Microsoft has announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, a major game publisher.
If the acquisition is successful with the permission of major shareholders and regulators, Microsoft will also bring a number of development studios under its umbrella, winning Call of Duty, Diablo, Warcraft, Overwatch, Candy Crush, Starcraft and more as its own titles. Become.
All acquisitions are expected to be $ 95 per share in cash, for a total of $ 68.7 billion. This is a super-large project worth about 7.87 trillion yen in Japanese yen.
After the acquisition, Activision Blizzard’s management will remain, and CEO Bobby Kotick will continue to lead the team and report to Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer.
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Microsoft plans to add the titles it won from the acquisition of Activision Blizzard to its subscription-based service, Xbox Game Pass / PC Game Pass.
Xbox
With the acquisition of Bethesda (parent company ZeniMax), series such as Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein will be added to all-you-can-play game passes, including past games, and new games will be available at no additional cost as soon as they are released. became.
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For gamers who are already enjoying the Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, and those who are considering joining, there is also the good news that more popular titles will be added to all-you-can-play at the same price.
On the other hand, popular series such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, Warcraft, and StarCraft, which had been developed on multiple models so far, may become exclusive to Xbox on game consoles as Microsoft’s own title.
Bethesda’s new open-world space RPG, Starfield, which was actually acquired, is now a title to be released only on Windows PCs and Xboxes.
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But just as Minecraft, one of the signboards that Microsoft acquired and raised, continues to roll out on multiple platforms, just because it’s Microsoft’s IP doesn’t mean it’s an Xbox monopoly. Especially for titles that are popular on home video game consoles, the PlayStation version occupies a large proportion, so there is a possibility that you can still play on PS.
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