Editor’s Note: A lawsuit has been filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, which alleges the company has engaged in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees. Activision Blizzard has denied the allegations. The full details of the Activision Blizzard lawsuit (content warning: rape, suicide, abuse, harassment) are being updated as new information becomes available.
Activision-Blizzard, the video game holding company behind World of Warcraft, is set to be purchased by Microsoft, meaning that World of Warcraft could be moving onto the Xbox marketplace in the future. The news of Microsoft buying CoD publisher Activision-Blizzard has sent ripples through the gaming industry, and may lead to a number of the publisher's titles making their way to Xbox, or even becoming Xbox exclusives. World of Warcraft, one of Activision-Blizzard's most successful titles, could be among a collection of other games that could see a brand new audience on Microsoft's console.
Activision-Blizzard's reputation has been reeling since the company was accused of engaging in abuse, discrimination, and retaliation against its female employees, which has reportedly led to at least 20 employees exiting the company. Since the allegations became public, Activision-Blizzard has been defending itself against lawsuits, game boycotting, and public declarations of its hostile work environment. This may hopefully change now that Microsoft has acquired Activision-Blizzard, but there's no telling when this and a number of other issues and questions will be resolved.
Due to the acquisition, Microsoft now owns numerous Activision-Blizzard games, including Call of Duty, Overwatch, Candy Crush Saga, and World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft was released in 2004, and quickly rose to fame as one of the most successful and popular MMORPG games of all time, boasting over 100 million player accounts. While many of Activision-Blizzard's games have been available on Xbox consoles before, World of Warcraft has only been playable on PC and mobile devices. A potential move to an additional marketplace would expand World of Warcraft's already massive online player base, increase revenue, and expand its thriving community to include players that may not have ever played the game.
Microsoft's Activision-Blizzard Deal Could Lead To WoW On Xbox
Rumors of World of Warcraft coming to the Xbox marketplace have been circulating the internet since November, with some suggesting that a port was going to be announced at 2021's Game Awards. With the Game Awards come and gone, it was unclear whether the game would find a way onto consoles. Now that Activision-Blizzard has been acquired by Microsoft, though, a port of World of Warcraft to Xbox could be all but inevitable. Xbox Game Pass, Microsoft's video game subscription service, could make World of Warcraft instantly available for the Xbox community to explore the vast dungeons of Azeroth for the first time.
Despite the news of Microsoft's acquisition, it is still unclear whether World of Warcraft will come to the Xbox. It's expected that the purchase of Activision-Blizzard will complete in 2023, and there's a lot that could change during that time. It would certainly make sense for World of Warcraft to arrive on Xbox, as the game is still going strong and would reach a whole new audience on Microsoft's console, but it's still too early to tell if it's a sure thing. In any case, World of Warcraft will now belong to Microsoft, which may potentially bring new opportunities to the franchise in the future.