Activision Blizzard purchase is the biggest in gaming history
THE Microsoft is in the final stages of negotiations to buy the video game company Activision Blizzard, for US$ 68.7 billion (US$ 95.00 per share), making the biggest deal in the history of the games industry.
When the transaction is complete, Microsoft will be the world's third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.
Activision Blizzard's franchise portfolio includes some of the biggest series in the gaming industry, such as Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, among others.
The company's acquisition also includes several of its internal studios, including Beenox, Infinity Ward, Candy Crush Saga's King, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, Treyarch, and more.
Microsoft's Metaverse and Game Pass
Microsoft announced that, after the purchase is completed, it intends to offer as many Activision Blizzard games as possible in the catalog of the Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which recently reached 25 million subscribers and Blizzard has almost 400 million monthly active players, in 190 countries.
The titles will be playable on Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, as well as receiving support for Xbox Cloud Gaming.
Upon closing the deal, which is still subject to the customary conditions of these transactions, Microsoft will have 30 in-house game development studios, as well as additional esports publishing and production resources.
How will games be on PlayStation?
There is confirmation that some content will be released only for Microsoft video games. But sources from within the franchise owner such as overwatch and warcraft say the brand shouldn't make all of its games exclusive to Xbox.
The information makes commercial sense, since games like Call of Duty, for example, sell very well on the PlayStation, and making the franchise exclusive to Xbox would result in a huge loss of money for Microsoft. But we can only wait and see how it will work in practice.
Find out how the ranking of the 9 largest developers will look after Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard
Forbes published what the list of the 9 biggest developers will look like after Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard
1 - Tencent
2 - Sony
3 - Microsoft
4 – Google
5 - NetEase
6 - Nintendo
7 – Electronic Arts
8 - Take Two
9 - CyberAgent
Brazilians in top leadership
Activision Blizzard has two Brazilian leaders in senior management positions. Fernando Machado, former global CMO of the holding company that controls Burger King, took over as marketing leader for the developer in April 2021. Also last year, in November, Fernanda Romano, former CMO of Alpargatas, assumed the position of global marketing leadership at King, the company that owns the Candy Crush game owned by Activision Blizzard.
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