Microsoft’s (MSFT) proposed $75B acquisition of Activision Blizzard (ATVI) has been one of the top stories of the past week.

ATVI represents the largest publicly traded game developer in the US, with some of the most well-recognized IP in the gaming industry at large.

In 2020, ATVI found incredible success with a free-to-play installment of the popular Call of Duty franchise: Warzone.

This shift to a freemium model helped to bolster sales during the pandemic, and all major game studios increasingly rely on in-game transactions

Why? Because the full-priced games aren’t selling as well as they once did.