Phil Spencer says Microsoft really wants Activision for mobile and PC games

pcgamer.com:

It would be reasonable to think that Microsoft's pursuit of Activision Blizzard was driven to a significant degree by Call of Duty. It's one of the biggest game series on the planet, after all, a perennial money-maker that just can't seem to lose, even after over a decade of yearly releases. But in an interview with Bloomberg(opens in new tab), Xbox boss Phil Spencer said what really drove Microsoft's interest was mobile games and, to a lesser extent, PC.

«The biggest gaming platform on the planet is mobile phones. One and a half billion people play on mobile phones,» Spencer said. «And I guess, regretfully as Microsoft, it's not a place where we have a native platform. As gaming, coming from console and PC, we don't have a lot of creative capability that has built hit mobile games.

»One thing about the videogame space is, if you've been around maybe too long, you know most of the creators out there. So you kind of know teams that could be a good fit in terms of what we were trying to do. But we really started the discussions, internally at least, on Activision Blizzard around the capability they had on mobile, and then PC with Blizzard. Those are the two things that were really driving our interest."

It's an especially interesting point because Call of Duty is popularly seen as a major potential obstacle to regulatory approval of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Microsoft was recently forced to respond to allegations from Sony that Call of Duty games are so "essential(opens in new tab)" that they can influence console purchasing decisions. In light of that, it's understandable that Microsoft might want to minimize the role that Call of Duty played in driving the deal.

Mobile genuinely is where the money