Here’s everything Microsoft owns after the Activision Blizzard deal
Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard doesn’t give the maker of Xbox and the home of Halo control of everything significant in console gaming. Sony still stands apart with its strong stable of PlayStation exclusives, while Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Ubisoft continue to jockey for position across all platforms.
But it’s damn close to everything. Since 2014, when Redmond shook $2.5 billion from its piggy bank to acquire Mojang and Minecraft, the company has been on an escalating buying spree that has brought a who’s-who directory of AAA gaming to its Xbox Game Pass library, now 25 million subscribers strong.
Pilloried at the beginning of the Xbox One console generation in 2013 for a supposedly wavering interest in video games, Microsoft soon vowed — under then-new head of Xbox Phil Spencer — that it would adopt a renewed, diamond-hard focus on the games, the good games, and nothing but the games. So help him, God, he’s made good on that. Here are all the major franchises, developers, and names in games that Microsoft now controls.
The sci-fi shooter series has always been a Microsoft-owned, Xbox-exclusive franchise. But if only for posterity’s sake, it’s worth pointing out the company owns and controls this blockbuster intellectual property, just as strong and relevant with the launch of Halo Infiniteas it was when Halo: Combat Evolved debuted 20 years ago. Microsoft acquired series creator Bungie in 2000, then created 343 Industries to take control of Halo after Bungie split from Microsoft and fulfilled its remaining obligations to the series.
Likewise an Xbox/Windows PC exclusive, Cliff Bleszinski’s Gears of War franchise was owned by Epic Games until Microsoft bought the property in early
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