Surprise! It’s another column about the impending acquisition of Activision-Blizzard by Microsoft. This time it’s in direct reference to something we saw out of Microsoft earlier this week with, arguably, the console’s mascot and main driver. Earlier this week, 343 Industries, the team that took over Halo following Bungie’s decision to go independent, laid off over 10,000 employees and much of its senior leadership. The news caused shockwaves in the gaming community and made people really question the future of Halo as a franchise.
It was enough that Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO, came out and stated that Halo would not be going anywhere and that these cuts were part of a bid to become a better company in the future. Of course, Microsoft then announced that they’d lost 12% of their income in Q2 and when combined with the fact that the Xbox Series X has been out for over two years and has yet to put out a single console exclusive, and you have some serious company issues that don’t give gamers much hope for the future.
If Microsoft couldn’t even make it work with their own biggest IP, what’s going to happen if they’re given permission to buy Activision-Blizzard and then own titles like World of Warcraft and Call of Duty? Given the way Halo Infinite flopped and how Microsoft has seemingly just given up on the title, what would happen to a Call of Duty game that they owned and put out if it weren’t up to par either? Would they just abandon it and cut staff? Would they just leave it in an unfinished state and say “oh well?”
Fans aren’t sure right now and neither am I.
I wanna make it clear that I am not rooting for Xbox to fail. I have an Xbox Series X just sitting next to my PS5 that I would love to use, but there’s simply no exclusive content for the Series X. And before people mention titles like Flight Simulator or Forza Horizons 5, those are also available on PC. Microsoft has yet to dedicate any serious time or resources toward a console they claimed was the future of gaming. I’ve never seen anything like this in gaming and I’ve been a gamer for at least 34 years. In that same time, Sony has released a mountain of first-party exclusive that will eventually come out on PC, but Sony understands that people who paid nearly $700 for their console want to see games built for it that nobody else can play.
At their core, Microsoft is very much a computer company. I’m not sure they have the want or ability to be a gaming company like Sony or Nintendo. It’s simply not enough of a driver for them beyond Game Pass and the Microsoft brand name. I couldn’t point to any memo that makes clear mention of this, but every important decision Microsoft seems to make underlines this fact. These decisions are not made with gamers in mind, they’re made with Microsoft in mind.
Microsoft is an extremely successful company but this isn’t the first time they’ve tried to enter a space half-assed and their mobile division proved that you can be one of the best tech companies in the world, but if you don’t have the right resources dedicated to the platforms you’re providing, they’re going to fail just the same. That seems to be what’s happening with their gaming division and it’s because of this that I’m not sure Activision-Blizzard being sold to Microsoft is going to be a good thing.
If Microsoft cares this little about their own mega-successful first person shooter, what are they going to do with a competitor that they just bought up? Probably nothing good. Microsoft always says the right thing, but their track-record proves that they’re not interested in doing the right thing, no matter what that thing may be. Microsoft can’t even beat Nintendo when it comes to console sales, maybe giving them control of the world’s most popular game isn’t the great idea everyone once thought it was.