Microsoft: Gaming is for everyone and everywhere says Phil Spencer

Phil Spencer discusses the acquisition of Activision Blizzard in an article to allay concerns from gamers, developers and authorities.

In an article today, Xbox boss Phil Spencer presented the view of things regarding the takeover of Activision Blizzard by the Microsoft group.

The short version is: gaming is for everyone, everywhere.

Microsoft wants to make games accessible to billions of people, the article said. And the takeover represents an important milestone there.

Know that consoles are not the only way to play. The mobile gaming market is growing the fastest. And here you want to give the players the choice as well as the developers. This should enable opportunities for innovation and growth.

“We love consoles, but we also know that they’re not the only way to play games. The largest and fastest growing segment of gaming today is the mobile platforms. To reach the billions of gamers where they are, no matter what device they play on, we need to embrace choice. Giving players choice in how they play their games makes gaming more accessible and leads to larger, more vibrant player communities. Choice is also important for developers. The developers benefit from a variety of sales and business models for their games. Choice opens up opportunities for innovation and enables the industry to grow.”

With the Game Pass model and cloud gaming via streaming to all devices, the choice will expand. And of course, there are plans to bring Activision Blizzard game series such as Call of Duty, Diablo or Overwatch to the Game Pass. This should also enlarge the respective communities and make the services more attractive.

“We’re expanding choice in two ways: by creating Game Pass, which offers players a subscription option, and by bringing more games to mobile platforms, including through our cloud game streaming technology. Subscription services like Game Pass make gaming more affordable and help gamers around the world find their next favorite game. Game Pass gives developers the power to offer more games for more players, not fewer. We intend to make Activision Blizzard’s popular collection of games—including Overwatch, Diablo, and Call of Duty—available in Game Pass and grow these gaming communities. By offering even greater value to players, we hope to continue to grow Game Pass and expand its appeal to mobile and all connected devices.”

Microsoft needs new skills and, above all, experience to achieve its goals. And it is precisely the latter that the teams at Activision Blizzard offer with their games for mobile platforms. It is also hoped that gamers will be able to play traditional Activision Blizzard console games on other platforms via cloud game streaming.

About taking franchises like Call of Duty from other platforms, Spencer said in the article:

“In doing so, we will follow a principled path. We’ve heard this deal could take franchises like Call of Duty away from the places people currently play them. That’s why, as we said before, we’re committed to making the same version of Call of Duty available on PlayStation on the same day the game launches elsewhere. We will continue to allow players to play together across platforms and devices. We know players benefit from this approach because we did it with Minecraft, which continues to be available on multiple platforms and has expanded to even more platforms since Mojang joined Microsoft in 2014. As we expand our games store to new devices and platforms, we will ensure that we do so in a way that protects developers’ ability to choose how they want to distribute their games.”

We respect and welcome the questions coming from regulators and will continue to work with them transparently and openly, it concluded. It is also believed that the merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard will benefit the industry and gamers.

You can find the full article in English here.

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