One of the most controversial figures in the gaming industry, Bobby Kotick, recently announced to the company that he will leave his position on December 29th, officially stepping down as the CEO of Activision Blizzard. In 1991, Bobby Kotick became the CEO of Activision through the acquisition of company shares. Under his leadership, Activision acquired numerous game studios including Blizzard, King, Treyarch, Infinity Ward, Raven Software, and more, ultimately transforming Activision into the large, well-known company we are familiar with today.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority gave the green light to Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion takeover of gaming firm Activision Blizzard, removing the last major hurdle for the deal to close. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was the final regulator holding up the deal. Microsoft should now be able to close the acquisition. In August, Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights. The CMA describes Microsoft’s concession as a “gamechanger that will promote competition” in the growing cloud gaming market.

Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind legendary franchise titles such as Diablo, Starcraft,and Warcraft, has announced that it will be making a significant move by bringing its PC games to the popular gaming platform Steam. This decision comes as a surprise to many, leading to speculation that it could be linked to Microsoft's impending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The first game to be released on Steam as part of this new strategy will be Overwatch 2, scheduled to launch on August 10.