Here’s The Thing About How The Microsoft Activision Deal Affects You: It Doesn’t

News broke Tuesday that the FTC had lost its case against Microsoft over the Activision Blizzard deal, and no injunction will be filed preventing the deal from going forward. While the FTC still may appeal, the UK’s CMA, the only other regulatory body to not approve the deal, is now talking with Microsoft about compromises, and yes, the $69 billion acquisition is all but over. There’s essentially no stopping it now.

While in the console war space this has been pitched as something that will destroy the gaming industry and hurt tens of millions of PlayStation players, as it stands right now, a Microsoft takeover of Activision should change…close to nothing. For anyone.

Shouldn’t this be a bigger deal? While the long-term effects of the deal might be, for all of Activision’s biggest current games, this means almost nothing, other than perhaps a few upcoming perks for Xbox players. Let’s go through it:

Call of Duty – Microsoft isn’t lying. They are not removing Call of Duty from PlayStation. The game will continue to be sold on PlayStation like it is now. The only difference is going to be probably no more exclusive Sony skins and things (which, hilariously, is something the FTC attempted to use as evidence that Microsoft could make “unequal” versions of the game).

It is certainly possible that down the road Microsoft puts Call of Duty in Xbox Game Pass. After all, they do this with every first party studio game, though they may think twice about the COD sales they’d be forgoing by doing so. But the allure of new Game Pass sign-ups may be too great. So, while nothing changes for Sony players, it’s possible current Xbox players get a new, big game added to Game Pass. But there has been nothing confirmed yet, and current COD deals, which Microsoft said they would honor, would mean this likely wouldn’t happen for some time, and definitely not for this year.

Other Activision IPs – It is certainly possible, if not likely, that Microsoft will resurrect some of the dormant Activision-owned IPs that have fallen by the wayside with every single Activision studio repurposed for yearly Call of Duty content. It is also likely that those games would be made Xbox exclusive. But this is a long, long-term project, and given that this acquisition is just happening now, it would be years before any of those would come to fruition. And really none are IPs on the level of things like COD, Starfield, Elder Scrolls, etc.

Diablo 4 – As recently as the day before this verdict was announced, Blizzard President Mike Ybarra said that Diablo 4 was not coming to Xbox Game Pass. The game is just about to start its seasonal model which will be four per year plus at least two upcoming expansions. This is another game that is not going to be ripped off PlayStation due to its already-launched existence there and wide crossplay playerbase. Sure, it is possible Xbox players may find it or its expansions on Game Pass eventually, but not soon. For starters it’s probably going to be like, bonus cosmetics or something.

Overwatch 2 – Another franchise that has existed on PlayStation since launch and isn’t going anywhere. I also don’t think it’s important enough anymore for Microsoft to bother taking it off PlayStation to make it Xbox exclusive suddenly. And it does not seem like some sort of new, PvE-based Overwatch game that could be exclusive is ever going to happen, given recent catastrophes over there.

World of Warcraft – It’s a PC game. They’re not going to make an Xbox version. And if past subscription games are any indication, no, a WoW sub will almost certainly not be included in Ultimate/PC Game Pass.

Future Blizzard Games – I mean, what future Blizzard games? Diablo 4 is going to last a decade. Overwatch is barely a thing anymore. If we get new Warcraft or Starcraft RTS games at any point, those will be PC-based. And again, if anything else gets made and goes exclusive, we’re talking what, something that’s five years away at baseline?

King – These are all mobile games. I have no idea what on earth this acquisition could possibly change about how any of these games work other than they are now feeding Microsoft money directly.

Yes, the Microsoft Activision merger is a huge deal in the industry. But the practical realities of how this deal is unfolding based on the promises Microsoft has made, and the long wait until new, potentially exclusive games out of these developers, means that on the ground, effectively nothing will be changing for gamers any time soon, outside of perhaps some Game Pass bonuses as soon as the deal allows.

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