Regulators in the UK approved Microsoft’s deal

The Xbox Game Pass Integration: Bringing the Joy of Gaming to More Players in the Era of Microsoft’s Acquisition of Bethesda

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick emailed all employees today announcing the news. We now have regulatory approvals needed to close and we are looking forward to even more players around the world, said Kotick. We are excited about the next chapter with Microsoft, it will create endless possibilities for you and our players.

The FTC case revealed lots of Xbox secrets after the deal was announced. The Federal Trade Commission is still appealing its failure to secure a preliminary injunction to block Microsoft’s deal, with a decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals due in December.

Microsoft’s obligations to the European Commission will allow consumers in EU countries to stream via “any cloud game streaming services of their choice” all current and future Activision Blizzard PC and console games that they have a license for.

We like to play gaming. We play and create games and know how much gaming means to all of us as individuals and as a community. Phil Spencer, head of Microsoft’s XBOX, says that they officiallywelcome the teams from comiblil to XBOX. As a team, we will learn, innovate and continue to deliver on our promise to bring the joy and community of gaming to more people. We will do this under a culture that will empower everyone to do their best, where all people are welcome, and that is centered on our ongoing commitment of gaming for everyone.

The $28.6 billion purchase of LinkedIn is Microsoft’s largest acquisition in history, dwarfing the $7 billion it paid to acquire Bethesda in 2021. This is Microsoft’s largest push into gaming, and the company said at the original announcement of the deal that it will be the third-largest gaming company by revenue.

Activision Blizzard made it clear earlier this week that Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo IV won’t be coming to Xbox Game Pass this year, though. Microsoft hasn’t updated its Game Pass subscription numbers since announcing 25 million subscribers in January of 2020.

We are very happy that our colleague, co-workers and teammates are working at the video game publisher. Bobby Kotick has agreed to remain in his role and will report directly to me, making sure that the integration goes smoothly. We will be sharing more updates on our new organizational structure in the coming months, as we look forward to working as a unified team.

A huge thankyou for all your hard work and your dedication to the games: I am very excited about the future of virtual all-hands for Xbox employees

I‘d like to give a very special and heartfelt thanks to everyone who helped make this acquisition possible. We couldn’t have accomplished this without your dedication.

I will be visiting the offices of the gaming companies over the next few weeks. We will discuss this and more in the Company Strategy Series on November 8 when we will have the chance to welcome our new coworkers at our next virtual all-hands for Xbox employees.