Yeah I checked the date to make sure I wasnt being april fooled. Very serious show of intent from Xbox

I cant help wishing they'd bought up a more interesting publisher. 2K or EA or Ubisoft would in my opinion have better filled the gaps in Xbox's first party lineup. For $70bn EA is a plausible buy. But from a strategic perspective... yeah only fools bet against call of duty.

Hindsight is of course 20:20, but I think this was quite a brazen teaser only a week ago. They knew full well that nobody could even conceive of an Activision buyout:
https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/xbox-activision-blizzard-relationship-change-10678/

I guess this is the moment where MS can say hold my beer to all of you that were whining they were not making any acquisitions. I wonder how long this will set in before I start to see the same, when will MS make another acquisition. At the end of the day, who knew Activision was up for sale but then again I believe everyone probably has a price so I expect some other big guns to go down as well. I know Apple wants to get in on the game, Sony still have some pocket change to spend, Epic, Amazon and Google probably do not want to be left behind. Phil stated he believe there will be competition for Gamepass then shows that MS is ready to battle or you could say a huge flex by MS sending a message that they are in it to win it.

While some are complaining about this purchase, for MS I believe the thing they really wanted was King.

Gta or sonic next pls

I'm honestly bored of Activision now. I still really hope MS gets SEGA, or Take Two next. Need to round out those edges.

Just remembered that Activision abandoned the True Crime trademark in 2014 smh, someone go tell Phil to buy that trademark back if it’s still available.

That and Prototype have potential.

Sony needs to accept reality and work with Ms. A perfect world would have Sony as the only hardware manufacturer, allow Game Pass in their hardwareand continue selling their games as normal. All gamers win because you get GP and all Sony exclusives in one console.

Being 3rd overall behind Tencent and Sony, MS probably could pick up one more big purchase before the anti trust boys get involved but I believe this is it for huge purchases for now as integrating Activision will be a huge endeavor in itself.  A lot of redundant jobs but a lot of people will be getting paid big time.  I would take my cut, leave and then get hired out at a higher price point.

Gamewise even with this purchase Sony is above MS, so I see no need for Sony to even blink.  If anything, Sony might be able to counter with a big Japanese's purchase and just consolidate that region into their camp.  Sony has a lot of moves they can still make and they still have a huge marketshare over MS.  

Damn 2023 is going to be insane for Xbox, it’s very likely to be the biggest year ever for them.

Diablo 4, Overwatch 2 and that years CoD are going to go on Gamepass day one and then you have all those 1st party games. If they make those 3 exclusive then it would be even more crazy.

I still have about 2 or so years of ultimate left...

I need to go out and buy 3 more 12 month xbox live gold cards before they disappear entirely...