A number of industry pundits have claimed that Microsoft will sell off Xbox if its acquisition of Activision Blizzard falls through. Despite acquiring a number of other developers for its Xbox ecosystem, these insiders claim that Microsoft is preparing to sell.
A now-deleted series of tweets from VGC’s Andy Robinson claims that there’s a chance Microsoft will sell its gaming brand if it can’t acquire Activision-Blizzard. Robinson says this comes from various industry pundits who think this sale is a very real possibility. While Robinson himself thinks that the Activision sale will go through, the possibility is there.
“Regardless of [Xbox boss Phil] Spencer's words, I know a lot of industry pundits think MS selling off Xbox is a genuine possibility should this be blocked (I still expect it to go through with concessions),” says Robinson.
Fans and journalists alike questioned if Microsoft would really sell the entire Xbox brand, given the amount of money the company has poured on its gaming division. The VGC Editor claims that logic sometimes goes out the window if money isn’t being named. Soon after, he deleted his Tweets, likely due to the amount of negativity surrounding them.
The infamous Activision acquisition has been in limbo for quite some time, a lot of which is due to PlayStation’s interference. Sony’s gaming brand claims that it would cause a monopoly in the gaming industry and pointed out how Call of Duty is a huge part of their player base.
For their part, Xbox has done some extreme self-deprecating, claiming that even with the Activision deal they would be third to Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft has even made a deal with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty games to the Switch, for some reason. They even said that Call of Duty would continue to be sold on PlayStation systems to try and get this deal through.
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Xbox is still the third-biggest gaming brand, despite rumours of a sale. Their most recent exclusive, Hi-Fi Rush, is one of the company’s biggest launches in years, gaining critical acclaim and big sales.