Analyst: Microsoft Could Have 'Enhanced Experiences' With Activision Titles on Xbox - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 20 January 2022 / 1,567 Views
Microsoft made a huge splash this week with the announcement it is acquiring Activision Blizzard in a deal worth $68.7 billion.
MIDiA Research senior analyst and product manager Karol Severin in an interview with Wccftech was asked what he expects Microsoft to do with Activision Blizzard games and whether they may or may not become Xbox exclusives in the future.
"Given Xbox’s cross-platform and gamer-friendly narrative, the impact is less likely to be about ‘draconian exclusivities’ and more about ‘enhanced experiences' on Microsoft-owned assets," said Severin.
"The big hits, in particular, produce a significant (and often majority) revenue from the Sony side. It wouldn’t be financially sound to turn that revenue off, particularly because given Microsoft’s mega-portfolio (if the acquisition closes), it doesn’t need to.
"Engaging in hard exclusivity could risk alienating users on the other side, which still remain very valuable. Instead of exclusivity on whole titles, Microsoft can push more softly, e.g. through windowing access (e.g. first month of new CoD only on Xbox, not Sony), discounts, exclusive in-game content, experiences, etc."
Severin added that a response from Sony would be a good idea as it will slow down the effects of the acquisition.
"A big response would be great for Sony - very important in slowing down the effects of Microsoft’s acquisition (IF it goes through, which Sony will be monitoring closely, I’d imagine)," he added.
"If it does go through, the sheer difference in company size will make it very difficult for Sony ($124 billion market cap) to come up with an acquisition answer comparable to what Microsoft ($2.3 trillion market cap) just announced.
"A similar dynamic applies to Nintendo at $54bn market cap. Having said that, more acquisitions are likely. M&A reportedly reached $85billion in 2021, three times that of 2020. 2022 almost beat that mark already (we’re at $81.4bn considering Zynga's deal with Take-Two) and it’s not even the end of January!"
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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The games will likely be exclusive given the track record and how they are dancing around the issue again.
That said, speculating here, I would not be too surprised if CoD remained multiplatform. If there are any games that are comparable to Minecraft in terms of status and service-like nature, then CoD and GTA are probably the only ones up there. (I know, I know, those arguments were made by others regarding Fallout/Elder Scrolls; and I always believed Fallout/Elder Scrolls were always going to be exclusive because neither of those are money-makers on the same scale as CoD or Minecraft).
Having the marketing rights shift back to Xbox would already be big for MS. Maps, DLC, perks being part of Game Pass is a given and another big get.
Anything beyond CoD will be exclusives. As of late, every Activision studio is currently working on CoD or Warzone. I think the MS acquisition will allow Toys for Bob and others to be able to work on other IPs, and those will probably be exclusive to MS. Even if it's Crash, Spyro or Tony Hawk. Which is fair, because had Activision remained independent, those Spyro, Crash, Tony Hawk games would have never been made ever again in the first place.
What track record though?
The only Major IP that has had subsequent releases after a MS acquisition is Minecraft, and Dungeons went multiplat despite being an entirely new game. The more you think about it the more a exclusive seems very unlikely for COD (this generation)
Not only is Playstation where the majority of the audience is, we're also talking about an annual franchise that will have had 3, potentially 4 entries establishing a majority audience on Playstation 5 before there is chance for MS exclusivity to kick in. It's simply not viable that the audience will jump ship mid/2nd half of the generation. So MS can either risk loosing them or ween them into the Xbox echosystem more carefully.
I feel MS has actually made it very clear but for whatever reason people keep ignoring their actual statments and actions so far (Redfall/Starfield are new IPs not established/no audience on Playstation). There has been no contradiction here yet, not with Bethesda or any other purchase “I’ll just say to players out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony’s platform: It’s not our intent to pull communities away from that platform and we remained committed to that.”
Of course they want to pull people to gamepass but they don't want to alienate their audience in the process. Games with smaller audiences or no precedent on Playstation will be exclusive by default.
Well I hope you're right because I would not want CoD to leave PlayStation, It's too big an IP. And while I don't care for that IP, it obviously means a lot to many gamers everywhere. We'll have to wait and see.
