Most gamer folks have probably heard the news that Microsoft is set to purchase Activision/Blizzard/King for close to $70 billion with the deal seeming to be sealed sometime in 2023. So I won’t belabor all of that.
While I’ve been following all the news around Activision/Blizzard throughout last year, I’ve kept my thoughts to myself when it comes to social platforms or this blog. These have never been the places for me to talk this kind of shop, but suffice to say, I’m hoping to see a change in the work environment for the folks who have had to deal with what no employees ever should.
I don’t have a horse in the race seeing that I don’t often play Activision/Blizzard games to begin with. I do enjoy the Diablo series. I have dabbled in WoW just to try it out. But even before all this mess started, I wasn’t a paying customer and I don’t even have BNet (or whatever the launcher is) installed on my machine. So I doubt that I have anywhere as much sway as long-time WoW players do with their thoughts.
That being said, those are the exact folks I went to listen to when this news broke. Specifically, folks who I’ve been more recently following because they left WoW to try out FFXIV and are enjoying their time in a new game.
So far, I’ve seen a lot of hope from this group of gamers that this will be the shake-up needed to not only make a change for those working there, but also to increase the quality of the games released – specifically WoW.
There’s also a strong hope to see Bobby Kotick tossed out of the picture. This seems like it could be a big possibility based on speculation and previous Microsoft response to the Activision/Blizzard situation, though it’s not been spoken outright. It sure is funny that the Gaming Leadership Team image posted on the Microsoft announcement has no Bobby to be seen.
Of course, none of this will go into effect until after the deal is sealed. So we have some time to wait to see the outcome of all this.
Other folks have started murmuring the word “monopoly” about the deal. While I do get those concerns, it’s not really one that I share or worry about. We’ll see what happens once everything comes together, and that’s a while on down the road.
As for my own personal thoughts on it all? I’m on the side of hoping it’ll be a good thing for the people who need it most – the employees and the gamers who want to love and support the games. And if it is a positive change, then I’ll look forward to picking up some Diablo again, or even trying out a few other games I’ve never played, this time on PC Game Pass!
We all need as much hope and positivity as we can get now days. I’d love to see gamers be able to shake free of boycotts and lingering bad feelings and just love the games they want to love because the gamers finally know, in good conscience, the folks who work at Activision/Blizzard are being treated right.
What’s your feelings on the whole situation?