There has been a lot of speculation regarding the motivations behind whyMicrosoftpurchased Activision Blizzard. At the end of the day, the reason why major corporations buy other major corporations is to make money, but the specifics as to how that’s going to happen with this particular acquisition are still up in the air. Because of the widespread popularity ofthe IPs owned by Activision Blizzard, plenty of fans are skeptical about whether they’ll all become Xbox exclusive titles in the future.
Thinking solely about exclusive titles, however, isn’t how Xbox has been focusing its efforts in recent years. Instead, Xbox Game Pass has been what the company has been pushing most of all with its marketing and strategy. Exclusives have been used this far to help give Game Pass value for Xbox owners, but with a purchase as big as Activision Blizzard,Microsoftmight be trying to make Xbox Game Pass an enticing service that could launch on other, non-Microsoft platforms.
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Xbox Game Pass on PlayStation and Nintendo Consoles
Microsoft has made it well known that it’s approached both of the other major console manufacturers aboutmaking Xbox Game Pass a multiplatform serviceto which it has been denied. This offer is a move that makes sense for Microsoft as it’s beginning to think of a bigger picture for Game Pass than simply residing within Xbox consoles, mobile devices, and PCs. While the exact details of the rejection and original offer aren’t public, it seems safe to say that the appeal of bringing Xbox branding to the PlayStation 5 and Switch just wasn’t worth the PR cost of it to Sony and Nintendo.
Now that Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard, however, a company known for its major multi-platform releases, denying Sony and Nintendo of them by making franchises likeCall of Duty,Overwatch, andDiabloexclusive to Xbox platforms and Game Pass could be an attempt to force the two companies' hands and make a deal to bringXbox Game Passto their platforms. Although that might be a risky move made by Microsoft that could simply result in another rejection of the service, it could also work wonders for the company if it were to be able to bring Game Pass to more platforms, further extending its brand.
Currently, Microsoft has confirmed that it doesn’t plan onremoving any Activision Blizzard games from other platformsthat are published to them right now, but that might not be the case in the future. The company has a good track record of honoring preexisting publishing deals made by companies that it acquires allowing games likeDeathloopandGhostwire Toykoto be published exclusively on the PlayStation 5 for a limited time despite Microsoft’s purchase of Zenimax, so it seems likely that it will continue allowing ABK titles to honor their current contracts. If it decides for future releases that it wants to make the IPs it paid nearly $70 billion for to be exclusives, but available on other platforms through Game Pass, then Sony and Nintendo might take a second look at the offer to bring the service to their consoles instead of risking the loss of some of their player bases.
There’s still a lot unknown about what Microsoft’s plans are for the future of Activision Blizzard and its games; however, when looking at the Zenimax deal from 2021, it’s clear that some, if not all, ofABK’s IPs will become Xbox exclusives. With Microsoft’s recent shift in focus to push Game Pass as a multiplatform service, it would make sense that the company could use its newfound exclusive IPs as leverage to get the service on other major consoles as long as Sony and Nintendo are willing to reconsider their previous rejections.
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