Blizzard praises Microsoft's 'let it be' hands-off approach to management

Microsoft isn't in a rush to disrupt its new billion-dollar publishing triumvirate--the company appears to be taking the old phrase 'if it's not broken, don't fix it' to heart.

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Business consolidations can often be messy things, leading to hundreds of layoffs, product cancellations, and big interruptions. But that isn't the case with Microsoft's $70 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King. The three-armed unit is indeed owned by Microsoft, but ABK operates as a limited-integration company--similar to ZeniMax/Bethesda, ABK has its own budgets, creates its own projects, and balances its own books.

Blizzard is apparently enjoying the transition over to Microsoft's employ. In a recent interview with VideoGamesChronicle, World of Warcraft VP Holly Longdale says that the trillion-dollar tech giant hasn't come in and starting telling everyone what to do. WoW is doing great right now, and Microsoft doesn't want to get in the way. In short, Microsoft wants Blizzard to just keep doing what it's doing--making hundreds of millions of dollars per quarter from successful live service games.

"There's no one asking us to do anything. World of Warcraft is doing very well and they're very proud of what it's been able to accomplish, so it's almost like 'just let it be, and let it keep being awesome,'" Longdale told VGC (WoW is one of Blizzard's top-earners and is the envy of the MMO market).

"They've been tremendously supportive and it's like 'let Blizzard be Blizzard'."

Outside of things like platform availability and Xbox Game Pass logistics, Microsoft may not actually step in and start calling the shots over at Blizzard as long as revenue and profits are healthy.

And healthy they seem. We don't know how much Blizzard makes any more because Microsoft doesn't relay that information. All of ABK's earnings reports have now been delisted. But as of Q2 2023 (April - June), Blizzard had made over $1 billion in the 3-month quarter primarily due to Diablo IV's release.