Microsoft And Xbox Acquire Activision Blizzard

gameinformer.com:

Microsoft announced that it acquired Activision Blizzard, the studio behind franchises like Call of Duty, Overwatch, World of Warcraft, and more. 

This news was announced today amongst rumors that such an acquisition was happening. It seems Xbox head Phil Spencer, who wrote the blog post announcing the report, was looking to get ahead of said rumors, and now, it's official: Xbox is the new home of Call of Duty, Diablo, Overwatch, and all of Activision Blizzard's other franchises.

The deal is worth $68.7 billion, which is significantly more than the $7.5 billion Microsoft spent on its acquisition of Bethesda back in 2020. For more context of this nearly $70 billion price tag, just last week, Take-Two announced one of the most expensive acquisitions in gaming history when it revealed it was buying Zynga for nearly $13 billion.

«As a team, we are on a mission to extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet,» Spencer's Xbox Wire blog post reads. «We all know that gaming is the most vibrant and dynamic form of entertainment worldwide and we've experienced the power of social connection and friendship that gaming makes possible. As we pursue that mission, it is incredibly exciting to announce that Microsoft has agreed to acquire Activision Blizzard.» 

Here are some of the teams this acquisition places in the Xbox family: 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, and Treyarch. Microsoft will have 30 internal game development studios following the close of this deal. There's no word on if games developed by these studios will be