The controversy has taken its toll on a corporation already adjusting to the end of a pandemic-fueled video gaming boom. Activision delayed two of its most anticipated titles in November and issued a fourth-quarter sales projection that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, sending the company’s stock plummeting. Employees have been pressuring Kotick, who has managed the corporation for three decades, to go. The majority of Activision’s games are for Xbox systems.Īctivision, one of the industry’s most storied publishers, has been embroiled in many lawsuits alleging gender discrimination and harassment for months. Call of Duty, the publisher’s most popular title, has grown in popularity thanks to Microsoft’s unique online network Xbox Live, letting players join for multiplayer engagements.

The Xbox has a lengthy relationship with Activision. The addition of Activision’s popular games would help Microsoft broaden its Xbox console’s options and better compete with competitor Sony.’s PlayStation. This purchase will accelerate the expansion of Microsoft’s gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud and provide building blocks for the metaverse. It’s the biggest deal ever, and one that places a major bet that people will be spending more time in the digital world. Microsoft plans to buy the powerful, but troubled video game company, for nearly $70 billion. The proposed takeover of video game company Activision Blizzard, the maker of Candy Crush and Call of Duty videogames, by Microsoft would make the software giant the world’s third-largest gaming company by revenue, after Tencent and Sony.

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