressure to keep up with new content in order to remain subscribed. This could lead to a shift towards games-as-a-service models, where players pay month after month for access to a library of games.

The acquisition also raises questions about the future of companies like Valve and Epic Games. While these companies are primarily focused on technology and distribution platforms, their influence on the gaming industry cannot be overstated. Valve's Unreal Engine is one of the most widely used game engines in the world, and its impact on the development of games cannot be overstated.

As for the metaverse, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard has sparked a lot of speculation about what this means for the future of virtual worlds. While there was no concrete information released by Microsoft about the company's plans for the metaverse, it's clear that the technology will play a major role in shaping the industry moving forward.

One thing is certain: the gaming industry is undergoing significant changes. The acquisition of Activision Blizzard marks just one example of the consolidation we can expect to see in the coming years. As companies like Microsoft and Sony continue to grow through acquisitions, the market will become increasingly dominated by a few large players.

In the end, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard has significant implications for gamers, developers, and publishers alike. As the gaming industry continues to evolve, it's clear that scale, technology, and innovation will play major roles in shaping its future.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enif you woke up this morning with microsoft buys activision blizzard on your bingo card well good for you it's an almost 70 billion dollar deal that's bound to have a huge impact on the industry but i'm more interested in what it means for gamers like you and me i think the first big question people are asking is does this mean activision blizzard games are going to be locked into uh just the xbox or xbox and pc i say the smart money is on probably not there are a lot of franchises call of duty overwatch they're just too big to be locked into just one console and pc we're going to continue to see those on other platforms on playstation on switch cloud streaming on mobile i think it's going to continue remember activision blizzard controls a lot of other big brands like diablo and yes like candy crush because it has that king subsidiary that makes mobile games this also gives microsoft a much bigger foothold in esports which is an area it really has not been a driving force in but taking over some of the big esports brands whether it's overwatch whether it's starcraft i think that means that we're going to see a lot more microsoft influence in esports this is another big potential step for game pass and it further differentiates the possibilities of game pass from what sony offers with the playstation which is this weird combination of playstation plus and playstation now neither of which are even close to being as comprehensive as xbox game passes and of course it's two separate services you have to subscribe to that said sony is said to be working on a revamped version of its subscription offerings maybe something that combines those two into something that's a little more game pass like but now that microsoft is adding the activision catalog and probably bringing at least some of those games to game pass i think it's going to be an even tougher hill for sony to climb remember that microsoft already has a deal to offer access to some ea games through ea play that you can get by being an xbox game pass ultimate subscriber so maybe if you take a future version of game pass that has microsoft games nea games and activision blizzard games well that's really a lot of stuff under one subscription it really takes a lot of chips off the table when it comes to asking gamers to purchase individual standalone games another big question people are asking is does this mean exclusive games exclusive for just one console are going to be much more than norm than even they are now and also what happens to other top tier aaa publishers are they going to be able to exist in the future as independent companies or they inevitably going to get snatched up by one of the other big players remember microsoft already owns bethesda and is taking at least some future bethesda games xbox only or xbox and pc only this also reminds me of how disney snapped up marvel and star wars and ended up paying about 4 billion dollars each for those which really seems like a bargain in hindsight especially because we're talking about 67 billion dollars for activision blizzard so who's next if somebody's going on a shopping spree electronic arts their market cap is about 39 billion dollars take two they're about 18 billion dollars these become an acquisition target for microsoft probably not for sony but what about apple or google who are always trying to bolster their gaming bonafides and build out things like apple arcade which is a thing but it's kind of very limited in its box and that's where it is or google stadia which had a big splash but hasn't moved the needle a lot lately even as cloud gaming becomes more and more important and microsoft is already eating up a lot of the oxygen in the room when it comes to cloud gaming and what about nvidia that is a huge market cap company very influential in gaming it's building its own platform via geforce now but that's also a very different animal i've said going back 10 plus years that cloud gaming is the future basically server side gaming where you don't have any hardware locally everything is played on a remote server and beamed back to you that said it's taken a lot longer to take off than i ever thought it would there's still a lot of implementations and technology hurdles there microsoft is doing a really interesting job with what they used to call xcloud now it's microsoft cloud gaming and you've also of course got nvidia geforce now and google stadia and amazon's version of it that is called i've already forgotten uh luna so there's definitely a lot of potential players in that cloud gaming space and they could all be interested in buying some of these uh developers and publishers to try to get some exclusive titles that will bring you into those services what can we take away from microsoft buying activision blizzard i think it continues to teach us that scale is really everything these days and interest rates are low so there's less cost to growing through acquisition and of course we're going to continue to see that i think the gaming industry in particular is very fertile ground for increased consolidation i'm also thinking about what happens to companies like valve and epic although these companies are really more about their underlying technology like the unreal engine uh and about distribution platforms than just being you know game publishers or game creators when you think about what this all means for gamers whether you're an xbox game or a pc gamer a playstation gamer a switch gamer maybe a cloud game or a mobile gamer i think there's a lot of unknowns in the future some of the things i am thinking about already is what happens to battle.net that's the old-school blizzard game platform and storefront uh pc gamers i think already have too many platforms and storefronts to deal with maybe it's time to clean up that landscape a little bit maybe they fold that in with the xbox app that runs the pc gaming side of microsoft's xbox game pass gaming i'm also somewhat surprised that activision ceo bobby kotick who's been under fire for many months about his company's toxic culture is number one staying on and number two there wasn't really a mention of any of that in microsoft's press announcement that means all that negative connotation now is on microsoft shoulders and it's going to be their responsibility to deal with it going forward and then of course there's a most important question for any tech news in 2022 what does it mean for the metaverse i'm kidding but only slightly there's a throwaway line in microsoft's press materials about how this is going to quote provide building blocks for the metaverse which is about as clear as pretty much every other metaverse mentioned these days so microsoft buying activision blizzard obviously it's a big deal and means a lot for the games industry for the technology industry and frankly for the subscription service industry because so much of it is built around game pass on the gaming side what does it mean for gamers like me and you i think it means that we're going to see more merging of activision and ea play and microsoft and bethesda games all under these single subscriptions which is going to drive a lot of pressure to add new content to keep you subscribed and keep you paying month after month because everybody from apple to adobe has shown subscriptions are the futureif you woke up this morning with microsoft buys activision blizzard on your bingo card well good for you it's an almost 70 billion dollar deal that's bound to have a huge impact on the industry but i'm more interested in what it means for gamers like you and me i think the first big question people are asking is does this mean activision blizzard games are going to be locked into uh just the xbox or xbox and pc i say the smart money is on probably not there are a lot of franchises call of duty overwatch they're just too big to be locked into just one console and pc we're going to continue to see those on other platforms on playstation on switch cloud streaming on mobile i think it's going to continue remember activision blizzard controls a lot of other big brands like diablo and yes like candy crush because it has that king subsidiary that makes mobile games this also gives microsoft a much bigger foothold in esports which is an area it really has not been a driving force in but taking over some of the big esports brands whether it's overwatch whether it's starcraft i think that means that we're going to see a lot more microsoft influence in esports this is another big potential step for game pass and it further differentiates the possibilities of game pass from what sony offers with the playstation which is this weird combination of playstation plus and playstation now neither of which are even close to being as comprehensive as xbox game passes and of course it's two separate services you have to subscribe to that said sony is said to be working on a revamped version of its subscription offerings maybe something that combines those two into something that's a little more game pass like but now that microsoft is adding the activision catalog and probably bringing at least some of those games to game pass i think it's going to be an even tougher hill for sony to climb remember that microsoft already has a deal to offer access to some ea games through ea play that you can get by being an xbox game pass ultimate subscriber so maybe if you take a future version of game pass that has microsoft games nea games and activision blizzard games well that's really a lot of stuff under one subscription it really takes a lot of chips off the table when it comes to asking gamers to purchase individual standalone games another big question people are asking is does this mean exclusive games exclusive for just one console are going to be much more than norm than even they are now and also what happens to other top tier aaa publishers are they going to be able to exist in the future as independent companies or they inevitably going to get snatched up by one of the other big players remember microsoft already owns bethesda and is taking at least some future bethesda games xbox only or xbox and pc only this also reminds me of how disney snapped up marvel and star wars and ended up paying about 4 billion dollars each for those which really seems like a bargain in hindsight especially because we're talking about 67 billion dollars for activision blizzard so who's next if somebody's going on a shopping spree electronic arts their market cap is about 39 billion dollars take two they're about 18 billion dollars these become an acquisition target for microsoft probably not for sony but what about apple or google who are always trying to bolster their gaming bonafides and build out things like apple arcade which is a thing but it's kind of very limited in its box and that's where it is or google stadia which had a big splash but hasn't moved the needle a lot lately even as cloud gaming becomes more and more important and microsoft is already eating up a lot of the oxygen in the room when it comes to cloud gaming and what about nvidia that is a huge market cap company very influential in gaming it's building its own platform via geforce now but that's also a very different animal i've said going back 10 plus years that cloud gaming is the future basically server side gaming where you don't have any hardware locally everything is played on a remote server and beamed back to you that said it's taken a lot longer to take off than i ever thought it would there's still a lot of implementations and technology hurdles there microsoft is doing a really interesting job with what they used to call xcloud now it's microsoft cloud gaming and you've also of course got nvidia geforce now and google stadia and amazon's version of it that is called i've already forgotten uh luna so there's definitely a lot of potential players in that cloud gaming space and they could all be interested in buying some of these uh developers and publishers to try to get some exclusive titles that will bring you into those services what can we take away from microsoft buying activision blizzard i think it continues to teach us that scale is really everything these days and interest rates are low so there's less cost to growing through acquisition and of course we're going to continue to see that i think the gaming industry in particular is very fertile ground for increased consolidation i'm also thinking about what happens to companies like valve and epic although these companies are really more about their underlying technology like the unreal engine uh and about distribution platforms than just being you know game publishers or game creators when you think about what this all means for gamers whether you're an xbox game or a pc gamer a playstation gamer a switch gamer maybe a cloud game or a mobile gamer i think there's a lot of unknowns in the future some of the things i am thinking about already is what happens to battle.net that's the old-school blizzard game platform and storefront uh pc gamers i think already have too many platforms and storefronts to deal with maybe it's time to clean up that landscape a little bit maybe they fold that in with the xbox app that runs the pc gaming side of microsoft's xbox game pass gaming i'm also somewhat surprised that activision ceo bobby kotick who's been under fire for many months about his company's toxic culture is number one staying on and number two there wasn't really a mention of any of that in microsoft's press announcement that means all that negative connotation now is on microsoft shoulders and it's going to be their responsibility to deal with it going forward and then of course there's a most important question for any tech news in 2022 what does it mean for the metaverse i'm kidding but only slightly there's a throwaway line in microsoft's press materials about how this is going to quote provide building blocks for the metaverse which is about as clear as pretty much every other metaverse mentioned these days so microsoft buying activision blizzard obviously it's a big deal and means a lot for the games industry for the technology industry and frankly for the subscription service industry because so much of it is built around game pass on the gaming side what does it mean for gamers like me and you i think it means that we're going to see more merging of activision and ea play and microsoft and bethesda games all under these single subscriptions which is going to drive a lot of pressure to add new content to keep you subscribed and keep you paying month after month because everybody from apple to adobe has shown subscriptions are the future\n"