They love and they hate this game. 100 million people have allegedly already played “Call of Duty” and spent 25 billion hours doing so, the number of shots fired in the shooting game is said to be measured in quadrillions. CoD, as the fans call it for short, is one of the box office hits on offer from the game manufacturer Activision Blizzard. The US company has also developed “Candy Crush”, a brightly colored jigsaw puzzle game for mobile phones, the sports game “Overwatch” and the online role-playing game “World of Warcraft”. Now the company is on the way to the ultimate deal: The software company Microsoft, the second largest company in the world after Apple in terms of market value, wants to buy it for 68.7 billion dollars.
In the industry, the planned takeover is seen as a strategic decision by Microsoft. In recent years, the group has primarily focused on its business customers. Its cloud services in particular have boosted sales and profits. In addition, it was almost forgotten that Microsoft always had a strong games division, the X-Box games console, for example, is a direct competitor to Sony’s Playstation.
Now, however, it’s not just about games as you mostly find them today: games that are played on the computer or on the television screen. The – if it is approved – the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s company history is also a bet on the so-called Metaverse. So far, however, this has been little more than a catchphrase spread by corporations such as Microsoft and Facebook as well as by the cryptocurrency scene. According to its masterminds, it should be a kind of uninterrupted live gaming world on the Internet that players can also “enter” via virtual reality glasses, and in which transactions with a wide variety of companies are possible – which makes the whole thing attractive for corporations.
Good starting point for game studios
What this experience will look like in concrete terms is still completely unclear. The first drafts show graphically rather undemanding virtual reality games and virtual office meetings. The technology behind glasses is not yet fully developed, even if a lot has happened in recent years. The devices, for example, now also work wirelessly. Microsoft has already established a foothold in the world of augmented reality with its Hololens glasses, which are primarily used in the work environment. Virtual content is superimposed on the real world. Microsoft now obviously hopes that Activision Blizzard will increase its competence in creating virtual worlds.
In any case, companies like Activision Blizzard, with their valuable intellectual property in successful games and their experience in the gaming sector, are in a good starting position. Gamers are the first target audience for the Metaverse – right after the investors that the buzzword is currently attracting. In the Metaverse, the trade in digital objects such as virtual weapons should also play a central role, as they have been used in many games for a long time.
A deal with risks
The takeover could also become a problem for Microsoft. Not only do the antitrust authorities in the USA now monitor very closely that companies do not achieve a dominant position – proceedings are currently underway against Facebook. The game manufacturer Activision Blizzard is also in the middle of a discussion about its probably partly poisoned corporate culture. Some women and members of minorities are said to have felt uncomfortable there because of various sexist attacks. Among other things, breastfeeding women are said to have been molested more often. Last year, more than 100 employees briefly left the company’s offices in a protest; 1,900 employees have signed a petition calling for the dismissal of company boss Bobby Kotick.
That was only on Monday Wall Street Journal reports that Activision Blizzard has fired or forced out more than three dozen employees over allegations of sexual harassment. 40 others were reprimanded. Kotick weathered this storm, although employees and shareholders had long criticized him for his lax handling of the problems. Now it is said that he should remain on board after the takeover. The fact that Kotick has now cracked down should also be seen in the context of the forthcoming takeover: Microsoft is unlikely to have any interest in buying a company that hasn’t been “cleaned up”.