Does the Microsoft Purchase of Activision Affect Gamers?

On January 19th, Microsoft announced that the company had purchased Activision Blizzard — a game development company credited with globally recognized titles such as Call of Duty, Candy Crush, World of Warcraft, and many others. Now, fans wonder what Microsoft’s purchase means for the future of Activision games.

The first concern at the forefront of many gamers’ minds when Microsoft announced its purchase of Activision was that any future Activision game would only be available for Xbox. While it is common for both Sony (the company behind the PlayStation console) and Microsoft to release games exclusive to their respective consoles, we don’t expect that Microsoft will follow this particular path with future Activision games. At least not yet.

The head of Microsoft’s Xbox division, Phil Spencer, said, “Activision Blizzard games are enjoyed on a variety of platforms, and we plan to continue to support those communities moving forward.”

Given the broad appeal of many Activision titles, cutting their customer base for these games by a drastic margin in the hopes of encouraging more Xbox sales is unlikely. Especially since the company just spent nearly $69 billion purchasing Activision Blizzard.

At the same time, though, Microsoft’s main motivation for the purchase was to boost their position in the console wars. And it is entirely possible that the company might choose to make some Activision games Xbox exclusive as a result.

What else can gamers expect now that Microsoft owns the company? For now, we’re unsure how much of an impact this change in ownership will have on future Activision releases.

Microsoft will retain most of Activision’s engineers and creative talent. In addition, a change in leadership for the company might not be a bad thing.

The broader fear among the gaming community surrounding this purchase has less to do with how it will impact future Activision games. Instead, it has more to do with how it will impact the game development industry. Many worry that creative, out-of-the-box games won’t have the space to create.

For now, however, PC and PlayStation gamers know that their favorite Activision games won’t become Xbox exclusive.

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