Sony PlayStation is in trouble with Microsoft’s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the makers of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Candy Crush. Yes, I believe that if this deal goes through, over time, Call of Duty will be cut-out of PlayStation.
This playbook is also the validation that the future of gaming is content, not just hardware. Microsoft understands that redesign and is building critical assets in the industry. First was Minecraft which it paid $2.5 billion. Now, it wants to spend close to $68 billion for Activision Blizzard. It had also bought many studios, including ZeniMax Media which it spent $7.5 billion three years ago.
Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company) announced it has agreed to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion. The all-cash deal provides Microsoft with the video game maker’s many popular titles, including Candy Crush, Call of Duty and Warcraft, as well as its nearly 400 million monthly gaming users. It also positions Microsoft as a major rival to Facebook in the race to dominate the metaverse, the broad term for VR, AR and virtual worlds.
Apple has won the smartphone world with the iPhone as the hub in America’s mobile internet. Microsoft wants its Xbox console to be what iPhone is to mobile internet. With these assets, that is evidently a possibility. The future of gaming will pass through Xbox because it will provide some of the best content in the world.
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This is one of the effects of subscription where exclusivity is what matters. In other words, companies will be building their content because that is the only way to get customers to keep renewing. This redesign happened in movies where the best ones (for example, Netflix’s House of Cards, and Orange Is The New Black) are exclusive. The best AB games will become exclusive to Xbox.
So, Sony has a real challenge as Microsoft consolidates the world of serious gaming.
It is the software company’s major push to grab more share of the burgeoning game industry. The transaction is at $95.00 per share and will include Activision’s franchises such as Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Call of Duty and Candy Crush.
The game industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world and offers Microsoft the opportunity develop its metaverse platforms.
“Gaming is the most dynamic and exciting category in entertainment across all platforms today and will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms,” said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “We’re investing deeply in world-class content, community and the cloud to usher in a new era of gaming that puts players and creators first and makes gaming safe, inclusive and accessible to all.”
Microsoft Acquires Activision Blizzard in A $68.7 Billion Deal
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See the kind of billions being mentioned for gaming! This world really has many facets; some are still figuring out the basics while some are looking at the next frontier to immerse in.
Well, Microsoft is building its own community, through massive purchases, both successful and failed ones, but it doesn’t really have options, if it wants to play in the billion consumers market, it’s now within that region.
Apple owns its territory, then you have Google with its Android and YouTube; Meta is a planet on its own, so anyone that wants to be part of this exclusive league must break the bank and clear all barriers.
The world will obviously experience more addictions going forward, because they are all designed in a way to make humans more useless and dependent, the drama is just beginning…