Today is a good day to play. We have completed our acquisition of Activision Blizzard and welcome Activision Blizzard and its businesses to Microsoft Gaming.
Activision, Blizzard and King publish some of the most played and beloved franchises in gaming history, from Pitfall to Call of Duty, Warcraft to Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga to Farm Heroes Super Saga. By combining Xbox with the skills, knowledge and amazing gaming heritage of Activision Blizzard, we will bring the joy and community of gaming to even more players around the world.
We are eager to learn from their creativity, share insights and best practices, and enable our new colleagues to bring their visions to the widest possible audience. And today we’re officially starting work to bring game-changing games to more players than ever before and on new platforms from mobile to cloud streaming. We’re also starting to work on making the popular library of Activision, Blizzard and King games available on Game Pass and other platforms – we’ll be able to share more in the coming months.
We couldn’t be more excited to have Activision Blizzard employees as our colleagues, collaborators, and teammates. Bobby Kotick has agreed to remain in his role until the end of 2023 and report directly to me to ensure a smooth and seamless integration. We look forward to working together as a unified team and will share more news about our new organizational structure in the coming months.
I would like to give a very special and heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make this acquisition happen. We couldn’t have done it without your commitment.
In the coming weeks, I will be visiting the offices of Activision, Blizzard and King along with members of our Gaming Leadership Team. We’ll have the opportunity to welcome our new colleagues at our next virtual all-hands for Xbox employees and discuss it with the wider Microsoft community on November 8th as part of the Company Strategy Series.
Together, we can unlock a world of possibilities for gamers and creators.
Phil