The following episode was originally aired on 92.1 The Frog on January 20th, 2022.

Hello, and welcome to The Sunset. My name is Nathan and I’ll be going over a feature story I find interesting and give my thoughts on it.

On Tuesday, electronics company Microsoft announced it was purchasing video game company Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion dollars. This comes after over a year of controversy with the company regarding allegations of an unsafe work environment, including a lawsuit from the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Microsoft will now own franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush Saga, as well as one of my personal favorites, Spyro the Dragon. This comes after Microsoft purchased ZeniMax Media in 2021, and with it, franchises like DOOM, The Elder Scrolls, and Fallout.

While I worry about how the constant buyouts of companies harms art and worker’s rights, after the amount of problems this company has faced in the past year, I think this was really the only way this could have ended. It was either this or the company would have gone bankrupt and sold their assets in an auction regardless.

Microsoft has stated that Activision Blizzard games will come to their Xbox Game Pass service, and that the company will continue to support “a variety of platforms” in regards to Activision Blizzard titles. As such, it is likely the buyout will not have too much impact on the consumer end, though it is unclear if those platforms include PlayStation and Nintendo consoles.

What I wonder about most is how this will impact the unionization efforts of the company. I suppose only time will tell.

Thank you for listening to 92.1 The Frog.