A big gaming acquisition this week could see even more games brought to Microsoft’s buffet of game play, though it could also have ramifications for what comes out on other consoles.
There’s big moves afoot in the world of gaming this week, as Microsoft makes a big play for one of the world’s largest game publishers: Activision Blizzard, the home of game franchises such as World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and Crash Bandicoot, is being bought, as Microsoft acquires the company for a staggeringly large amount of money, to the tune of nearly $68 billion USD.
The move will see the publisher’s list of games fall under everything else Microsoft has, provided the deal goes through. If slash when it does, Microsoft will effectively add Activision and Blizzard’s gaming franchises to Xbox Game Pass, and likely to Xbox Cloud Gaming not long after, providing a way to play the games remotely.
As it is, Microsoft’s Game Pass has over 25 million subscribers, making it a service millions of gamers are relying upon, and this should bolster the buffet of games available on the service.
However, it could also make a dent on the games released for other platforms.
If the Microsoft deal goes through, it’s entirely possible that we could see Microsoft’s ownership of Activision and Blizzard affect title releases for other consoles, meaning some of the major franchises would only appear on consoles and operating systems handled by Microsoft, and not the rest. While that might boost Microsoft’s buffet of games, it’s clearly not a fantastic win for owners of other devices if it does happen.
Of course, this is all one giant “if”, because the $68.7 billion USD deal has to go through, and then we’ll likely see what Microsoft has planned for Activision and Blizzard.
