Roughly one hundred ninety two hours ago the gaming world awoke to the biggest news story to hit the industry in years. With a tweet from Phil Spencer the industry would forever be changed “As we extend the joy and community of gaming to everyone, we are incredibly excited to welcome the fantastic teams and iconic franchises of Activision Blizzard to Team Xbox”. In what is expected to be close to a seventy billion dollar deal, Microsoft has reached an agreement to acquire Activision Blizzard along with all their combined studios and IPs, including the industry’s annual best selling franchise Call Of Duty. The deal is expected to finalize in 2023, and puts many things into question both for Sony and Microsoft over the coming months.

What could Microsoft do with all these studios and IPs, what is their assumed endgame with this acquisition…There are some highly likely outcomes with this deal and while there was also a statement pertaining to their intentions. To paraphrase the statement, Microsoft wants to keep titles on PlayStation and adhere to deals currently in place for any particular IPs. However as mentioned, there are a few highly likely outcomes.

Microsoft Leverages Deal

Adding this acquisition to the Bethesda deal of recent years, Microsoft is greatly expanding on the value of GamePass. Having all first party titles available on the service is an incredible deal that is currently unmatched. And makes GamePass basically a must have for anyone owning a Microsoft console. But could this be a way to leverage PlayStation to allow some version of GamePass on Sony consoles…That is a commonly assumed plan from many covering the industry. Allow PlayStation gamers the option to purchase titles individually or join GamePass. It would certainly be a massive change in the industry and seems far off for the time being, but something to keep an eye on. More likely in the shortterm seems with Microsoft having the highly successful, digital only, Series S and the long running rumors of a TV based streaming service the additional properties only help sell those GamePass subscriptions to new non PlayStation gamers.

Microsoft Pulls Titles

Could the industry possibly see the end of Call of Duty on PlayStation consoles? Sure. But just seems like an unfathomable possibility. When their Bethesda acquisition was in progress, I personally thought the best move would be to have marquee, known titles remain multi-consoles. Meaning established titles like Elder Scrolls, then taking new IP such as Starfield and making them XBOX exclusives. Guaranteeing the most sales possibility on known commodities and push console sales with intriguing new IP being exclusive. However it seems more likely that either the majority or just all Bethesda titles will be Microsoft console exclusives moving forward. So there is clearly the chance this occurs with the newly acquired IP, once any contractual obligations are fulfilled. Pulling all owned IP from PlayStation would presumably add to an increase in XBOX console sales, but would this be the best move? Selling games and/or GamePass is likely more profitable than consoles for Microsoft.

Microsoft Combo

Combine the two above concepts, pull the release of all your newly acquired IP when possible and allow them only through GamePass on PlayStation. But with such a bold, aggressive move would PlayStation play ball. And would such a potential damaging move to your main rival be good in the long-term. Both companies seem to genuinely value each other and the competitive nature they bring out in each other.

Sony Service Counter

There is already strong rumors relating to Sony reupping either a redesigned/rebranded PS Now or just a whole new service to more closely rival GamePass. So this won’t necessarily be a direct reaction to this acquisition, if handled right and effectively can help steal that spotlight back. Imagine a service that allows the user to have access to all previous generation first party PlayStation titles, four generations of titles. Or if Sony adds current gen first party titles to a subscription service, doubt they would do day and date like Microsoft has, but what if all first party come to the service six or twelve months into release. Their first party titles are currently the industry standard for quality and single player narrative, and any inclusion into their service would be a huge plus.

Sony PC Love

Simply release all first party studios day and date on PC along with PlayStation (PS4/PS5). Not a huge deal, but there has been some good traction with the first party PC releases, with God of War most recently being their highest/fastest selling release. Ramp up releasing/porting all major first party titles over on PC and then moving forward day and date releases of all major first party games. While this doesn’t directly deal with the issue at hand, it increases sales of their titles and hopefully generates new users on another platform that is already more aligned with Microsoft titles.

Sony Acquisition Counter

Obviously this is just complete speculation, but fight fire with fire, buy up a studio or studios of your own! Personally I am pulling for them to go bold and somehow buy up THQ Nordic, almost entirely for the chance that we get a new TimeSplitters game…I think they still own that IP. But more realistically as detailed in my previous post, Sony is far more limited in terms of financials. This likely puts anything remotely on the scale of a seventy billion dollar acquisition far out of reach.

Its Been A Week…And A Day

Again, there currently is no certainty on what the future holds with this acquisition. It truly is a massive, bold move by Microsoft and while it could mean some serious negative ramifications for the industry depending on the direction they end up going after it is finalized. Recent years have shown more cooperation between these industry giants and hopefully this trend will maintain. Personally I will be cautiously optimistic and eagerly await more news in the coming months.