Microsoft's takeover of Activision Blizzard has taken a step closer to going ahead following this week's victory against the FTC, and it seems like great timing for Blizzard in particular according to president Mike Ybarra's recent comments.
Taking to Twitter earlier today, Ybarra was full of praise for the teams at Blizzard, stating that the company has "so much coming" and is "just getting started". Here's a look at what Ybarra had to say:
"We have so much coming from such talented teams. Some people told me years ago Blizzard was a 'sleeping giant'. To them I say, the sleeping giant is awake and in full force.
Players are the center of everything we do - and always will be. We are just getting started."
Of course, it's been a very busy time for Blizzard lately with the extremely successful release of Diablo 4 as well as last year's launches of Diablo Immortal and Overwatch 2, and it sounds like there's a lot more exciting stuff to come!
Assuming Microsoft does eventually acquire Blizzard (as well as Activision), we should be seeing most of these upcoming projects on Xbox Game Pass as well in the future — so it's certainly a great time to be an Xbox owner.
What are your thoughts on Blizzard at the moment? Let us know down in the comments section below.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 21
StarCraft 2 to console asap please
@TheSimulator my GOD yes. Inject that into my veins.
WoW and Hearthstone to console please. StarCraft 2. If you’ve got the goods, put your money where your mouth is and deliver, ActiBlizz.
I can't believe the comments so far asking for Blizzard games to come to Xbox. I mean, don't you folks have phones?!!
He sounds really excited about getting rid of Bobby Kotick and working with Microsoft instead.
@ParsnipHero
I have a crappy phone that can't run most games. To play, I do it mainly on consoles.
@ParsnipHero I'm still using a Nokia 3210
@IOI You do realise that nobodies getting rid of Bobby? Like it or not, he's going to a microsoft manager now...
My biggest issue with the deal is that all them scumbag managers with all their appalling history are now all gonna be MS employees now. MS can barely manage what they had, if you think they are going to more than double the workforce and then let go of the management that knows how to run the teams, then your in for a suprise. There will be no cleaning house, and the same people whi put ABK in a weak position in the first place will all be part of the green team now.
As a very long time fan of Blizzard I will concur that they are a sleeping giant and almost always had gamers at heart with their games. Lost Vikings, Starcraft, Warcraft, Diablo, WoW….. all very well made, engaging and they listened to player feedback often and adjusted accordingly, and still are.
Granted Diablo Immortal was and is a cash grab, one I don’t really agree with, but it’s on mobile so whatever.
Blizzard is also about making money, but they knew they wouldn’t be able to amass and keep a large fan base without making good games and having good rapport with the players. I mean you don’t get 1.5m active players or 5+ million subscribers having crap games and crap service.
In the terms of sleeping giant, they’ve been sleeping…. Sleeping on their ips and porting them to consoles. In days past, their games didn’t translate as well to console due to limited control and hardware. That hasn’t been the case for at least 2 generations now, with even 360 proving you can do really well done RTS on console.
With this acquisition I truly do hope that MS pushes Warcraft1-3 (any/all of em), StarCraft, and WoW to console. All can be easily done and handled on consoles now days, and would easily expand the player base probably by 500k or more each. That may be too conservative. But any base growth within the 500-1.5m range would not surprise me.
Give us warcraft 4 you cowards! 😅
@ParsnipHero this is an Xbox site...
Blizzard is one of my all time favorite studios. I am excited to see what’s next and even crazier to think they could release brand new IP’s exclusive to Xbox/PC. Those can be system selling games. This could get interesting in a hurry. I am more than happy right now with Diablo 4, give me RDR1 remake and my year is set.
@ParsnipHero seems like your comment was lost on most but I appreciate it. Top marks buddy 👍
@SacredPYRO unbelievable isn’t it? People want Blizzard stuff but they don’t know Blizzard. 🤣
@IOI He probably regrets leaving his position at Xbox, and probably happy to be back apart of that team.
@Titntin He literally confirmed he’ll be stepping away if the merger went through, if not he would remain as CEO of ABK, as soon as the ink dries on the deal he’s gone.
@IOI I'm sorry, I must have completely missed that confirmation?
I don't suppose you remember where you read that, I'd love to confirm it!
That would make my day! I hate that he gets to make out like a bandit, but if he's no longer pulling the reigns, then that's a great start towards changing the culture, even if we have to accept that might take some time..
Thanks for the reply.
Edit: This story, from MS themselves suggests differently: https://news.microsoft.com/2022/01/18/microsoft-to-acquire-activision-blizzard-to-bring-the-joy-and-community-of-gaming-to-everyone-across-every-device/
But around that time there were plenty or rumours and no definitive answers....
I wish MS had purchased Bungie instead of Sony. But AB could do with some good PR under the MS umbrella.
Considering how long it is taking for half-assed PvE to come to Overwatch 2, I'll take anything Blizzard has to say with a whole shaker of salt.
Translation: we have so many overwatch 2 skins for you to buy
Already killed off Warcraft, overwatch, hearthstone, StarCraft and heroes of the storm.
Can’t wait to see what other properties the F-tier squad over at blizzard can ruin next
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