This post is very subjective
As many of you may already know, Microsoft has finally cleared all its hurdles on its quest to acquire Activision Blizzard. The FTC tried one more desperate attempt to appeal, but judge Corley denied their attempt, allowing the deal to go through.
Now, I know this is a pretty divisive acquisition in the gaming landscape, with lots of concern from people who play on Playstation, but I'm rather optimistic about the whole thing, and I'll give my short reasons why.
Cloud Gaming
More and more cloud gaming has been taking over, it'll be a slow burn till we get there but eventually most people will be playing through the cloud and right now the best way to do cloud gaming is through xCloud. Doesn't mean that the games will be stuck there however, as Microsoft has made a concerted effort to bring their games to other streaming services, with the most recent being Geforce Now.
Changes in Management
To say that Activision has terrible management is an understatement, with reports of sexual misconduct, harassment and many other terrible things. I sincerely think that being under the thumb of Microsoft, who has consistently shown to care more about devs, will make ActiBlizz a more developer friendly company.
Game Availability
(Image is a mockup)
ActiBlizz has tons of classics under its belt, and we can be pretty sure that these will show up on Gamepass eventually. All the Call of Duty titles, older Diablo titles, Spyro, Crash, and more.
And I think we can be pretty certain of this commitment as either Microsoft or Activision have recently fixed matchmaking for older Call of Duty titles on Xbox Live, likely in preparation for some sort of huge influx of new players to them.
The deal apparently states that no new CoD games will be joining Gamepass until 2025, but this does not rule out the older CoD titles.
The Playstation Question
Will Microsoft prevent ActiBlizz games from coming to Playstation? Maybe some.
I'm an Xbox player first and foremost, specially after being scammed out of my gaming PC - but I still want Playstation players to have access to the same games, specially since I have friends who play there and I want cross-platform gaming with them.
But there's a very simple factor to all of this and that is money. Activision-Blizzard make a shit ton of money, specially with Call of Duty (just look at the quantity of PS players who own CoD), so I don't think Microsoft is going to be risking losing such a gigantic source of revenue just to make Call of Duty and other big brand titles exclusive, there's just too much on the table.
My Personal Take
Being an avid user of Gamepass, it's safe to say I'm pretty excited. My opinions are very skewed because of this in fact and I can acknowledge that.
As much as Activision-Blizzard has a terrible reputation, I still love their games and seeing them come to my main platform on the subscription service I already pay for will be simply terrific. The value proposition for Gamepass will get a whole lot better, even if prices have been recently increased a tiny amount.
The End
I know that was a short post, but I just felt like letting my feelings about this acquisition and historic moment for gaming out a little. I'm honestly pretty excited but at the same time I share the worries of people who play only Playstation. Moving to another platform just because of exclusives isn't really feasible because people form communities, friends and an attachment to their platform. I love Xbox as much as a Playstation fan loves Playstation, so I completely understand the frustration - I've owned all PS consoles besides the PS5 too after all, it's not like I have any animosity towards the brand.
Oh yeah, and apparently CoD is coming to Nintendo, let's see how that plays out lol
Cheers,
gtPacheko.
