Microsoft is a pretty big player in the tech and gaming spaces. The Redmond-based giant has been on a tear recently, especially in the run-up to the launch of the new Xbox. The Xbox Series X/S launches are coming soon, and there have been some suspicions about the strength of the launch lineup. The games like Halo Infinite getting delayed certainly dealt a blow here.
Microsoft has also been pushing pretty hard into iconic IPs and developers to build out their appeal across different genres. Sure, Halo is a big name, but only so much appeal can be pulled from a single genre. Picking up legendary developers like Rare to build new IPs that brought out more niche appeal with games like Sea of Thieves. And now things are getting much grander.
In one of the biggest deals in gaming history, Microsoft also recently announced plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. Now, they’ve also acquired a major bundle of Activision-Blizzard IPs as well. The list of IPs that could potentially be owned by Xbox following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard includes:
- Blur
- Caesar
- Call of Duty
- Candy Crush
- Crash Bandicoot
- Diablo
- DJ Hero
- Empire Earth
- Gabriel Knight
- Geometry Wars
- Guitar Hero
- Gun
- Hearthstone
- Heroes of the Storm
- Hexen
- Interstate ’76
- King’s Quest
- Laura Bow Mysteries
- The Lost Vikings
- Overwatch
- Phantasmagoria
- Pitfall
- Police Quest
- Prototype
- Quest for Glory
- Singularity
- Skylanders
- Soldier of Fortune
- Space Quest
- Spyro the Dragon
- StarCraft
- Tenchu (legacy games)
- TimeShift
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater
- True Crime
- World of Warcraft
- Zork
Microsoft actually seems to do this for some very expensive PR at the launch of every console generation. Rare and Obsidian were both picked up at the beginning of the Xbox One lifecycle. Of course, Microsoft wants the profits from the sale of these games too. Perhaps they feel that more long-term profits from games will do better than console sales. That’s too difficult to say for sure, but it does make some business sense.
Microsoft recently announced a landmark all-cash deal with ZeniMax Media that sees the Windows titan snapping up the entire Bethesda portfolio of properties and studios. That means so many companies and legendary games belong to the green team. Here’s the list for those of you that want to know what’s going on.
- 343 Industries – Halo
- Arkane Studios – Dishonored, Deathloop, Prey
- Bethesda Game Studios – Fallout series, Skyrim series
- Compulsion Games – Contrast and We Happy Few
- Double Fine Productions – Psychonauts, Brutal Legend, Grim Fandango
- id Software – Doom, Wolfenstein, Quake, Rage
- inXile Entertainment – Wasteland and Bard’s Tale
- Machinegames – has been looking after the Wolfenstein series since 2014’s The New Order
- Mojang Studios – Minecraft
- Ninja Theory – DmC: Devil May Cry, Hellblade series
- Obsidian Entertainment – The Outer Worlds, Fallout: New Vegas, Grounded
- Playground Games – Forza Horizons
- Rare – Sea of Thieves, Battletoads, Banjo-Kazooie
- Tango Gameworks – The Evil Within
- The Coalition – Gears of War
- The Initiative – set up in 2018 to work on new first-party projects
- Turn 10 Studios – Forza Motorsport
- Undead Labs – State of Decay
- World’s Edge – established in 2019 to develop Age of Empires projects
- Zenimax Studios Online – The Elder Scrolls Online, Fallout 76