The Saga Is Over - Microsoft Expected To Complete Its Purchase Of Activision Blizzard Next Week

As reported by multiple sources, with its negotiations with the UK's CMA all but over and the FTC largely unable to do more, Microsoft is expected to complete its purchase of Activision Blizzard some time next week. After the EU's regulatory body gave its approval of the purchase, the US' FTC and UK's CMA were all that remained in terms of blocking the move from happening. The CMA relented after a preliminary injunction by the FTC to block the purchase failed and Microsoft announced that it would be selling the cloud gaming rights to all of Activision Blizzard’s games to Ubisoft in markets regulated or impacted by the CMA (i.e., Activision's European cloud gaming business). The FTC, however, still plans to an administrative hearing about Microsoft's plan to buy Activision, but the hearing is unlikely to do anything to derail the purchase from happening. The FTC still plans to move forward with its in-house trial against the acquisition after pausing that process over the summer. Nonetheless, the US judicial/court system seems to be decidedly in Microsoft's favor, which tracks given the current US Supreme Court stands as the most pro-business version of the court ever in American history. Likewise, Lina Khan, the current chairperson of the FTC, is facing new criticism that her efforts to block Microsoft's purchase plan as a waste of money, and is gearing the FTC in a likely expensive and prolonged battle against Amazon, which it is attempting to classify as being in violation of antitrust laws. Nonetheless, a Microsoft spokesperson told Yahoo Finance:

We still anticipate that we will close the transaction by October 18, and we have full confidence in our case and the deal's benefits to gamers and competition.

SO LET IT BE WRITTEN, SO LET IT BE DONE.

may value ever be delivered upon thy consumers, partners, and stakeholders.

and may thy currents of revenue ever be flowing, with margins vast as this good earth.

This is bad for gamers and competition but it probably won't be THAT bad. With all the concessions Microsoft made, plus how few games Activision puts out at this point, I'd bet we barely notice for years.

There's also the possibility that Microsoft actually does something with some of Activision's dormant IP. Phil Spencer has shown a tendency to want to revive fan favorites and make stuff available (Goldeneye and Battletoads, for example) and he has talked about that regarding Activision. It would be great to get some remasters and compilations (What they've done with Quake, for example, has been cool, and that came out on all the platforms) and even better to get something like Tony Hawk 3+4 Remake or even some new games in favorite franchises.

My real question is...who's next. Microsoft has held off acquisitions for awhile to try to get this deal done but once it's closed my guess is that the consolidation won't stop.

The most logical is probably Crystal Dynamics. Embracer is shedding assets, Crystal D is already working on a Microsoft game, and makes stuff that Microsoft can sell. Plus if they get the Tomb Raider IP they could do something with that.

Someone needs to sneak in a "Microsoft is hereby required to facilitate the creation of Tony Hawk 3 + 4" clause into the deal.

In all seriousness though, this is one of those cases where it both is awful from a competitive view but at the same time the current state of Activision-Blizzard is so horrible (unless you only look at them in a vacuum from a financial perspective) that it makes the deal seem like possibly the lesser of two evils. It's become clear that the leadership at Activision-Blizzard will never face consequences for being awful people, especially Kotick and from a holistic perspective Activision-Blizzard has done immense damage to the industry by turning a bunch of storied and innovative studios into content mills for the few games they do put out (see Neversoft, Vicarious Visions, etc.).

Maybe now more Activision IP will actually be used instead of Activision solely putting out a COD and one (1) game on average from a random franchise each year.

Oh, it'd be cool to have a new old-style Guitar Hero game. The zoomers love guitar-based music again so it might actually hit really well. I've been seeing more and more folks talk about Guitar Hero and Rock Band for the first time in years so maybe it's time to bring fun rhythm games back. You have this power Phil. You can do this.

I still don't think this is the thing to get Microsoft on healthier ground. Creatively, I mean. And I can't fathom how that organisation is going to look under an even bigger corporate umbrella. It just invites more mismanagement.

"In all seriousness though, this is one of those cases where it both is awful from a competitive view but at the same time the current state of Activision-Blizzard is so horrible (unless you only look at them in a vacuum from a financial perspective) that it makes the deal seem like possibly the lesser of two evils".

Pretty much sums up my feelings about this. I don't like industry consolidation on this scale, but at least Activision employees will probably be treated better. The good and the bad sort of adds up to a shrug.