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Microsoft vs. Gamers: The Battle of Blizzard

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Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard is nothing new. This whole drama has been going on for some time since early 2022. However, it recently turned into Microsoft vs. Gamers when a group of gamers took matters into their own hands and filed a petition. Trial To prevent the contract from going against Microsoft.

Although Microsoft is one of the largest corporations on the planet, acquiring Activision Blizzard may have been their biggest challenge yet. The whole thing has been going on since early 2022 when Microsoft first made clear its intention to acquire Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft plans to buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. This will be the greatest achievement. Video game history If it follows through, it most likely will in due course.

By far, the largest acquisition in terms of monetary value was when Take-Two Interactive acquired Zynga, a mobile and social video game developer company, for USD 12.7 billion in 2022.

The Microsoft/Activision Blizzard deal is worth more than any other acquisition in the past. A deal of this scale has worried many governments and video game industry companies, such as Sony and Nintendo.

It’s not all about the money. Activision Blizzard owns Call of Duty, one of the most popular multiplayer first-person shooting games out there. The company also owns World of Warcraft, which spawned many modern MMORPG and RTS games such as DotA 2 and League of Legends.

Apart from these two, Activision Blizzard also owns the rights to Candy Crush, one of the most popular mobile games globally. Of all these IPs, Call of Duty is still the most prominent.

The Call of Duty franchise, despite releasing a new installment every other year that barely differs from the last, manages to sell millions of copies every year. The game may be riddled with bugs and glitches and has a lot of negative reviews, but it’s easily one of Activision Blizzard’s biggest cash cows.

What has happened so far?

Now, one of the biggest concerns for many is the fact that Microsoft could make Call of Duty more expensive or unavailable for platforms the company doesn’t own.

Sony had to step in because if any of this happens, Sony will lose a huge chunk of the money they get from people who buy PlayStation consoles to play games. And that’s not all. Making a globally popular game available only on Microsoft-owned platforms would create a potential monopoly in the video game industry.

however, Phil SpencerThe CEO of Microsoft Gaming has proposed entering a 10-year commitment to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo following its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Phil also confirmed that Microsoft is committed to continuing to offer Call of Duty on Steam and Xbox.

After Spencer’s tweet, Brad SmithThe president of Microsoft has made it clear that the acquisition of Activision Blizzard will make Call of Duty available to more players and platforms. Brad Smith also proposed a deal to Sony, saying that he would be happy to seal a 10-year deal for the PlayStation if Sony agreed.

It is important to note that these are all just promises on social media. Microsoft is not in a position to seal such deals until they acquire Activision Blizzard.

Gabby NevilleThe president of Valve Corporation and owner of Steam has also backed Microsoft by saying that the company has all the motivation it needs to deliver Call of Duty on the platforms where its users want it.

Statement by Gabe Newell, President of Valve Corporation, regarding the merger. (Source: Kotaku)
Statement by Gabe Newell, President of Valve Corporation, regarding the merger. (Source: Kotaku)

Microsoft has also given the example of Minecraft. The game was developed by Mojang Studios and fully released in November 2011. Microsoft acquired the Mojave Studios and Minecraft IPs in 2014.

The game is now available on multiple platforms, not just owned by Microsoft, and has grown in popularity over the past few years.

According to Microsoft, they plan to do the same with the Call of Duty IP to make it more accessible to gamers around the world.

But then again, these are nothing more than promises and promises, which is why the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed a lawsuit against Microsoft over the merger, claiming that if the deal goes through, So it could potentially block access to activation games. Consoles

Despite all these hurdles, Microsoft President Brad Smith is confident in his case and is willing to take the chance to present it in court.

A group of 10 Call of Duty fans sued Microsoft.

First, UK regulators launched an antitrust investigation into the merger, and then came the FTC. Now, ten regular gamers from California, New Jersey, and New Mexico have decided to take matters into their own hands.

Now, these ten Call of Duty fans are set to fight Microsoft over Activision Blizzard’s acquisition in US court. While the outcome may already be painfully obvious, these gamers are refusing to give up.

These gamers have filed a lawsuit in a United States court to prevent Microsoft from acquiring Activision Blizzard. He claimed that Microsoft’s acquisition of the company would stifle competition in the video game industry.

Their claims are more or less the same as the FTC. However, ten gamers can’t do much against a giant like Microsoft. But they have a point with it because Microsoft will hold all the keys to harming the competition once the deal is done.

The statement from Gamers' lawsuit was reported by PC Gamer.
Reported by Mahfil’s case statement. PC gamer.

In 2021, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax, Bethesda’s parent company. Since then, Bethesda has announced three games, all of which are exclusive titles, and one is slated for release in a few months this year.

Now, here’s where the FTC and ten gamers stand. Bethesda announced three exclusive titles, contradicting their attitude of making games more accessible rather than limiting them to Microsoft’s Xbox.

How will the deal affect everyone?

Judging by the situation so far, it’s highly likely that the deal will go through, and sooner or later, Microsoft will finally be able to acquire Activision Blizzard. Now, after the deal is successful, how will it affect us, the regular gamers?

While we can’t be entirely sure, Microsoft is expected to keep some of its promises and not limit access to Call of Duty. Microsoft has said that they will continue to offer games on multiple platforms with massive multiplayer games. Therefore, if we receive more multiplayer games from Microsoft after the merger, those games will likely be available on multiple platforms.

However, the same cannot be said about single-player games. Starfield, an upcoming game from Microsoft-owned Bethesda, is an Xbox exclusive, and more games from the company will likely be exclusives as well.

It’s not all that bad, considering that the Xbox is quite lacking compared to the PlayStation in terms of exclusives. We can expect this integration to continue to grow the Xbox player base in the years to come. For now, Xbox has nothing to win over PlayStation’s exciting collection other than its Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass is a video game subscription service that lets you play new and old games without paying anything extra beyond the cost of the subscription. The service is only available for PC or Xbox, so if you own one of those, you can use it to play all those games without having to worry about buying new games.

take away

Sooner or later, Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard, and the deal will be done. The FTC and ten average gamers, or whatever, won’t be able to stop Microsoft. A deal of this scale will greatly increase the value of the Xbox in the coming days, and Sony will have to do better to keep up.

As for Call of Duty, the game is a mess, but we all love it. Hopefully the quality of the game will improve somewhat. But it is highly unlikely that any of this will happen.

We cannot rule out the fact that this merger will lead to a potential monopoly in the video game industry, as Microsoft will now hold all the keys to shaping the future of Xbox and other consoles for the next decade.

For now, we’ll just have to trust Microsoft and hope it doesn’t get too greedy. Instead, it creates a better future for Xbox and other consoles by making games more accessible to its users.

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