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Microsoft shocked the world earlier this week when it was announced that they would be buying Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion! This gets them exclusive access to game franchises such as Overwatch, World at Warcraft, Diablo, StarCraft, Candy Crush, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, and a little known series called Call of Duty.
While I can go into the monopoly nature how one company buying so much franchises at once could seen as frightening as say Disney buying Fox or the toxic, misogynist nature of Activision Blizzard (I’ll share a link at the end of the blog) , I want to go into how Microsoft will be able to compete with Sony with this buyout and why this move might make them looking even more worse in hindsight if they don’t take absolute advance with all of it.
It’s not secret that Sony has been ahead of the curve from Microsoft when it comes to gaming for quite some time now. From at the tail end of the seventh generation where the PlayStation 3 outsold the Xbox 360 to the entirety of the eighth generation where Sony practically won by default the moment that Don Mattrick told anybody who didn’t have internet to just get a Xbox 360 (I’ll share a link for that as well), Sony are the ones that have been keeping their opponent in check for at least the past eight years. And if the first few reports of consoles sales are accurate (again link at the end), the ninth generations seems to be in Sony’s hands as the PlayStation 5 seems to be outselling the Xbox Series X by a wide margin.
However, with this purchase of Activision Blizzard, this is Microsoft making a statement that they are putting all of their chips in and going for it. They are looking to provide the amount of exclusive content that will attract more gamers and consumers to their products than ever before.
The main issue with the Xbox One and Xbox Series X was the lacking in exclusive games compare to Sony. With a couple of notable exceptions such as Halo and Minecraft, there wasn’t much from Microsoft’s best-known and well-sold franchises that gained people’s interest compare to Sony’s exclusive franchises such as Uncharted, Last of Us, God of War, Spider-Man, Horizon, Infamous, and Ratchet & Clank. But with the company now owning Blizzard, this would give the indication that they will be able to provide it’s fans and consumers a good amount of games that was once accessible for other consoles but not anymore. Except, there could be a big chance that they won’t do that!
Don’t get wrong, the franchises that are always make big money such as Call of Duty, Diablo, and Overwatch should be just fine despite a potential decrease in sales due to being exclusive to the Xbox One and Xbox Series X. I’m more referring to the smaller franchises such as Crash and Spyro. If Microsoft’s recent history with purchasing other companies like say Rare is anything to go by, franchises like that are about as good as dead.
Remember when Microsoft purchased Rare in the hopes that it would provide exclusive gaming franchises that, despite not really blending with their brand, would at least attract a good portion of casual gamers for series such as Banjo Kazooie, Killer Instinct, and Battletoads that would help make their gaming library look more diverse? Well, as anyone checked up on those franchises as of late?
Since the purchase of Raft, Microsoft has only released one original Banjo Kazooie game, Nuts & Bolts, which to many fans was the oddball of the series and one that they would rather forget. That came out in 2008 by the way and that series has not seen another exclusive game since then. The only other time Microsoft has ever bother to touch Banjo Kazooie again was including them in their retro gaming remasters collection titled Rare Replay in 2015. That is literally all that has been done with that franchise since Microsoft purchased it.
With Killer Instinct and Battletoads, it’s been pretty much the same thing. Those series got thrown in the closet to collect dust, eventually was taken out, was given one game that didn’t set the world on fire, and was then immediately thrown back in the closet to collect more dust. Plus, has anyone heard from Viva Piñata since the show ended aside from coming back along with the others for Rare Replay?
Despite having an advantage over it’s competition with having it’s own gaming franchises that other companies can’t use, Microsoft has done very little with what they’ve purchased with Rare (unless you have really fond memories of Kinect Sports, Sea of Thieves, or think that Everwild is gonna blow everyone away)! Because of that, what makes you think they won’t do the same with the series they now have from Blizzard?
Call of Duty should be safe (especially since reports now claim that it will actually be available on other platforms as well, kind of defeating the whole purpose of having exclusive franchises) but who’s to say that their other series will be as protected, even the ones that have proven to be big successes? If Overwatch 2 doesn’t capture the magic of the original, will that ever be touched again? If Diablo, Starcraft, and World of Warcraft can’t chase it’s own successful tail from it’s past, could those series be put on hold? And is there really any guarantee that Crash and Spyro will ever see the light of day again except for another retro remastered at some point down the road?
If we’re going by the way Microsoft has treated the companies it has purchased, it doesn’t seem like they will bother to do much with the majority of the properties they now own unless they are able to make Halo or Minecraft money! And if that’s not enough to say afloat in the console wars, then this buyout will look even worse in hindsight. Not just because Microsoft didn’t bother to do much with the franchises they now have but it wasn’t even enough to be neck-and-neck with it’s competitors in the gaming market.
Perhaps I could be wrong and I’m just overreacting but with this purchase of Activision Blizzard, this might put Microsoft and the franchises they now own in an even worse position than ever before. And that’s not even bringing up the numerous amount of allegations that Blizzard is receiving on a daily basis.
Sexual Harassment Allegations from Activision Blizzard
Console Sales:
https://www.vgchartz.com/tools/hw_date.php
Don Mattrick Says To Just Stick with The Xbox 360
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