LogInPhil Spencer emphasizes the importance of mobile.
Image credit: Activision Blizzard | Overwatch 2
The drama around Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard (and its King subsidiary responsible for Candy Crush Saga) has been more or less dormant after the company won the FTC trial. It recently announced its decision to sell cloud streaming rights for Activision games to Ubisoft to appease the UK regulator, and it might actually work.
But while everyone talks about how Microsoft's Xbox wants rights for Call of Duty, its head Phil Spencer claims there is another reason behind the acquisition. In an interview with Eurogamer, he said that Xbox wants a part of the mobile market, and that's why it needs this deal.
"The reason we're in the acquisition discussion with Activision Blizzard King is around their mobile capability," he said. "Because it's just something we don't have.
"We obviously already have Call of Duty on our platform, we already have Diablo on our platform. So it's not about new games that Xbox players don't have access to today. It is about a capability on mobile, and some broader ambitions that we have on the largest gaming platform, which is mobile phones."
Spencer was then asked if there was a "plan B" in case the deal fell through, but he doesn't think in these terms apparently.
"Any kind of other plan for us would continue to be about: how do we find relevance in the mobile space? And I think there are other paths to make that happen. But when we looked at the universe of creators – I know most people think about Activision probably in the console, PC [space], but if you look from their finances, the business is actually almost the exact opposite.
"So any other plan would still be about [that]. We think that for Xbox to continue to thrive, we need to have some relevant place in the whole province."
Image credit: Activision Blizzard | Overwatch 2
This is not the first time we hear about Xbox's mobile ambition. In March, Spencer revealed that Microsoft's mobile gaming store could open as soon as 2024. It should compete with Google Play and the App Store, and the King deal would greatly help the company.
"If you go back to the origins of how Steam got created, that was about a place for Valve to distribute their content. Why did the players go there? Because Half-Life was awesome. And people wanted to find the expansion packs and other things. So when we look at going into another platform, hopefully that is open to other storefronts, which isn't true globally today."
Spencer is still confident in the Activision Blizzard deal, and I think it pays off, especially if Microsoft continues to work with regulators.
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