Microsoft "closes" the largest acquisition in the history of the world's video game industry

To gain approval, Microsoft made some changes to the deal at the request of British regulators, clearing the last legal hurdle for Microsoft.

In January 2022, Microsoft proposed a "huge" figure of up to 69 billion USD to acquire Activision Blizzard, spending more than all other competitors who put this British video game company in their "sights" such as Tencent, Sony... A successful deal means that Microsoft will have in its hands big game titles such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft and Diablo. The American technology company will have more than 400 million monthly active players from Activision Blizzard's games, and also own a huge number of potential customers for the Xbox Game Pass game service. This will be a huge competitive advantage for Microsoft in the future when entering the Metaverse era.

Microsoft is aiming to become the Netflix of video games with its Game Pass online platform that lets users download games to play via cloud computing.

Video game companies are competing fiercely for market share in an industry estimated to be worth $300 billion. A series of acquisitions has left just four “big four”: China’s Tencent, Japan’s Sony and Nintendo, and the U.S.’s Microsoft. A handful of independent companies, including the U.S.’ Take-Two, Sega, Electronic Arts, and Ubisoft, are all worth billions of dollars.