Activision’s focus on Call of Duty has grown exponentially, to the point where, right now, on the Activision side of Activision Blizzard, pretty much every single core studio is working on Call of Duty in some form or another. That means a large number of franchises are lying dormant and a number of studios are being pulled in to feed the COD machine rather than letting them work on varied projects.
That, of course, isn’t something anyone wants to see, but it seems like things will change not too far in the future. Microsoft recently announced the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and speaking recently in an interview with The Washington Post, Xbox boss Phil Spencer discussed the potential of diving into the Activision’s vast catalog of IP and looking into maybe bringing several of them back. Apparently, once the acquisition has been finalized (which should be some time in 2023), Activision Blizzard studios will begin working on “a variety of franchises.”
“I was looking at the IP list, I mean, let’s go!” Spencer said. “King’s Quest, Guitar Hero… I should know this but I think they got HeXen.”
“We’re hoping that we’ll be able to work with them when the deal closes to make sure we have resources to work on franchises that I love from my childhood and that the teams really want to get,” he added. “I’m looking forward to these conversations. I really think it’s about adding resources and increasing capability.”
Of course, with an acquisition as big as this one – which is valued at nearly $69 billion – there’s going to be several avenues that Microsoft is going to be taking. Leveraging Activision’s ever-growing presence and success in the mobile gaming space is a crucial part of the deal for Microsoft, for instance.
Meanwhile, there are also several questions about whether or not Microsoft is going to release Activision Blizzard games on rival platforms- PlayStation in particular. While reports say “some” games will be exclusive to Xbox, Spencer has said that Microsoft doesn’t intend to “pull communities away” from PlayStation, while Sony says it expects Microsoft to “abide by contractual agreements and continue to ensure Activision games are multiplatform.” Read more on that through here.
