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Microsoft finally closes its $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition

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Xbox acquired Activision Blizzard on January 18, 2022, and gained the rights to Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and more.
Microsoft

It’s done: Microsoft completed its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The $69 billion deal means that some of gaming’s biggest franchises, including Call of Duty, are now Xbox properties.

First announced in January 2022, the blockbuster deal has faced tons of scrutiny from regulators like the CMA and FTC, with there being worry that it’d be unfair to competition in various parts of the game industry. Ultimately, Microsoft proved that wasn’t the case, defeating the FTC in court and finally getting the CMA to retract its objection to the deal earlier today. When the CMA did that, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson told Digital Trends “The CMA’s official approval is great news for our future with Microsoft, and we look forward to becoming part of the Xbox Team.”

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After stock market trading closed for Activision Blizzard yesterday, it was suspected that the deal closing was imminent. Microsoft confirmed this Friday morning. A video celebrating the deal was posted on Xbox’s YouTube channel, while an Xbox Wire post went into a bit more detail about what’s next from both Xbox and Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard King Joins Xbox - Official Trailer

In it, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer explains, “As one team, we’ll learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people. While Activision Blizzard had dealt with rampant workplace harassment in the past, Spencer says he wants to establish “a culture that strives to empower everyone to do their best work, where all people are welcome, and is centered on our ongoing commitment of Gaming for Everyone.” When it comes to the games, Spencer confirms that Activision Blizzard’s titles will continue to be available in a variety of places and that they’ll start bringing the publisher’s titles to Game Pass in “the coming months.”

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick will remain in his position through the end of 2023, reporting to Phil Spencer. It’s unclear if he’ll continue to work with the company after that.

The first Activision Blizzard game that will launch under Microsoft is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, which comes to PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on November 10.

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Tomas Franzese
Gaming Staff Writer
Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…
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Microsoft has had a tough time getting its acquisition of Call of Duty-maker Activision Blizzard approved, but it just cleared a major hurdle. The U.K.'s CMA, which previously blocked the acquisition over concerns about its impact on the cloud gaming market, says that it has "provisionally concluded" that Microsoft has addressed its biggest issues with the acquisition.

Namely, it likes that Microsoft will give the cloud gaming rights for Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft. "The prior sale of the cloud gaming rights will establish Ubisoft as a key supplier of content to cloud gaming services, replicating the role that Activision would have played in the market as an independent player," the CMA explained in a press release. "In contrast to the original deal, Microsoft will no longer control cloud gaming rights for Activision’s content, so would not be in a position to limit access to Activision’s key content to its own cloud gaming service or to withhold those games from rivals."
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"We are encouraged by this positive development in the CMA’s review process," Microsoft president Brad Smith tweeted. "We presented solutions that we believe fully address the CMA’s remaining concerns related to cloud game streaming, and we will continue to work toward earning approval to close prior to the October 18 deadline."
Meanwhile, an Activision Blizzard spokesperson provided Digital Trends with the following statement: "The CMA’s preliminary approval is great news for our future with Microsoft. We’re pleased the CMA has responded positively to the solutions Microsoft has proposed, and we look forward to working with Microsoft toward completing the regulatory review process."
A final decision from the CMA is expected to be made by October 6. As Smith mentioned, Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is expected to close by October 18.

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