According to former Microsoft Product Leader Richard Irving, who stayed at the company for roughly twelve years, Phil Spencer had to champion the initiative even against his own staff early on. Nowadays, Game Pass has grown to over 25 million subscribers, as Phil Spencer himself announced alongside the hugely shocking intention to acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. The executive talked a bit about the groundbreaking deal in a new interview with Axios, by the way. He called it daunting simply due to its sheer size (almost ten times as big as the already huge deal to buy ZeniMax Media). I wouldn’t be surprised if Phil has literally played every game that launched in the past year and has an opinion on it. Phil at his core is a gamer. Moreover, Phil Spencer pointed to the third main Activision Blizzard division (King, the creators of Candy Crush) as a significant reason Microsoft leadership bought into the idea. There are still regulatory scrutiny hurdles to overcome before the acquisition is finalized, though. Last week, we learned that the US Federal Trade Commission would review to deal. Not great news for Microsoft, given that the FTC is currently viewed as harsher than the Department of Justice (DOJ). Still, company CEO Satya Nadella didn’t seem worried in his more recent comments relayed to the Financial Times. In other Phil Spencer news, the veteran Microsoft executive will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th Annual D.I.C.E. ceremony, due to take place at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, on Thursday, Feb. 24 at 8 PM Pacific Time.
