Microsoft Will Buy Activision Blizzard for $68.7 Billion In All-Cash After Allegations

So, Microsoft will acquire Activision Blizzard, which you may know from some of the most recognizable names that you have played when you were a teen. They were the creators of World of Warcraft, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Diablo, and Starcraft. However, the recent controversies around the company over sexual harassment allegations, treatment against female workers, and open collective resignations from the workers there pushed the company to the edge of collapsing. Today, they are selling the company to Microsoft for 68.7 billion dollars, and to be honest, that is a cheap price after the stock price goes downhill.

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Why is it important that Activision Blizzard changes hands?

The move was widely seen as an escape move to avoid further association with sexual harassment and controversies, bad management around games and platforms with many more bad decisions the company has taken over the year. Under the wings of Microsoft, they are probably hoping to shape a new identity or a work culture. Also on the management side, Bobby Kotick, Activision Blizzard CEO, did not act on anything even after the rape and sexual harassment allegations against himself.

The importance of this event is that most of the notable games will probably transition to Xbox and the player base will need to adapt to the new environment and rules. Spencer mentioned, “This isn’t about virtue-shaming other companies” but as a writer, I feel like the move was more of finally ending a chain of mistakes that should have never happened in the first place in an industry that we all love and like.

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When will the transition from Activision Blizzard start?

The official change is projected to be in 2023, so, there is still some time that Activision needs to handle himself. But the chain events have surely made their mark on the gaming industry and showed a very shameful piece of the “frat boy culture” that was criticized in many game-developing companies. However, even if people do not like the company, there are still people liking the games even though their reputation was also harmed. Gaming is also one of the biggest industries in software development, so, I guess Microsoft did not waste the chance.

For some, the move was also seen like some financial ambition to use Blizzard’s games for entering the metaverse scene since gaming is a big industry in the digital world. However, there is no certain explanation that has been made towards this except a slight hint towards the importance of the gaming industry from Satya Nadella’s speech. But Metaverse seems like a buzzword that is thrown at every futuristic company plan nowadays, even the employers and customers themselves as you may remember from our previous article titled “Metaverse Employment Frenzy: 44% Is Willing to Work in the Metaverse“. There is news that Activision games are included in the Xbox game pass and that seems to be it for now.

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In short, Activision Blizzard is sold and we are hoping for a change in the good direction as far away from allegations and as close to good game development as possible. In the end, I would like to talk more about revolutionary game-development technology rather than allegations and a company trying to escape from them.

In the end, we all remember this company to be the dominating game company revolutionizing everything by publishing cult games, and this golden age of them was only around 10 years ago, which is not very long. However, it is saddening to see it come to this. The nostalgia is gone, and people are just wanting good games and a better-managed company with a comfortable work environment at this point.