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Bobby Kotick interview: Why Activision Blizzard did the deal with Microsoft

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 8 min

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard announced the biggest deal in gaming history today with Microsoft’s $68.7 billion cash offer to buy the decades-old independent game publisher.

The deal will combine Microsoft’s Xbox and PC gaming business with franchises like Halo, Fallout, and Forza with Activision Blizzard’s franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch. And it should be a big boost for Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription service, which has 25 million subscribers.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.