Summary
WhileXboxhas historically done well to build its own popular IPs from the ground-up, recent years have pushed the company into acquiring pre-existing franchises from other studios. This comes at a time when older Microsoft IPs likeHaloandGears of Warare dropping in relevance, and the near-unrivaled spending power of Microsoft has allowed Xbox to purchase some hugely popular franchises and gaming studios to compensate for this.
Xboxand Microsoft have been employing this tactic for some time now, but the recent finalization of Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard acquisition has taken things to a whole new level. With all Activision Blizzard franchises now falling under the Microsoft name, Xbox now owns a deeply impressive roster of well-established IPs from a wide variety of its acquired studios.
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The Activision Blizzard Acquisition: All the Franchises That Xbox Now Owns
A lot of franchises already fall under the Xbox Games Studios name, with Xbox curating its own home-grown IPs over the past two decades. These franchises include:
This portfolio was significantly expanded withMicrosoft’s purchase of Rare in 2002. The $375M move saw Xbox acquire or eventually produce:
Shortly after this in 2006, Microsoft acquired Lionhead Studios tosecure the rights to theFablefranchise, which would go on to be very successful under the Xbox name. 2011 saw Twisted Pixel Games join the Xbox family, with the arcade-style franchisesThe Mawand’Splosion Manalso becoming Microsoft entities.
2012 was a huge year for Microsoft’s studio head-hunting, with the companyacquiringMinecraftdeveloper Mojang in a $2.5B deal. WithMinecraftbeing second to onlyTetrisin the best-selling games of all time list, Microsoft’s control over such a popular and influential game marked a turning point in the scale and ambition of its acquisitions.
For example, 2018 saw Microsoft acquire Ninja Theory, Undead Labs, Compulsion Games, Playground Games, inXile Entertainment, and Obsidian Entertainment. This spate of purchases saw Xbox take ownership of:
Microsoft would go on to purchase Double Fine in 2019 to acquire thePsychonautsfranchise, but it was 2020’s $8.1B acquisition of ZeniMax Media that really shook the gaming industry.This purchase gave Xbox ownership of the Bethesda, Arkane Studios, id Software, MachineGames, and Tango Gameworks franchises, placing the following big names in the Xbox roster:
These acquisitions combined to give Xbox a commendable roster of extremely popular franchises, which only made it more surprising when Microsoft announced its intention to purchase Activision Blizzard in January 2022. The magnitude of this acquisition was reflected in Microsoft’s record-setting offer of $69B for the company, leading to almost two years of regulatory battles and lawsuits attempting to block the purchase. Following the UK CMA’s eventual approval of the deal,Xbox now officially owns Activision Blizzard, as well as these prestigious franchises:
The Activision Blizzard acquisition now puts Xbox as one of the most dominant forces in the gaming industry, taking ownership of several franchises that sit at the top of their respective genres. It remains to be seen if Microsoft’s ambition will lead to any more acquisitions in the near future, butXboxalready has a full plate with the immense amount of IPs it now owns.
