So I just watched the trailer for the deal closing with Xbox and I noticed one little detail. The trailer shows Blizzard Entertainment, not acti-blizz. So Blizz is back to it’s own entity now? If so that is awesome news!
In case you haven’t seen it, it’s here
I wouldn’t say that one soulless corporation gobbling up another soulless corporation was cause for celebration, it’s just the way of the world these days.
its me im John Blizzard and im calling the shots from now on
my first act is to remove seething shore and vulpera
No, Activision is very much part of the merge. It’s now Microsoft->Activision->Blizzard if we’re getting strictly hierarchical. However, Activision always had the name “Activision|Blizzard” ever since they bought Blizzard from Vivendi more than a decade ago.
Well that was a nice trailer, I like that. Sure, why not! I’ll congratulate in times of ambiguity. Buff Marksmanship Microsoft and let us do all our group utility/survivability things without calling out any pet 
also uncap our trick shots so they can hit any amount of targets by default, and make multi shot apply trick shots on two targets as well!
Yep…there won’t be any improvement, other than possibly Bobby leaving. But there’s no saying his replacement won’t be worse.
Microsoft World of Warcraft 2025: Clippy Edition!
It appears you are trying to kill your first wild boar. Would you like some tips on how to defeat this creature? [Yes] [No]
Microsoft doesn’t do anything, make any changes, or improve anything. They expect to just sit back and watch money roll in. I’m honestly surprised they aren’t going to leave Bobby in place.
The only reason the Microsoft merger isn’t unambiguously bad is because Activision Blizzard was SO BAD that they have nowhere to go but up.
They were long ago merged. How many years are we going to cling to the notion that Blizzard is some innocent babe in the woods who would be perfect, were it not for big evil Activision forcing it to do bad things?
Ehhhhhhhh… im not gonna be hopeful for that. I would be surprised, but i’m having a feeling that bobby leaving wouldn’t mean things would go back the way it’s suspose to be. Not yet anyways.
Especially since we don’t know who the the new CEO would be like so… 
Because the actual studios that produce games are
Same as they were as subsidiaries of Activision-Blizzard (which was the holding company / corporate entity). All their games were published by one of those 3 game studios, just like they will continue to be published as subsidiaries of Microsoft now.
I think Bobby doesn’t want to stay on. He purchased Activision in 1991 and engineered it into the behemoth it is today, merging with Vivendi and everything that followed. Under Microsoft he wouldn’t be the whiz that ran the whole show anymore, and I think he’s too proud to stay on as a Microsoft subsidiary. He’s gonna finish out the year, collect his massive golden parachute, and be fine.
Because Microsoft is now the publisher and Activision is not, the company just is called Microsoft and there is no Activision Blizzard anymore. Under it’s umbrella are all the individual gaming companies that includes Activision, Blizzard and King though.
It is not. There is no merging of the company title like that.
If you need proof of this, the last time ATVI was listed on the stock market was October 12th. The day before the deal went through.
Blizzard hasn’t been autonomous since 1997 or so.
Difference is, Activision made decisions to maximize profits, and we have direct quotes from devs where they were told to not take player happiness into account at all.
Whereas Microsoft knows that you get more money by making players happy. Happy players spend money to support the game.
Unless Microsoft changes their entire business strategy they’ve used since the Xbox, all for World of Warcraft, there’s literally no way this won’t be a good thing for WoW.
This. 
Always surprises me that people don’t get this. Yeah, a lot of people don’t like Bobby K, but he’s not there to be liked. He’s there to make money.
So long as the line is going up, the people who actually influence ABK’s decision making wouldn’t give a damn even if there was photographic evidence of him eating babies.
Is there any reason to keep the three studios bundled together any more? All the roles the parent company had will be absorbed into the Xbox umbrella, won’t they?
Here’s hoping that the games will have more effort placed in them now. One can hope.
Well, you got my vote.
Dr. Madam Sir person, can you please remove Wintergrasp?
/thanks from the community
