Microsoft’s Acquisition of Activision Blizzard: Good or Bad News for Gamers?

Activision has exhibited a turbulent past for some time now; with ongoing litigations and accusations of a toxic workplace, a controversial CEO, unrest at certain studios and scrutiny from a couple of government regulatory groups. Not to mention the publisher’s severe lack of player support.

Microsoft recognise this and have decided to acquire Activision for $68.7 billion. This will be Microsoft’s biggest push into gaming. The company state that it will be the “third largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony” once the deal goes through.

However, the damage has been done by Activision. As such, Microsoft will face an uphill battle in their quest of rehabilitating Activision Blizzard.

3 Potential Issues Microsoft Face in its Activision Acquisition

Here are three of the biggest issues Microsoft will face in its attempted resurrection of Activision Blizzard.

#1 Bobby Kotick

Activision’s current CEO has been a controversial figure for some time now. With growing allegations in legal complaints, the CEO has not done the publisher any justice. Microsoft says that Kotick will continue to serve as CEO of Activision Blizzard for now.

#2 The General Opinion of Blizzard

It’s well known across the gaming community that Blizzard does not have the best reputation on the video game side of public perception. Despite the fact that Blizzard has some impressive titles, a large portion of those games are not in a great state; Call of Duty faces countless hackers on a regular basis with a continued pay-to-win infrastructure, Diablo 4 is languishing in a long development process, World of Warcraft is suffering exponentially bad back-to-back expansions and a tsunami of player frustration.

#3 Toxic Workplaces

Since midyear 2021, Activision Blizzard has been in the firing line from all sides because of the alleged toxic and criminal behaviour in and around its workplace. The complaints highlight sexual harassment allegations, workplace bullying, demeaning behaviour and even racism.

What Does The Acquisition Mean for Gamers?

Microsoft plan to be the place where everyone goes to play games; kind of like the Netflix of gaming. Through its Game Pass service, it has laid solid foundations to become the hub for all gaming content. But, as great as this is, it presents one fundamental issue.

Where Netflix has competitors such as Disney, Amazon and Apple, no other company in gaming will be able to compete with Microsoft. This means that the gaming industry will no longer be a level playing field; players will have very few alternatives other than Microsoft and the company will essentially hold a monopoly on the industry, similar to how Google has such a firm grasp on the search engine world.

Microsoft is a pioneer in many realms, but the company see games as content. And this is something interrupts the experience of gaming for many gamers. For Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision to be truly successful, it needs to at its core be about the players and delivering the best possible experiences to them.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from Activision Blizzard, it’s that not caring for your player base can hurt you as a publisher. Hopefully Microsoft rise above this and won’t fall into the same trap as Activision Blizzard.

When Will The Activision Acquisition Deal Close?

Microsoft expect the Activision Blizzard deal to only close in fiscal year 2023. This means we will likely not see the deal approved for up to 18 months.