What the Microsoft Acquisition Could Mean for World of Warcraft
We have all heard the news, Microsoft is in the process of acquiring Activision Blizzard. This includes the popular franchise, World of Warcraft, and all the other games that Blizzard owns. The main question seen is what could this mean for World of Warcraft. A few people even believe that Microsoft would shut down the popular franchise.
Microsoft is a smart company, it is unlikely that they would shut down the Warcraft games. Warcraft still makes money and with impending news of an expansion on the horizon, will continue to make money. This acquisition is expected to happen by the end of 2023.
Today, we discuss and explore a few possibilities and speculations of what we think could happen. None of these possibilities has been confirmed or denied by Microsoft and is purely speculation.
Closed Down
One of the possibilities is that Microsoft could say the world of warcraft has run its course. This could shut down the game. It is not expected the entire franchise would cease to exist. They would likely start on the next generation for the Warcraft series.
Cheaper Subscription Fees
Microsoft has a PC game pass, this costs $10 a month. World of Warcraft could get put on the pc game pass instead along with all of Battle.net’s current games and future games. This would allow players to just pay $10 instead of the current $15 subscription module. This may even mean that if you pay that 10 a month, there is a possibility we might not have to pay for expansions anymore, like Conan Exiles. You can acquire Conan through the game pass Microsoft offers for free including all the expansions, so why shouldn’t wow get the same if it hits the PC game pass.
Console Version
Microsoft has revealed that they would like to get as many of Activision Blizzard’s products on the console as possible. People have talked about and speculated for years of the warcraft universe hitting console. After all, it happened with Diablo, and even some other MMO’s like Star Trek Online, why wouldn’t wow be able to hit console. This could even bring in a whole new genre of players to Warcraft, especially if it hit both Playstation and Xbox (which could be likely since Microsoft wants to leave Call of Duty on all platforms).
Free Subscriptions
Microsoft is an intelligent company, a lot of players would love the world of warcraft to be made free. If blizzard had made it free, they would still make money by selling expansions and continuing the Blizzard store mounts, pets, transmogs, etc. The point is, they would still make money. You see, Microsoft isn’t stupid they would not be spending almost 70 million on a company if they weren’t sure they would get that money back somehow and then some. Free subscriptions would open the game back up to others coming back in. They could essentially bring back the old player base who left due to subscription base and might open up more players willing to purchase stuff from the blizzard store.
The announcement about Microsoft purchasing blizzard came as a shock to some, but not others. In the end, we are all left with questions especially if you’ve been with the company and its games for years. With a new wow expansion on the horizon, it doesn’t look like wow will be going anywhere anytime soon. With this said, what is it you might like to see with the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft?
