Following the announcement of Microsoft’s $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, many gamers are wondering exactly how many game companies, and game franchises, Microsoft now owns. Is it, like, all of them? Not quite, but it is a lot. An awful lot. Activision Blizzard is itself the result of a 2008 merger between two gaming giants, namely Activision and Vivendi (which previously owned Blizzard). While it might be the biggest gaming acquisition in Microsoft’s history (in games industry history, in fact), it’s certainly not the first.
To help you keep track of who owns which of your favorite games companies and games franchises, we’ve compiled this brief (just kidding, it’s huge!) list of all the major publishers, developers, and franchises Microsoft owns. Please note that although the acquisition of Activision Blizzard hasn’t actually been completed yet, we’re including Activision Blizzard and everything it owns because it would rather defeat the object not to.
Activision Blizzard
Major Studios
- Blizzard Entertainment
- High Moon Studios
- Infinity Ward
- King
- Raven Software
- Sledgehammer Games
- Toys for Bob
- Treyarch
- Vicarious Visions
Major Franchises
- Call of Duty
- Candy Crush Saga
- Diablo
- Crash Bandicoot
- Guitar Hero
- Hearthstone
- Heroes of the Storm
- Overwatch
- Skylanders
- Spyro
- StarCraft
- Tony Hawk’s
- World of Warcraft
Bethesda Softworks
Microsoft acquired Bethesda’s parent company, Zenimax Media, in 2021.
Major Studios
- Alpha Dog Games
- Arkane Studios
- Bethesda Game Studios
- Id Software
- MachineGames
- Roundhouse Studios
- Tango Gameworks
- Zenimax Online Studios
Major Franchises
- Deathloop
- Dishonored
- Doom
- Fallout
- Ghostwire Tokyo
- Quake
- Rage
- Starfield
- The Elder Scrolls
- The Evil Within
- Wolfenstein
Xbox Game Studios
Major Studios
- 343 Industries
- Compulsion Games
- Double Fine Productions
- inXile Entertainment
- Mojang Studios
- Ninja Theory
- Obsidian Entertainment
- Playground Games
- Rare
- The Coalition
- The Initiative
- Turn 10 Studios
- Undead Labs
- World’s Edge
Major Franchises
- Age of Empires
- Banjo-Kazooie
- Fable
- Forza
- Gears of War
- Halo
- Hellblade
- Minecraft
- Perfect Dark
- Pillars of Eternity
- Psychonauts
- Sea of Thieves
- State of Decay
- The Bard’s Tale
- The Outer Worlds
- Viva Piñata
- Wasteland
