Microsoft And Activision Will Continue To Support "A Variety Of Platforms" Despite Acquisition

Switch is a popular system, I don’t see why Activision wouldn’t continue to support it.

Why would it not include Switch? It has supported Switch more than PlayStation to this point. I imagine it will depend upon the game. Basically, Microsoft is becoming platform agnostic — like the game companies of yore.

Microsoft definitely have a healthy relationship with Nintendo, which is good.
But Activision/Blizzard is not a healthy entity, which is not as good.

Microsoft will support Switch…and Steam… and Epic… and Mobile…

…there, sure that’s all of ‘em!

I guess they will release these other games to the wild whenever they feel like it…. Pretty cool that Diablo et Al will come to Gamepass tho

But, why do they need to say a statement like this?
Just dodgy in my mind

Good the only game I care about is overwatch 2 and that's seems to meet the requirements of honouring current contracts

Microsoft And Activision Will Continue To Support "A Variety Of Platforms" Despite Acquisition
But does that include Switch?

Well what else is there?

Microsoft is weird, they don't seem to want to have exclusive system sellers on their console 🤷🏻‍♂️ Can't say I fully get their strategy.

Considering both Activision and Microsoft were supporting the switch before this acquisition, I don't think the acquisition is going to really change that in any capacity.

I can't imagine they will support PlayStation at all. The whole point would be to get those exclusives. They do support PC and I think they may continue to release on Switch since they don't see it as direct competition to Xbox. Of course, that would only be for games like Crash & Spyro, not the Call of Duties and such.

They said that about Bethesda then promptly changed their story and screw over all gamers by cancelling games for other system's

If it means activision games are part of the xbox cloud service I don't really mind. It's still in beta so maybe they have plans to release it on the switch. And I know people hate the cloud because their internet speeds suck but it would be amazing to have exclusives like Halo, Gears of War and Psychonauts on the switch in any form!

That may be the case for now but in the long run, Microsoft can slowly kill any chances of multiplat support if it means working in their favor.

@Scapetti game pass is gonna be the best cloud service now for sure

Terrible news, they only say that in the beginning but sooner or later they'll screw fans of those beloved franchises. They already screw Banjo, Conker, and Rare as a whole, soon they'll screw Crash, Spyro, and Pitfall as well. I don't see this acquisition as something special, all I see is that now all of Actvision and Blizzard IPs will all be control by big brother. Soon we probably won't even get a new Crash or Spyro cause big brother don't like it.

Considering the relationship between Microsoft and Nintendo recently I don't think we have much to worry about, at least on short term notice. Long term... especially when Microsoft keeps buying more... then we might have to worry.

"Variety of platforms":
> Xbox
> PC
> Mobile via cloud streaming

That's it.

Gotta love the sun headline, “But does that include the Switch?”

Well, Microsoft has released some of their own games on the Switch. None of the Bethesda titles have been pulled and they are actively supported.

I’m starting to wonder as a Nintendo fan, do I need this site? IGN has more pro-Nintendo articles than a supposed “Nintendo centric” page.

They said pretty much the same thing after the Bethesda deal, lol. Games that release in the next year or two will likely go to the competition. They'll honor existing deals, of course. But you don't spend 70 billion dollars and allow the competition permanent free access to developers you've acquired.

If Sony wants a piece of that CoD pie in 2024 on, they'll probably have to agree to allow Game Pass onto Playstation.

I could see them striking deals with Nintendo for mascot platformers and whatnot going forward, though. Nintendo isn't a threat to the Xbox brand.

No they won't lol. How else are they going to get day one third party support on Gamepass? I'm sure it makes sense short term to recoup some of their investment, but come on, everything they are doing points to Gamepass originals and an over bloated subscription model for key IP. I find this just as gross as Activison. So Microsoft are just going to buy everyone up with their bottomless money pit.

Guys, remember that Microsoft's stand with Bethesda was to release on all platforms that were willing to have its gaming service.

I think this is Microsoft continuing to acquire more first party games for its next moves.

Like Bethesda, I doubt Switch/ the next Nintendo system is/are in future plans. At least once the deal closes. Not a big deal since Activision support was so-so up until Switch.

Also, I don't really begrudge MS for keeping Activision games exclusive. Gotta compete with their biggest competitor, Sony, somehow.

I don't believe anything that snake oil salesman has to say

Is there any possibility that goldeneye reloaded will be released

"On a variety of platforms" doesn't mean "on all platforms" but it will be a slow process like the acquisition of Zenimax. Deathloop hasn't arrived on Xbox yet because of the timed exclusivity that Sony bought.

@Clyde_Radcliffe They don’t prioritise system sales, it’s all about Game Pass subscriptions, that is their future and this acquisition is as big as it comes. Even if COD still releases on PlayStation the mere fact that it will be £60 there as opposed to free as part of a Game Pass subscription will push more casuals towards MS.

@Clyde_Radcliffe because exclusives no longer matter to them. the xbox is merely to get people to buy in the the ecosystem. it really doesn't matter whether you buy their games on the PC, Xbox or subscribe to gamepass they will make money. I mean a year of gamepass ultimate sub is probably greater revenue than what an average xbox gamer spends on games in a year.

We will probably see MORE activision/blizzard games coming to Nintendo consoles now

@wanghosom I honestly hope we'll get some Warcraft ports, or at least Hearthstone on the Switch.

Why wouldn't switch be apart of this? if anything the switch was waaay more likely then Sony.

@Snatcher You're right, Nintendo and Microsoft are more "friends" but, on the other hand, Switch is underpowered for upcoming games so I don't know.

@broskiplays I've been loving it myself. Psychonauts 2 is such an incredible game. Worth it for that alone

@Banjo- True, Not every game could be included, but I just find it odd that the article would say that, Its like you said, microsoft and nintendo are best buds.

@Snatcher That's right, buddy.

Wait, Microsoft is acquiring another company? I need a beer.

@Scapetti for me its all about Football Manager, Forza Horizon 5, Spelunky and even GTA SA remastered that make the gamepass a worth while for me. And seeing Danganronpa coming makes me wish that persona or phoenix wright comes too eventually.

Upon knowing of the acquisition, I was getting worried whether or not support for other consoles was off the tables but seeing this post puts me at ease.

I’m just hoping to play “Warcraft 3: Reforged: Reforged.”

…

(And don’t abandon MacOS please.)

That doesn’t mean anything. They could literally be saying that they will still be supporting Warzone on PlayStation consoles

I see them continuing with Nintendo considering the relationship between Redmond’s two giants, but I’m sure PlayStation support will slowly fizzle.

@Ralizah what this means is that despite being bought by MS, MS will still support Warzone on PS consoles.

So doesn’t mean anything much for Switch owners

Multiple platforms, such as XBox One, XBox One S, XBox One X, XBox Series S and XBox Series X

This is literally what they said about bethesda XD Those platforms are most likely xbox series s, xbox series x, pc and mobiles. XD

Microsoft And Activision Will Continue To Support "A Variety Of Platforms" Despite Acquisition yeah if you belive that then you will believe anything

I mean, most of the CoD games aren't even on the Switch. (as if it could run them anyways.) The other IPs like Crash and Spyro potentially have a good future on Switch though; I don't see Xbox locking down the Switch since Playstation is its biggest competitor.

I already got my Blizard Arcade Collection. The big consoles can have the rest.

Also, people need to remember that Microsoft has already released a lot of games by companies they own on the Switch. Minecraft, Cuphead, Banjo Kazooie...

It’s a great time to be a Nintendo and Microsoft gamer!

Scary how Microsoft is going on a shopping spree for companies. For the people that say Nintendo and Microsoft have a good relationship. That’s only on the surface in my opinion since Nintendo wants to keep doing their own thing while Microsoft wants to be in everyone else’s business. Nintendo and Microsoft still compete against each other just not as much as Sony.

Sony and MS trading blows with each other, all the while nintendo sits snug, getting games from both consoles. Nintendo got ori and cuphead, and salt and sanctuary and now 13 sentinels.

I could see them putting games on switch but not PlayStation. The switch is not really a competition and more so a addition to a Xbox or PlayStation. But Sony is competing directly with Microsoft.

They might not lock out Nintendo consoles or the Switch in general due to good relationship between the two but who knows.

It’s not out of the realm of possibility that MS could ask Nintendo for assistance in Crash Bandicoot as it is a platformer game

switch and xbox are two different objectives, so why not? wonder if playstation fans will still get their CoD fix. I doubt it....

@Specter_of-the_OLED Actually, this is good news for anyone who likes Activision titles that aren’t COD. Activision itself was pretty much forcing all of its studios to work on nothing but COD. Microsoft, and its money, should mean the likes of Toys for Bob can make a new Crash Bandicoot or other projects.

The only gamers this deal is bad for is Sony players. Microsoft doesn’t really seem to see Nintendo as a rival.

@Clyde_Radcliffe "being able to be less dependent on an exclusive console in the first place".

Being the company behind a high selling console is good when it sells like the xb360 but much less so when it barely sells more than the WiiU the way the Xbox One seemed to for a while iirc the numbers being only in the 20-40 millions units compared to the PS4 juggernaut of its generation.

Plus the current silicon shortages have shown the issues that happen when you can't even produce enough consoles to sell games in the first place.

Yeah, I'm sure support for various platforms will continue, as per current contracts. Afterwards, debatable... Additionally, many Switch versions of games will have to be built from the ground up, to be optimized for the console, or not released on it, period.

I still have PTSD over what the Microsoft pirchase did to Rare to be honest.

Nintendo fans here are living in some fantasy worlds. Do you people seriously believe that because Microsoft gave us a handful of indie games they published, we're somehow going to get these bigger games too?

By the way those indie games we did get, ONLY reason we got them was because they were not selling on Microsoft hardware, so Microsoft saw a benefit in giving those games to us, but it isn't even close to being the same for bigger games...

But I'll humour your imaginations, I'm sure Microsoft will give us these games while getting absolutely nothing back in return and they will also provide back rubs and feet massages to all Nintendo gamers because entitlement huh... 🤣🤣🤣

So many people here living in some fantasy land that it is actually quite worrying to see.

So that's more Xbox exclusive secured. ALL WILL BE ON GAMEPASS!

They will be on other platforms until they're not. Microsoft can never have enough money or market share.

@Clyde_Radcliffe Microsoft's estimated net-worth is 2.25 trillion dollars, so they're doing something right if people want to keep giving them money.

I just hope this doesn't mean Crash and Spyro are dead again. Microsoft really dropped the ball on Banjo and Conker, especially Banjo where they could've easily made him one of MS's top IPs.

Sony missing out on CoD will be huge. One of the factors behind the PS4's success was the casuals buying CoD, Fifa, Madden etc.

Mobile, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S

That's a variety of platform, and you better believe they are the ones he is talking about, although they will still publish non-flagship series on Switch, Activation / Blizzard doesn't really have many of them. There B list of games mostly haven't seen releases in decades. But if we do see a revision of the "Hero" games or other plastic driven games, they will be on Switch for sure, MAYBE even PlayStation. Crash ... 50/50. I just can't see that making any money on Xbox, and Crash was huge in Japan. They are leaving a ton, probably MOST of the money on the table if they don't publish that on a kid friendly platform that people in Japan actually own.

And I mean ... obviously Skylanders is going to be on Switch, which means so will Spyro. I don't see Candy Crush moving to Xbox exclusive, so we can all breath a collective sigh of relief there!

Other then that, what am I missing? A dozen or so point and click games? Prototype 3 maybe, but there are a dozen reasons that's not getting a switch release regardless. Diablo? Yeah I guess that's it. If Switch losses a IP, it's going to be Diablo.

2 Years ago I would have said they will support Play Station, but the next Elder scrolls and Starfield are both exclusive, something they flat out said they would not do. Sony has completely shut down all their attempts to make it easier to enable cross play in PSO, and I think that was the reason for the shift.

The other HUGE big picture thing people are not considering is that you don't buy 10,000 people, the buildings they work at, and the hardware they work on to maintain the status quo. There is a very real possibility we are just going to see most of Activation / Blizzard just go away as MS moves 5000+ people to their own studios.

So did Microsoft orchestrate the recent Activision scandal in order to buy up the company when it was at its most vulnerable?

@Gamer_Zeus

You know that MS studios published a Switch Exclusive right? Cause I don't think you do!

Your argument is just silly, and yet so many people make it. This company only cares about money so that is why they will do this thing that will cost them billions and billions of dollars! For money!

You know a great way to make money? Make games for the 70 million install base system that has a demographic that matches your game, instead of just the 20 million install base system that is completely outside of it. Yeah, they are going to stop publishing Skylanders on the kid friendly console. Good prediction there Nostradamus. And if they make another game where the R&D and production are sky high, like Activation's other peripheral tiles (the "Hero" games, Tony Hawk) they were never recover that cost on just Xbox. So either we wont see anymore of them or they will be cross platform.

I think you're tragically underinformed about how Activation makes money. Hint: It's 4th most profitable IP is Skylanders, it's 2nd is Candy Crush. Some real Xbox system sellers right there!

Other then that, they didn't really pick up any IPs that were on Switch in the first place

@HeadPirate you do realise that Microsoft published a bunch of Indie Games on the Switch right? Because i don't think you do.

People like you always seem to think that Microsoft will give us their best games, like how many of you legitimately thought we'd get GamePass? 🤣🤣, why can't you use your common sense?

If Nintendo just purchased Sega and all of their IPs, would you expect to see them on other platforms?

if Microsoft made all Bethesda games exclusive after spending 8 billion to buy them, what makes you think they won't do the same with Activision after spending 70 billion?

I'm going to be honest here, you know why you think we're going to get Microsoft published games? Because entitlement.

The best we will get will be some small indie games, like we have been getting.

We won't see COD
We won't see Diablo
We Won't see Overwatch
We won't see any big AAA games.

Because Microsoft have NEVER given us any big AAA games.

Support other consoles = $$$

@HeadPirate also you need to climb off your horse there a bit buddy, you do realise that Nintendo benefitted a lot more than Microsoft from Microsoft published games on their platform, you seem to think Microsoft had the advantage?

If you think thats true then why aren't Nintendo games on other hardware?

Who would benefit more from Mario on Sony? because it isn't Nintendo... lol

Your comments reek of Nintendo entitlement.

No it won't include Switch. Future ActiBlizz games will be only available on Xbox, PC and Xcloud. Only games currently already available on Switch and PlayStation will receive support, and they won't delist them either. At best, you can maybe expect ports and remasters to still be multiplatform, such as the recent Quake 1 release.

And no, Microsoft has barely supported the Switch beyond Minecraft and letting Banjo in Smash and Switch online. Ori 1 they published, but Ori 2 and Cuphead were separate from them.

@IronMan30 I think Microsoft considers companies like Apple to be bigger competition.

@HeadPirate "And I mean ... obviously Skylanders is going to be on Switch"

Skylanders isn't going to be on anything anytime soon.

"You know a great way to make money? Make games for the 70 million install base system that has a demographic that matches your game, instead of just the 20 million install base system that is completely outside of it."

You don't get it, Microsoft are playing the long game here. They want to grow Game Pass.

@Handy_Man
Well, if you look at Call of Duty's case, the problem was that all of the developers were given way too much leeway in game development to the point where games have become absurdly complex and huge on storage to be able to run on the Switch. CoD Mobile may be the exception here, but the number of years it has missed the Switch is evident of the lack of support.

@Gamer_Zeus

Omg you're really doubling down on the idea that a new Skylanders, a game that exists to sell toys to 8-year-olds isn't going to be on switch because that's somehow the financially correct decision?

It's not binary. Why is Minecraft still platform? Because that's what makes sense in that specific case. Why did Microsoft studios not just give up the exclusivity of Ori but made a switch copy that's better and has more features than the Xbox copy? Same reason. The argument that Microsoft just wants to make the most money therefore they'll do the same thing in all cases regardless of what marketing research says is going to make the most money is just silly.

Also do you know something about Activision Blizzard I don't? Because given Diablo 4 was already confirmed as not coming to switch, COD wasn't coming to switch, and World of Warcraft isn't coming to switch ... What exactly is this AAA title MS is going to take from "us"

And I mean you given I have a grandfathered Game Pass already.

@Orpheus79V

Which is why Minecraft is Xbox exclusive, and why you can't play ESO of Fallout 76 on PlayStation anymore.

It's like you seem to get all MS wants is to make money, but you think MAKE THIS EXCLUSIVE is the one size fits all way to do that, despite the fact that every other time MS has done this they approached everything on a case by case basis, and in some cases like eSports and MMOs exclusivity is obviously the wrong move.

The will make some exclusive, others won't be.

@HeadPirate you're really doubling down on your entitlement here. If the game is an Indie game we may see it, but you are in some fantasy world if you think we'll get any AAA games, i doubt we'll even get a Crash Bandicoot game.

Like i said, we won't see another COD, Diablo or Overwatch game on the Switch, that will include Overwatch 2. The same way we won't get another DOOM, Wolfenstein or Elder Scrolls game either.

I wonder how you'd react if suddenly Nintendo decided to let Microsoft have BOTW on GamePass 🤣.

Like i said before, we may get smaller Indie games or some little kiddie games as you mentioned, but the games that matter, no you'll not see them again.

@Orpheus79V considering they said that, yes. I was more talking in the console space so I should have been more specific.

I just want a Call of Duty on Switch already. Honestly they could release Back Ops 2 and it would sell millions of copies on Switch without any updates but what do I know? I'm sure they will continue to support Switch.

Very doubtful we will see these games come to Nintendo platforms. Nintendo didn't have any formal agreements with Activision's games, ether. In regards to kids games, like Spyro etc, coming to Switch, that won't happen either.

Of course it includes Switch as the Switch isn't a rival to the Xbox as the Switch is mainly a handheld. The PS5 however will likely no longer receive sny games.

I don't care about Switch support as long as they (Microsoft) use Bizzard just to push cloudgaming.

@HeadPirate "It's like you seem to get all MS wants is to make money, but you think MAKE THIS EXCLUSIVE is the one size fits all way to do that, despite the fact that every other time MS has done this they approached everything on a case by case basis"

I will refer you to comment #73, where I said games already on other platforms will continue being supported, which includes Minecraft, etc.

I do think there is a good chance we will see more, and that's if Sony allows Game Pass on PlayStation. A few years ago, I'd have said it would never happen. It would cannibalise Sony's bottom line if people could subscribe to their competitors service on their own console instead of buying the games - HOWEVER... With all of these acquisitions, I think there is a strong case to be made that Game Pass could exist on PlayStation in a form where it only includes Xbox Studios games, no third party. I think with all of these buyouts they have enough content to justify a service like that, and it suits Microsoft's ultimate goal of growing the service like I said in my first reply.