It's official: Microsoft owns Activision Blizzard

(Image credit: Microsoft)

The Xbox Activision deal has officially closed, 20 months after it was first announced.

In an Xbox Wire statement, Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer announced that "today, we officially welcome Activision Blizzard and their teams to Xbox." Spencer's statement covers a desire "to learn, innovate, and continue to deliver on our promise to being the joy and community of gaming to more people" as one company.

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He also states that today will see cloud streaming providers across Europe be able to stream Activision Blizzard games on their platforms, and confirms that "today we start the work to bring beloved Activision, Blizzard, and King franchises to Game Pass and other platforms."

It's pretty clear from the custom trailer arranged for the takeover what games Spencer is talking about there. Diablo 4, Call of Duty, and Overwatch 2 all feature prominently alongside a suite of pre-existing Microsoft games - both those that have long been owned by the company, like Sea of Thieves, and those that are more recent additions, like Fallout 76. A particularly pithy moment comes from World of Warcraft, in which two Orcs discuss the fact that "this is home now."

Spencer closers by stating that "for the millions of fans who love Activision, Blizzard, and King games, we want you to know that today is a good day to play," stating that those fans "are welcome here," no matter what console they play on, "and will remain welcome, even if Xbox isn't where you play your favourite franchise."

The Activision Xbox deal was first announced in January 2022, where Microsoft set out its agreement to purchase the software giant for more than $69 billion. Since then, however, several anti-monopoly legal obstacles have stood in the acquisition's way. Sony, understandably, was a major opponent of the deal going through, but issues around cloud gaming also hindered Xbox's progress, particularly in the UK, where the Competition and Markets Authority stood firm for a long time, until Microsoft agreed to concessions that allowed the deal to go through today.

To revisit the entire saga, here's the Xbox Activision deal explained.

I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.