It pushes the list of first-party studios owned by Microsoft now to over 30, which is a huge number. Of course, one of the immediate questions fans have been asking is about exclusivity. All of the Call of Duty titles, for example, have done very well on PlayStation in recent years, and although it took a while, eventually Spencer did confirm titles from the Bethesda acquisition will include Xbox exclusives going forward. But with the acquisition still so fresh, and not likely to go through fully until some time in 2023, Xbox has been fairly coy on what this means for future Activision Blizzard titles. Spencer has, however, confirmed that Microsoft is not intending to pull communities away from Sony’s platform.
Spencer also explained that as many of the publisher’s titles as possible will be coming to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game pass, and this includes both new and old games. On that note, the Xbox Chief was able to confirm that Game Pass has now hit the milestone of having more than 25 million subscribers. While it is a historic moment in gaming until this has all been finalized, Activision Blizzard and Microsoft are going to operate independently, but once the deal is done, Activision Blizzard will report to Phil Spencer as CEO of Microsoft Gaming.
Activision Blizzard is currently facing a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing after accusations from employees that they’ve faced “constant sexual harassment” in the workplace. Spencer has said that Xbox wants to make sure the incoming staff feels safe following this acquisition news. While Activision Blizzard’s current CEO Bobby Kotick hasn’t commented on his future yet, given the structure going forward, it sounds very much like he’ll be moving away from the company, though nothing has been confirmed just yet.
