Microsoft Activision Blizzard Takeover: The gaming industry is growing exponentially, as millions of people explore their love for gaming each year. According to Mordor Intelligence, “the global gaming market was valued at USD 173.70 billion in 2021. And it is expected to reach a value of USD 314.40 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 9.64% over 2022-2027.
Due to nationwide lockdown, people stay home, and some turn to game platforms to pass the time. These platforms attract hundreds and thousands of new visitors to online traffic. Video gaming trends have experienced a massive surge in players and revenue recently.” This obviously means a lot of investors and corporates want to be get involved in any way possible, just purely because of the numbers involved.
So it doesn’t come as a surprise that tech giant Microsoft announced it’ll be acquiring one of the largest Game Publisher Blizzard. The company announced on Tuesday through a blog post that it’ll be acquiring Activision for $68.7 billion. The move would make Microsoft the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, behind Tencent and Sony.
What Does the Microsoft Activision Blizzard Takeover Actually Mean?
Acquisition of Activision Blizzard which has major titles under its names like Call of Duty, Overwatch, Candy Crush, HearthStone, World of Warcraft, and many more, gives Microsoft major influence over the gaming industry combined with its own gaming console Xbox, gaming services. Microsoft now edges other companies, if we also account for one of the most downloaded games in the history of the internet, Minecraft. The intention for the move is clear. Microsoft wants to dominate all the three gaming platforms(Mobile, PC, Console), which currently entertain 3 billion users globally.
The deal might be cut out in the present, but Microsoft’s vision lies in the Future. The company wants to be seen as a one-stop tech shop in the upcoming Metaverse. Whether it is a bubble or not, is a question for another day, but currently. It seems like a lot of big techs are banking on it to be the next technological boom.
As Facebook or rather to say Meta, is making itself the catalyst for an augmented and virtual future, experts believe gaming will be the foundation for it. Microsoft clearly seems to have realized this as Phil Spencer, the chief executive of Microsoft’s gaming business quoted,
“gaming will be at the forefront of making that (metaverse) mainstream.”
Another Red Flag which is very important, and for which the world’s second-largest company after only Apple should particularly be criticized for is that Activision has been plagued with issues of Sexual Harassment, gender discrimination, and toxic work culture for quite some time now. Activision has been undergoing several lawsuits, tons of protests, and walkouts as the top management failed to make any reforms. So now Microsoft will be under scrutiny over how it undoes the damage caused.
The deal is also being criticized heavily. Like Microsoft for a long time has been accused of manufacturing monopolies through its consolidations and acquisitions. This has been one major concern for U.S. lawmakers, over how to regulate big tech monopolies. Monopolies create huge economic disruptions in policy-making, which further create economic inequalities and loss of business and employment.
