In a surprising announcement that’s set to shake the gaming landscape again, Microsoft has announced that they are set to acquire Activision Blizzard, ultimately owning such marquee franchises like Call of Duty, Warcraft, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Diablo, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and much more.

The announcement was made just moments ago by the man himself, Phil Spencer, saying that “We are incredibly excited to have the chance to work with the amazing, talented, dedicated people across Activision Publishing, Blizzard Entertainment, Beenox, Demonware, Digital Legends, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, King, Major League Gaming, Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, Treyarch and every team across Activision Blizzard.”

Spencer also points out that “we will offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog.”

Phil Spencer reiterates that until the deal is closed, both companies will operate independently. There will be antitrust checks and other legalities first, so it’ll take a while before the deal is 100% finished, similar to the Bethesda deal.

Activision Blizzard Acquisition Price

For those that can’t (or won’t) believe just how much this deal is, Jason Schreier has a figure that’s too big to really swallow at the moment, but the Activision Blizzard acquisition has reportedly cost Microsoft nearly $70 Billion. To be exact, $68.7 Billion in cold hard cash.

That’s a LOT of zeros. In Philippine pesos, that’s around 3,603,810,000,000. 3 Trillion… am I even counting that right?!

Activision Blizzard Exclusivity

While it doesn’t say explicitly that the Actiblizz properties will be exclusive to Xbox, it won’t be too hard to imagine that it will, similar to how the Bethesda acquisition has effectively blocked Starfield and others from Sony. There is an intriguing quote though in the announcement that may feed some hope for non-Xbox users – “Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward.” Take that as you will.

Following the huge Bethesda acquisition back in 2020, this latest acquisition now adds even more top-class studios in the Xbox stable, cementing the brand and the console as a definite force to be reckoned with this console generation.

Your move, Sony?