Washington.- Microsoft surprised the video game industry with the announcement that it would buy the Activision Blizzard label for 68.7 billion dollars, an operation that would immediately make it a company dedicated to the sector larger than Nintendo.
Microsoft, maker of the Xbox gaming system, said the deal would be good for gamers and strengthen its goals toward the metaverse, a vision of immersive virtual worlds for both work and play.
Yet what does the deal really mean for the millions of people who play video games at a time of heightened scrutiny from governments over giant mergers?
Some experts believe the announcement is good news for gamers, especially if Microsoft’s vision of games for everyone and its mountain of cash can rescue Activision from its reputation for abandoning favorite game franchises to focus on a few select properties.
“Microsoft wants to increase the variety of intellectual property,” said Will McKeon-White, an analyst at Forrester. “Its target is anyone who plays video games and wants to bring that to a broader audience.”
He considered the “most egregious” example of a popular franchise that Activision, founded in 1979, left behind is “Starcraft,” last updated in 2015. Others include “Guitar Hero,” Tony Hawk’s skateboarding games and MechWarrior, which McKeon-White said “has basically been untouched for two decades.”
On the other hand, the prospect of Microsoft controlling so many games, from “Call of Duty” to “Candy Crush,” raised fears about whether the company could restrict Activision games on competing consoles.
Microsoft hopes to bring as many Activision games as it can to its Game Pass subscription service, “and some will presumably become Microsoft exclusives,” Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote. However, he stressed that antitrust regulators may not allow Microsoft to keep games out of Sony’s competing console, the PlayStation.
Pachter opined that Activision presents a blueprint for Microsoft on how to evolve its classic console franchises. It has adapted “Call of Duty” into successful free-to-play games for mobile devices, and hopes the company’s expertise will help Microsoft do the same with Xbox-owned Halo and other games.
Will it really happen? That is a great unknown. Regulators and rivals could mount pressure to block the deal.
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