It's All Over But the Digestion

That's game, set, and match in the legal skirmish between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission. The final score? 2-0 in Microsoft's favor. The spoils? A little video game publisher you might have heard of, called Activision. Or is it Activision-Blizzard? Or maybe Activision-Blizzard-King? Whatever. It's all just Microsoft now.

Whenever I hear the name "Activision
Blizzard King," this is typically what
comes to mind.

What does this mean for gamers? Probably not much at first. It'll take a while for Microsoft to fully subsume the first third party video game company, and the software giant promised both the FTC and the gaming community that the Call of Duty series would remain cross-platform for the immediate future. One change we should expect sooner than later is the ouster of former Activision CEO and corporate shark Bobby Kotick, who vowed to leave the company after the deal was finalized. Well, it happened Bobby, so get 'ta steppin'. Don't let the door hit you in the Moneyballs on the way out.

What I would like to see happen is a revival of Activision IP that had went into hibernation during the reign of Kotick. Now that Microsoft is in control, I'd like to see Activision Anthology make a comeback. This was one of the better classic collections for the Playstation 2 in the early 2000s, ranking up there with Capcom Classics Collection and Atari Anniversary, and a sequel on the Xbox Series (and the Switch, and the Playstation 5) would be deeply appreciated by old-school gamers like myself.

There was speculation that the Activision merger would bring more Xbox and Xbox 360 games to the Series, and while I don't think this has a realistic chance of actually happening (when was the last backward compatibility update, anyway? 2019?), I would certainly not mind it happening. In fact, I'd be happy to offer suggestions for Activision-published games that Microsoft could make compatible with its current generation console. How about Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the parallel universe-hopping action game with four classic Spider-Man voice actors returning to the role? Or what about Blur, the strange but enticing racing game that's a hybrid of Need for Speed and Super Mario Kart? Even better, why not Bloody Roar: Extreme? I've got a physical copy of this ferociously frantic fighter, but I'd love to see it make a comeback on modern consoles, with a sharper resolution and improvements to the already spiffy graphics.

If you're not going to do any of that, at least give us a new Activision Anthology. Heaven knows we've waited long enough for one.