An Update on the Xbox Merger: How Microsoft Gets There and What It Needs to Come And Take Care Of: Xbox Game Pass, Streaming Services, and Online Gaming
There is a condition that needs to be satisfied in order for the Merger to go ahead, and that is that Microsoft buys all of the shares of Activision that it doesn’t already own.
The Xbox maker originally announced the deal in January 2022, and has faced close scrutiny from regulators ever since — including an FTC v. Microsoft case that revealed plenty of Xbox secrets. The Federal Trade Commission is still appealing its failure to secure a preliminary injunction to block Microsoft’s deal, with a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals due in December.
Call of Duty will no longer be shown on cloud gaming services in the EU countries, and the other deals with Microsoft will no longer be included. You will be granted a free license to stream any cloud game streaming services of your choice if you live in a country that is part of the European Economic Area.
Microsoft is in talks with other companies about adding their games to the Xbox Game Pass. Spencer says that they are starting work to bring beloved games to Game Pass and other platforms. We will let you know when you can anticipate to play in the coming months. We are also excited, and we know you are too.
The deal is Microsoft’s largest acquisition ever, far in excess of the $26 billion Microsoft paid to acquire LinkedIn in 2016 and the $7.5 billion it paid to acquire Bethesda in 2021. This is Microsoft’s largest push into gaming to date, and the company said at the time that it would be the third- largest gaming company by revenue.
Modern Warfare 3 and other titles won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year, as was made known earlier this week. Since January, when Microsoft announced 25 million subscribers of the Xbox Game Pass, an update on the number has not been provided.
“We now have all regulatory approvals necessary to close, and we look forward to bringing joy and connection to even more players around the world,” Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement to employees.
I‘d like to give a very special and heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make this acquisition possible. We couldn’t have accomplished this without your dedication.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be visiting the Activision, Blizzard, and King offices, along with members of our Gaming Leadership Team. In the November 8 session of the Company Strategy Series we will talk about welcoming new colleagues at our next virtual all-hands for Xbox employees, and we will also talk about this and more in the community.
It is one of the reasons that Microsoft came to us, and that is that we have been active in the streaming space for a long time, we have partnerships with many companies in the area, and we are the first studio to work with Stadia. “To Microsoft, it made sense that if somebody was going to be familiar with the space and know what the value would be for streaming, it would be us. We saw the value as well.
The deal with Ubisoft means that they will be selling games on the company’s game subscription service. Work begins on bringing these games to Ubisoft’s subscription today, but it’s not clear when they’ll all be available.
Even after 15 years, the company still has the rights and can continue to distribute games to people and companies worldwide.
They’re expected to be on the Plus version of the game, and then we can license them individually to companies as well, says Early. “Perhaps there’s a company somewhere in the world that wants to license those rights and add to the streaming service they have or start up a new streaming service, and I think that’s going be part of the fun of the next 15 years or more of how streaming evolves.”