Microsoft buys Activision: How two video game giants came together

Activision Blizzard is the company that owns billion-dollar games like Call of Duty, Warcraft and Overwatch. It also has a hugely popular PC game like Diablo, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. The deal will see it sold to Microsoft, maker of Xbox. On Tuesday, January 18th, 2022, the two companies jointly announced that they had reached an agreement. However, it still faces regulatory authorities and has to close within 18 months.

The videogame industry is facing huge consequences from this scandal. Not least because it puts some of the most popular names in console gaming within the same company. Activision Blizzard has also been roiled by workplace scandal over the past six months, including a lawsuit from California regulators, a reckoning with a toxic and discriminatory workplace culture, and questions of chief executive Bobby Kotick’s fitness for the job after more than 30 years in charge.

This is a compilation of all coverage from a historic day in videogaming, including what this means for gamers and players of Xbox and Activision games and how it will impact the futures of the two companies.