Blizzard

Amid the news that Microsoft wants to buy Activision Blizzard, one topic that's been generating a lot of interest is the future of Call of Duty, one of the biggest gaming franchises around. With this acquisition in the pipeline, there has been some concern that Call of Duty will be exclusive to Xbox and PC going forward. While that may eventually happen, a new report claims it won't be for a while yet.

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These days, Blizzard is a company that doesn't often branch out into brand new universes. Overwatch and Hearthstone come to mind as somewhat recent new IPs for the company, but even Hearthstone is set in the Warcraft universe. Today, Blizzard revealed that it's making that rare step out into a new universe by way of a survival game, which is a first for the company.

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Throughout the week, Microsoft's buyout of Activision Blizzard has been a constant talking point. There's been a lot of talk about Activision Blizzard games being exclusive to Xbox platforms once the acquisition completes and no concrete answers from Microsoft. While Xbox boss Phil Spencer has issued a new statement on the matter, what he had to say is anything but clear.

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In the wake of the news that Microsoft has entered an agreement to purchase Activision Blizzard, a lot of us undoubtedly have questions about what this acquisition means for players on other platforms. Specifically, we're guessing that PlayStation players are wondering what this means not only for the future of Activision Blizzard games on their platform of choice, but also what will happen to existing titles. While we're pretty sure we already know the answer to the first question, we now have a concrete answer to the second one.

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It's been a big Tuesday for the game industry. This morning, Microsoft announced that it has entered a deal to purchase Activision Blizzard, the largest third-party games publisher in the world. Microsoft is paying nearly $70 billion for Activision Blizzard, making the $7.5 billion it paid for ZeniMax Media and its subsidiaries a year ago look like a paltry sum.

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Yesterday, Microsoft dropped a whopper of an announcement, revealing that it's paying nearly $70 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard. The acquisition comes at a controversial time for Activision Blizzard, as it finds itself in the middle of a sexual harassment and abuse scandal that has resulted in several high-profile departures. Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick has resisted calls for his resignation or firing throughout this scandal, which begs the question: Now that Microsoft is taking over, what happens to him?

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Those of us who thought Microsoft was done with big money gaming purchases after its $7.5 billion acquisition of ZeniMax Media last year were sorely mistaken, it seems. Today, Microsoft announced its intention to buy Activision Blizzard for a staggering $68.7 billion. With this acquisition, a lot of popular game franchises will come under the ownership of Microsoft, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and even Candy Crush.

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It has been a heck of a year for the game industry. With the COVID-19 pandemic serving as the backdrop, we've had a lot of ups and downs this year. From the major revelations about Activision Blizzard to the ongoing semiconductor shortage that continues to impact manufacturing, 2021 was filled with big headlines. Here are some of the biggest stories that defined the year in gaming.

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Two of Blizzard's big upcoming titles have been hit with delays. During its most recent financial earnings call with investors, Activision Blizzard announced that both Diablo 4 and Overwatch 2 have been delayed. In addition, the company announced that Jen Oneal will be leaving her position as co-leader of Blizzard at the end of the year, meaning Mike Ybarra will be the sole leader of Blizzard.

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During the COVID-19 pandemic, Blizzard moved its annual event, BlizzCon, online. The resulting show was dubbed BlizzConline, and it was one that Blizzard planned to host again early next year. Unfortunately, it looks like that's not happening as planned, as Blizzard has canceled BlizzConline 2022.

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Diablo 2 Resurrected is having some down time today as "the investigation into the connection issues continues." While it doesn't seem likely, one wonders if this down time is an attempt to recreate the original Diablo II experience in as accurate a manner as possible. Next we'll have to start getting up several hours before school starts to make the most of the time when traffic is low!

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Earlier in the year, Blizzard said it was plotting something for those who wanted a fresh start in World of Warcraft Classic, and now we've learned what that thing is. Blizzard has announced WoW Classic Season of Mastery servers, new realms that will give players a fresh start in WoW Classic with some significant changes to the vanilla WoW formula. If you're looking for a more challenging WoW Classic, it sounds like this is where you'll find it.

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