So, Microsoft is buying Activision for a startling $68.7 billion. It’s an acquisition unlike any other we’ve seen in the video game industry, and its impact will be felt for years and years to come.
Because of just how monumental it is, we’ve gathered answers to some of the biggest questions around the deal, from studio acquisitions to which of the biggest gaming franchises will be part of Xbox Game Studios.
Here’s the Activision Blizzard Microsoft deal, by the numbers.
How Does the Xbox and Activision Deal Compare to Other Deals?
Microsoft’s deal with Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest acquisitions in the video game industry’s history, and in fact, in the history of the entertainment industry, period. Check out the slideshow below to see how it stacks up against the likes of Disney/Marvel and Facebook/Oculus.
How Much Does Activision Blizzard Make Per Year?
Activision Blizzard brought in $8.1 billion in net revenue in 2020. This was a 25% increase from 2019, which saw a net revenue of $6.49 billion.
How Many Studios Did Xbox Just Acquire From Activision?
While Activision Blizzard also owns Major League Gaming, Activision Publishing, and online services company Demonware, its game development studios are what Xbox owners will be most excited about. The following 11 studios are set to join the Microsoft family:
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Beenox
- Digital Legends
- High Moon Studios
- Infinity Ward
- King
- Radical Entertainment
- Raven Software
- Sledgehammer Games
- Toys for Bob
- Treyarch
How Many Total Studios Will Xbox Have When the Deal is Closed, Assuming It Acquires No More Companies Until Then?
Xbox Game Studios currently consists of 23 companies developing first-party experiences for Xbox users around the world. Eight of those 23 were added when Microsoft completed its acquisition of ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2021.
Should the Xbox and Activision Blizzard deal go through, Xbox Game Studios will have 34 game development studios all under one banner. The full list would be as follows;
- 343 Industries
- Alpha Dog Games
- Arkane
- Beenox
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Blizzard Entertainment
- Compulsion Games
- Digital Legends
- Double Fine
- High Moon Studios
- id
- Infinity Ward
- Inxile
- King
- MachineGames
- Mojang Studios
- Ninja Theory
- Obsidian
- Playground Games
- Radical Entertainment
- Rare
- Raven Software
- Roundhouse Studios
- Sledgehammer Games
- Tango Gameworks
- The Coalition
- The Initiative
- Toys for Bob
- Treyarch
- Turn 10
- Undead Labs
- World’s Edge
- Xbox Game Studios Publishing
- Zenimax Online
What Will Be Microsoft’s Biggest Franchises/Games When the Deal Closes?
When the deal is finalized, Microsoft will have an impressive collection of franchises under its belt. Here are some of the biggest, in alphabetical order:
- Age of Empires
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Battletoads
- Call of Duty
- Candy Crush
- Crash Bandicoot
- Deathloop
- Diablo
- Dishonored
- Doom
- Fable
- Fallout
- Forza Horizon
- Forza Motorsport
- Gears of War
- Geometry Wars
- Guitar Hero
- Halo
- Hearthstone
- Hellblade
- Microsoft Flight Simulator
- Microsoft Solitaire
- Minecraft
- Minecraft Dungeons
- Overwatch
- Perfect Dark
- Pillars of Eternity
- Psychonauts
- Quake
- Sea of Thieves
- Skylanders
- Spyro the Dragon
- StarCraft
- State of Decay
- The Elder Scrolls
- The Outer Worlds
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
- Wasteland
- Wolfenstein
- World of Warcraft/Warcraft
How Many Top-Selling Franchises are Now Xbox Franchises?
If we look at The NPD Group’s top-selling games in the US for the past three years (2019-2021), we get a good idea of how earth-shattering this move by Microsoft is. In 2019, for example, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – the reboot – was the best-selling game of the year.
In 2020, Modern Warfare placed second and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War took the #1 spot. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 – another Activision Blizzard game -also made it into the top 20, in the final spot.
In 2021, Call of Duty: Vanguard was the best-selling game of the year and just beat out Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War for the top spot.
If we were to look back at the best-selling games of the 2010s, it also paints a pretty clear picture that Call of Duty is a behemoth that will soon make Microsoft even more money. Of the top 10 best-selling games in the 2010s, Call of Duty accounted for seven – Black Ops, Black Ops 2, Modern Warfare 3, Black Ops 3, Ghosts, WW2, and Black Ops 4.
Call of Duty may have been on the top of the best-selling games list from NPD, but Candy Crush and World of Warcraft also continue to be one of the biggest money-makers for the company. From 2018-2020, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft accounted for 76%, 67%, and 58% of its net revenues, respectively. No other franchise owned by Activision Blizzard reached over 10%.
Does Microsoft Now Own Sekrio: Shadows Die Twice?
Despite Activision publishing Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, developer FromSoftware still owns the IP rights to the game. While that doesn’t mean it’s off the table for Sekiro to become a Microsoft property, it won’t simply transfer over like the many other IP owned by Activision Blizzard.
How Many Employees Work at Activision Blizzard?
As of 2021, nearly 10,000 employees in 36 countries worked at Activision Blizzard.
How Has This Deal Affected Sony?
As detailed in a report by Bloomberg, Sony’s stock allegedly fell by $20 billion following the news of the Xbox and Activision deal. That 13% drop was the largest single fall in Sony Stock since October 2008.
The implications of this deal are impossible to fully detail this early on, but the answers to the above questions should provide some additional insight into what will undoubtedly be one of the biggest shake-ups in gaming history.
For more, check out our breakdown of the deal on the latest episode of Podcast Unlocked, what we know about Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick’s future at the company once the deal closes, what Activision Blizzard Workers Alliance response was to the news, and our opinion piece on why, in today’s day and age, we are living in a content war and not a console war.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
