While there are a lot of big gaming news stories at the moment this one certainly has taken the cake so it must be noted first. In a historic event Microsoft/Xbox Game Studios announced that they are purchasing the controversial company Activision/Blizzard for $70 Billion. It was announced in a blog post-style page written by the head of Xbox Game Studios Phil Spencer as he announced that not only will most of these games will now be coming to the Xbox and PC Game Pass but that they would be working under himself as the new leadership of the company once everything has gone through.
This is huge news as with Bethesda’s purchase not that long ago it would seem as though Microsoft is slowly becoming the Disney of the video game world, buying up loads of studios to have a monopoly on the market. I never would have imagined though that Activision/Blizzard of all companies would be bought out but here we are I suppose. This of course all follows the terrible abuse allegations which brings into question why on earth Xbox would think to handle such a controversial company at the moment. Well luckily for them it seems as though the deal won’t be going ahead fully until around June 2023 so the lawsuit can be dealt with before that deal finishes.
This then brings up the more interesting question of what will happen to the current CEO of the company, Bobby Kotick. According to the wording of the post made by Phil and subsequent emails sent by Bobby to the rest of the company it’s very likely that he will jump ship once the deal goes ahead next year which while it means he will escape the consequences of his actions unfortunately it also means that he will be ousted from the company in favour of Phil Spencer’s leadership which sounds fine with me. Phil seems like a pretty cool guy and his understanding of the importance of allowing all gamers to be able to play on the platforms they wish gives me hope for the future.
Still this all remains to be seen and we will have to wait and find out exactly how this will all play out and if it will help to stamp out all the rampant abuse at the company. We can only hope. That’s all for now, and as always. It’s not just a game, It’s a Life.