Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard sent shockwaves through the industry – but could it be good news for the Steam Deck?
Microsoft has been on something of a buying spree lately, and its latest purchase – of the beleaguered developer Activision Blizzard – has been its most surprising, and controversial, acquisition yet. It’s not just about the numbers involved, though the all-cash $68.7 billion price tag is certainly eye-catching, or what the implications are about buying a company that’s currently mired in scandal and facing several lawsuits. What’s got a lot of people talking is what the impact of an acquisition of this size will do to the gaming landscape. Activision Blizzard has a huge library of some of the biggest titles in gaming, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo, and the idea that these franchises could one day be exclusive to Microsoft platforms has got some people worried. The repercussions are already being felt, with Sony’s shares falling after the news. I personally think that big acquisitions like this are bad for gaming. It reduces competition and consumer choice, especially if Sony and Nintendo follow suit. What we don’t want to end up with is one company owning most of the games developers. There’s also a feeling that while Nintendo and Sony have grown and developed many of their first party studios organically (while also acquiring third party studios, of course), Microsoft is taking more of a ‘pay to win’ approach by buying up existing studios to help fill in gaps in its first party output, which was pretty dire during the Xbox One days.
