What's going on between Sony and Microsoft in gaming in 2022.

Introduction.

On 18th of Jan 2022 Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) has announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard Inc (Nasdaq:ATVI). Microsoft will proceed through the acquisition at 95USD per share, in all out buy out valued around 68.7 Billion USD. Microsoft Had made new history, within the gaming community , they are currently going through with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard the company which made franchises like COD , for a record history sum of around 70Billion USD. (Dey Purkayastha, 2022) The total buy out of Activision, is going to be the biggest in the history in terms of buying a United States company, which is also the most expensive buy out by Microsoft to date, and the largest in the video games industries history.(Lindbergh, 2022).

Three Hypothesis Questions were posed and answered by the Author of this article.

Ask me WHY and whats the benefits?

One of the main reasons these firms are engaging in buy outs are exclusive subscription Service. Ign Reporter (Davison, 2022) discusses this Microsoft and Sony and engaging in this for basically cloud service game services to be sold later on like a battle pass for call of duty, Microsoft has been setting this stage for all of this since years and have been moving on accordingly in September 2020 which bought the Bethesda game parent company Zeni max for 7.5 billion USD, In reaction to rumours that Sony is considering a Game Pass-like service, Microsoft's Phils Spencer recently dubbed subscription services "inevitable." Regardless of the attendant regulatory and organisational issues, the Activision Blizzard purchase is about putting some of the world's most popular titles on Game Pass and the Xbox Cloud Gaming service. It's not about selling you a Xbox; it's about monthly membership payments. It doesn't matter to Microsoft if you play Call of Duty on a PC, a smart TV, or a PlayStation, as long as you're paying Microsoft monthly for the pleasure, which 25 million of us already are. "I'll simply say to people out there who are playing Activision Blizzard games on Sony's platform: We have no intention of luring communities away from that platform, and we will continue to do so." Spencer told Bloomberg. (Davison, 2022) (Bloomberg – Microsoft Buys Scandal-Tainted Activision in Bet on Metaverse, 2022)

Effects on Sony and how they replied

Effects on Sony Around 20 Billion USD Were lost of the value of Sony after its competitor Microsoft , announced a history changing deal to buy the Call of Duty Franchise, activision blizzard, and taking the console wars into the new metaverse. (Lindbergh, 2022) (Sweney, 2022)

Sony Replies

An announcement was made by Sony Interactive to buy Bungie which is known for making games like Halo and Destiny to be acquired for 3.6 Billion USD$, this was discussed by (Brendan, Sinclair) a Managing Editor in Games industry international. Also Jim Ryan the president and CEO of Sony confirmed that the Bungie acquisition would still make the studio a stand alone studio, they would offer Bungie support and finance to support their development (Ryan, 2022)

Content War

The content war that lies in the for war will definitely see more reinforcement, more buyouts and mergers, Indeed the move done by Sony came two weeks later, however has been in the works for months previous which brought the January buy out total number to be around 85 billion USD, that is when you include Take twos move to buy Zynga for around 13 billion USD back on January the 10th, the probability of deals happening like Activision blizzard is very low, however it seems inevitable that there will be new gaming companies being merged and being bought out.(Sinclair, 2022)

Results on the Gaming Industry

According to data analytics firm Newzoo, the worldwide gaming sector will produce $180.3 billion in sales in 2021. When the Activision merger complete, Microsoft's gaming market share will increase from 6.5 percent in 2020 to 10.7 percent.(Vanamali, 2022) Because the deal is still in the works, neither firm has said which titles and properties would be exclusive to Xbox and PC, and which will remain on competing platforms such as PlayStation and Nintendo. 2022 (Kain) "Activision Blizzard's games exist on a variety of platforms now, and we aim to continue supporting those communities moving ahead," he said when he questioned personal realtionships representatives for the business about the future of call of duty on PlayStation. They mentioned that “Activision Blizzard's content will be available on additional platforms, including mobile, as a result of the acquisition. This is in line with Microsoft's goal to providing gamers additional options for playing the games they want, whenever and wherever they want."

References

1. Bloomberg.com. 2022. Bloomberg - Microsoft Buys Scandal-Tainted Activision in Bet on  Metaverse. [online] Available at:  [Accessed 7 February 2022].  

 2. Dey Purkayastha, S., 2022. Playstation vs Xbox Rivalry Heats Up as Sony Reminds  Microsoft of Contractual Obligations. [online] EssentiallySports. Available at:   [Accessed 7 February 2022].   

3. Davison, J., 2022. Opinion: It’s Not a Console War, It’s a Content War - IGN. [online] IGN.  Available at: [Accessed 7 February 2022].  

4. Lindbergh, B., 2022. Microsoft’s Purchase of Activision Blizzard Encapsulates an Industry  in a Single Deal. [online] The Ringer. Available at:   [Accessed 7 February 2022].  

5. Ryan, J., 2022. Bungie is Joining PlayStation. [online] PlayStation.Blog. Available at:  [Accessed 7 February  2022]. 

 6. Sinclair, B., 2022. Sony buying Bungie for $3.6 billion. [online] GamesIndustry.biz.   Available at: [Accessed 7 February 2022].   

7. Sweney, M., 2022. Microsoft takeover of Call of Duty games firm wipes $20bn off Sony  shares. [online] the Guardian. Available at:   [Accessed 7   February 2022]. 

 

8. Vanamali, K. (2022). Microsoft's plunge into the world of gaming. Retrieved 10 February   2022, from

 

 9. Kain, E. (2022). What Microsoft’s Activision-Blizzard Buyout Means For The Future Of  Xbox, PlayStation And ‘Call Of Duty’. Retrieved 10 February 2022, from