It’s still a shock to the gaming industry that Microsoft has announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc., even more so following months of controversy for Activision Blizzard. At the center of it all has been the fate of the company’s CEO Bobby Kotick, whose position with the company is still being called into question following the new development.
The acclaimed publisher of franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and several others has seemingly been in discussion to have its assets be sold to Microsoft for some time now. The deal is also said to have cost Microsoft $68.7 billion, the company’s largest purchase ever, even more so than its previous purchase of Bethesda Softworks' parent company, ZeniMax Media, in 2020.
However, more details have started to surface about the inner workings of the deal, what will transpire after, and also the feelings of those involved. In an article published by Bloomberg, it was stated that Kotick originally did not even want the deal to take place, wanting instead to wait and see if another company would outbid Microsoft for any sort of deal. However, due to his shaky position within Activision’s board of directors, there was very little leeway for him to have his say in the situation.
Microsoft’s purchase of Activision Blizzard comes hot off the heels of the Overwatch developer’s lawsuit with California State agencies, with the Santa Monica studio steeped in controversy for abhorrent business practices and its treatment of employees, particularly women, who have been subject to sexual harassment and assault. Kotick, who was the subject of controversy himself after a report from the Wall Street Journal tied many of the accusations closely with him, is expected to depart the company following the finalization of this new deal.
While many see this as an opportunity for Microsoft to clean up the mess that Activision and Kotick’s leadership has left behind , many are also seeing this as nothing more than an exchange of power for more dominance over the market, not un-similar to practices by the Walt Disney Company during its buyout of 20th Century Fox a few years prior.
In regard to the publisher prior to this deal, Microsoft Gaming’s CEO Phil Spencer stated that Microsoft was “re-evaluating” its relationship with Activision in light of the controversy, but now it lays at Microsoft’s feet whether the decision to take on franchises like Starcraft and Crash Bandicoot was the proper re-evaluation.
Source: Bloomberg