Microsoft acquired game studio Activision Blizzard last October. The largest game store was worth 69 billion dollars (1.6 trillion CZK).
After the successful completion of the entire deal, the American software giant turned into the third largest game company in the world, at least in terms of revenue. It ranked just behind Tencent and Sony.
The creator of the Xbox gaming platform has thus recently become the owner of a number of well-known names in the gaming world – let’s mention at least Call of Duty, Diablo, Candy Crush, Tony Hawk, Overwatch, Spyro, Hearthstone, Guitar Hero, Crash Bandicoot, StarCraft and World of Warcraft.
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The executives of the game studios insist that the acquisition does not negatively affect the World of Warcraft game, according to them, the benefit is instead cooperation with the teams that work on other titles owned by Microsoft, such as Minecraft or The Elder Scrolls series.
World of Warcraft executive producer Holly Longdale indicated that while she “doesn’t have any announcements right now,” she is optimistic about an eventual transition between the titles. “But who knows? It’s still early,” she added in an interview with the BBC.
1900 people lost their jobs
The fate of Activision Blizzard’s games has become the subject of a lot of speculation among fans, especially whether Microsoft will include the titles in its Game Pass – a game subscription that works in a similar way to, for example, streaming services Netflix.
Also causing concern in January was news of 1,900 layoffs at Microsoft’s gaming division, which came as Activision Blizzard announced it would no longer be working on an adventure game project called Odyssey. The cuts represent about eight percent of Microsoft’s gaming division’s workforce.
World of Warcraft: Legion trailer Video: Blizzard Entertainment
However, Longdale insists that the acquisition is beneficial for players, including by deepening collaboration between the individual studios. A specific example is the addition of the ability to remove from the game avatars of eight-legged spider characters, which are numerous in the fantasy world of Azeroth, which can be appreciated by players with severe manifestations of arachnophobia.
“We took this particular option from the game Grounded, which is being developed by Microsoft’s Obsidian studio,” the producer said.
Netflix is also a competitor
Although the developers do not expect major changes, according to them, World of Warcraft must actively work on the tasks that the wider development community faces today – to find new ways to appeal to players who do not want to spend hundreds of hours improving their characters, and to compete with the competition not only for money, but also for the attention of users. According to Longdale, the game studio’s competition today is, for example, Netflix.
The issue of representation is also a theme; game characters today should not support racial or gender stereotypes.
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