Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard purchase is a disaster for gaming

digitaltrends.com:

Microsoft just dropped a bombshell in announcing its intentions to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion … and I couldn’t be more scared for what this means for the industry at large.

We already saw Microsoft building up to these large-scale purchases through small, independent studios early on, followed by the massive Bethesda purchase that was finalized last year. I had hoped that that would be the last purchase of that scale for Xbox, but I was very, very wrong.

Buying Bethesda (or more accurately, ZeniMax Media) felt like it was crossing a line. Xbox already had around 20 studios under it, and adding in an entire publisher felt like a desperate move to bolster its library with exclusives and valuable IP. It made me very suspicious that Microsoft was trying to essentially buy success for this generation of consoles, but the latest purchase is genuinely frightening for what it means for everyone, not just Xbox.

Looking back at the Bethesda buyout, there was already a huge amount of confusion, anger, and worry across the gaming landscape. This was in part due to Microsoft’s less than clear messaging regarding exclusives, plus the fact that some of its new studios were still under contract to release PlayStation exclusives. Even if messaging this time is clear regarding the exclusivity of all the new franchises Microsoft just snatched up, the anger and worry will not be stifled. In fact, it will only be worse this time.

We’ve been moving toward a world where independently operated publishers could become less common. Microsoft, Tencent, and Embracer (to name a few) have been picking up these studios like they’re hoarding the last couple slices of pizza from the box. Sony has made a few purchases as well, but