Octopus Overlords

Microsoft is planning to finalize its $68.7 billion proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard next week. A source familiar with Microsoft’s plans tells The Verge that the company is eyeing up Friday October 13th as the closing date where it announces to the world that the 20-month process to buy Call of Duty maker Activision Blizzard is over.

That date will still depend on the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority though, a regulator that blocked Microsoft’s deal earlier this year. Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft, and the Xbox maker secured preliminary approval from the CMA late last month as a result.

The CMA has a deadline that expires today on gathering opinions over whether it should grant consent to Microsoft to proceed with the merger. A final decision from the CMA is expected next week, and barring any surprise last-minute changes should allow Microsoft to close its deal.

Microsoft has announced that it has — finally — completed its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the developer and publisher of Call of Duty, Warcraft, and Candy Crush.

It’s a deal of unprecedented scale in the game industry, which took 21 months to complete. Microsoft faced opposition from regulators in the U.S. and U.K., as well as from its competitor Sony, whose leaders feared losing Call of Duty to Xbox exclusivity.

In notes to Xbox and Activision Blizzard staff, Xbox head Phil Spencer and Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that Kotick would stay on in his post until at least the end of 2023, in order to assist with the integration of the two companies.

In order to get the deal over the line, Microsoft defeated the Federal Trade Commission in a court case, and bowed to pressure from the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority by carving out the cloud gaming rights to Activision Blizzard games and selling them to Ubisoft. Microsoft also signed deals with PlayStation, Nintendo, Nvidia, and others promising to make Call of Duty — and, in some cases, other Activision Blizzard games — available on rival consoles and cloud platforms 10 years into the future.

What it gets in return is ownership of some of the biggest names in gaming, including annual shooter franchise Call of Duty from Activision; King’s all-conquering mobile game series Candy Crush; and Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch universes. There’s also a treasure trove of currently unused, or underused, gaming properties in the Activision vault, including Guitar Hero, StarCraft, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Crash Bandicoot, and Spyro. And the deal opens up the possibility of any and all Activision Blizzard games being added to Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service — including Call of Duty. (Activision Blizzard has said this won’t happen before 2024, while Phil Spencer told Xbox staff to expect more information about Game Pass “in the coming months.”)

Microsoft and its Xbox Game Studios development and publishing arm also now take control of a raft of game studios, including Infinity Ward, Raven Software, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games, Toys for Bob, and of course Blizzard’s internal teams. Many of these studios, especially Blizzard, have been embroiled in controversy and unrest for years over their workplace culture and Activision Blizzard’s management style, and some employees are reportedly looking forward to a new regime under Microsoft. Microsoft has already paved the way for smooth relations with the Activision Blizzard workforce by stating its pro-union approach, earning the Communications Workers of America’s endorsement of the deal.

Microsoft is laying off 1,900 employees at Activision Blizzard and Xbox this week. While Microsoft is primarily laying off roles at Activision Blizzard, some Xbox and ZeniMax employees will also be impacted by the cuts.

The cuts work out to roughly 8 percent of the overall Microsoft Gaming division that stands at around 22,000 employees in total. The Verge has obtained an internal memo from Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer that confirms the layoffs
...
Alongside the layoffs, Blizzard president Mike Ybarra has decided to leave the company. “As many of you know, Mike previously spent more than 20 years at Microsoft. Now that he has seen the acquisition through as Blizzard’s president, he has decided to leave the company,” says Microsoft’s game content and studios president, Matt Booty, in an internal memo.
...
Blizzard’s previously announced survival game has also been canceled as part of these changes. Booty says Microsoft will be “shifting some of the people working on it to one of several promising new projects Blizzard has in the early stages of development.”

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:33 pm 2024's game industry layoffs have to be approaching 2023's already, and it's *checks notes* less than four weeks into the new year...

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:42 pm

Zaxxon wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:33 pm 2024's game industry layoffs have to be approaching 2023's already, and it's *checks notes* less than four weeks into the new year...

Every tech and entertainment industry's layoffs.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Thu Jan 25, 2024 1:51 pm I, in my financial naivete, keep wondering if it's a greed measure using "everyone's doing it" as cover, a correction to excessive growth, or another .com bust type thing.