Call to Power

Lore & Background

Call to Power extends the timeline of traditional Civilization games to the year 3000, introducing five epochs: Ancient Age, Renaissance, Modern Age, Genetic Age, and Diamond Age. It features a unique dual-layer map with terrestrial and space levels, allowing space colonization and sea colonization with appropriate technologies. Pollution mechanics are detailed, with dead tiles, global disasters like climate change and ozone deterioration, and the Gaia Controller wonder that removes all pollution in the Diamond Age. Happiness mechanics include riots, revolutions, and celebrations, influenced by distance from capital, overcrowding, pollution, and wartime conditions. Wonders can be built by any civilization with the required technology, providing global or city-specific effects, and can become obsolete or be captured. Victory conditions include conquering all opponents, completing the Alien Life Project (triggered by the wormhole sensor wonder), converting all enemy cities, or achieving the highest score by the year 3000.

Reader's Guide

Call to Power is significant as a commercial attempt to extend the Civilization formula into future eras, including space and sea colonization. Its Linux port, distributed in Europe via SUSE and retailers like Media Markt, marked the first major commercial video game for the Linux platform. The game received average reviews according to GameRankings, with Next Generation noting it was 'not without its good points' but difficult to enjoy compared to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It was the 16th-best-selling computer game of the first half of 1999, selling 293,046 units in the U.S. by September 2000. The game was a nominee for GameSpot's 'Most Disappointing Game of the Year' award. Its sequel, Call to Power II, was released 18 months later but could not use 'Civilization' in its title due to licensing issues. The game's legacy includes its innovative pollution and happiness systems, and its role in bringing commercial gaming to Linux.

Did You Know?

• Call to Power was ported to Linux by Loki Software, becoming one of the first major commercial games for that platform.
• The game's timeline extends to the year 3000, with five epochs including the Genetic Age and Diamond Age.
• Pollution can cause global disasters such as climate change, ozone deterioration, and global warming, which can destroy cities.
• The 'Gaia Controller' wonder removes all pollution but can only be built in the Diamond Age.

The Largest Gaming Deal in History

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft revealed plans to purchase Activision Blizzard in an all-cash transaction valued at roughly $68.7 billion, or about $95 per share. The announcement sent the publisher's stock surging nearly forty percent in pre-market trading. After a prolonged regulatory review, the deal finally closed on October 13, 2023, with the total price tag reaching $75.4 billion, making it the most expensive video game acquisition ever recorded by transaction value. Under the agreement, Activision Blizzard was folded into Microsoft's gaming division as a peer entity alongside Xbox Game Studios and ZeniMax Media, with Phil Spencer serving as the overarching leader. The move positioned Microsoft as the third-largest gaming company worldwide and the biggest one headquartered in the Americas, trailing only China's Tencent and Japan's Sony. Goldman Sachs and Allen & Company handled financial advising for the two sides respectively, while Simpson Thacher and Skadden provided legal counsel. The acquisition also granted Microsoft control over a vast portfolio of beloved franchises spanning Call of Duty, Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo, Overwatch, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Candy Crush Saga.

A Global Regulatory Gauntlet

The path to closing the merger was far from straightforward. After both boards approved the transaction, multiple national anti-trust regulators scrutinized the deal. The European Commission and China's State Administration for Market Regulation were among the first to grant clearance. However, the United States' Federal Trade Commission and the United Kingdom's Competition and Markets Authority both launched formal challenges. Sony publicly voiced opposition, warning that Microsoft might lock the highly profitable Call of Duty franchise exclusively to Xbox hardware. In response, Microsoft pledged a non-exclusivity commitment running through 2033. The FTC ultimately withdrew its legal challenge after courts determined the anti-trust arguments were insufficient to block the merger. To satisfy the CMA, Microsoft agreed to transfer its cloud-gaming support for Activision Blizzard titles to Ubisoft for a ten-year period. The protracted legal battles stretched the timeline well beyond the originally expected 2023 close, turning what was meant to be a routine corporate transaction into one of the most closely watched regulatory fights in the gaming industry's history.

Chasing the Mobile Frontier

A central pillar of Microsoft's strategic thinking behind the acquisition was access to the mobile gaming market. While the global console audience hovers around two hundred million players, the mobile sector reaches well over three billion people. Activision Blizzard's King division, home to the enormously popular Candy Crush Saga, represented a direct gateway into that space. CEO Bobby Kotick explained that he, Satya Nadella, and Phil Spencer had grown concerned about the growing power of Tencent, NetEase, Apple, and Google, and recognized that Activision Blizzard lacked the machine-learning and data-analytics infrastructure needed to compete on that level. Microsoft, by contrast, possessed those computational capabilities. Spencer also expressed enthusiasm for bringing Activision Blizzard titles into the Xbox Game Pass subscription service and for reviving nostalgic franchises like King's Quest, Guitar Hero, and Hexen: Beyond Heretic. Some observers framed the move, alongside the 2021 Bethesda purchase, as a broader counter to Meta Platforms' ambitions in the emerging metaverse.

Origins in an Unexpected Place

The seeds of the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal were planted in an unlikely context. Kotick later revealed in a 2025 interview that initial discussions began in 2020, when Microsoft was attempting to acquire TikTok from ByteDance. Kotick, who maintained a personal connection with ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, learned that Yiming would have preferred Activision to purchase TikTok rather than Microsoft. Since Activision could not outbid Microsoft on price, Kotick proposed a co-ownership partnership to Nadella, and it was during that conversation that the idea of Microsoft acquiring Activision was first raised. Although the TikTok deal never materialized, the acquisition talks continued. The timing of the January 2022 announcement also coincided with the fallout from a California Department of Fair Employment and Housing lawsuit filed in July 2021, which alleged sexual harassment and discrimination at the studio. By November 2021, the allegations had expanded to include Kotick himself. The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported that the acquisition's timing was partly a response to that legal pressure, compounded by weaker-than-expected financial results and production delays on recent titles.