Microsoft announced Jan. 18 that it is acquiring the company Activision Blizzard, a company that owns such popular games as Call of Duty and Overwatch, in an all-cash transaction of $68.7 billion.
“When the transaction closes, Microsoft will become the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony,” Microsoft said in a Jan. 18 press release. “The planned acquisition includes iconic franchises from the Activision, Blizzard and King studios like ‘Warcraft,’ ‘Diablo,’ ‘Overwatch,’ ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Candy Crush,’ in addition to global eSports activities through Major League Gaming. The company has studios around the world with nearly 10,000 employees.”
Bohdin Rush, freshman electrical engineering major, said he has been playing games from Activision for nearly all his life. Bohdin said he is unsure about what changes Microsoft will make, but he is confident in its gaming console.
“I’ve been playing Xbox for a while,” Rush said. “(Microsoft) will make changes. I’m not sure if they’ll be good changes. I know they have a good quality console, but other than that, I’m not sure if they would do anything toward changing the gaming community and the quality of games. It’s more of just the quality of content that is the most important thing. And I believe that this is all going to lead down to only one company being at the top and them all working together to create one quality product for them.”
Kaleb Coggins, senior software engineering major, said he prefers indie games to big brand name companies, because he finds the games more interesting, but he said Microsoft’s continued interest in expanding the development of gaming is a good sign for the future of the gaming industry.
“The gaming industry isn’t going away anytime soon,” Coggins said. “Microsoft buying these companies and investing in this industry does say to me that the industry has places to go and that there’s more out there to explore. But that doesn’t mean small companies are going away. There are always small teams that are popping up, creating new games, creating new experiences for gamers like me. And that’s what I like about gaming. There is so much out there, so I don’t feel like this is a bad thing for the gaming industry.”
This acquisition is a big win for Microsoft, as it will put them ahead of another gaming juggernaut, Nintendo, who had this slot before Microsoft’s deal.
