Microsoft launched an action to lay out the game field with heavy money.
On January 18, Microsoft announced plans to acquire U.S. game giant Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion in cash. Once the acquisition is successful, Microsoft's game layout will cover the fields of console, PC, cloud games, mobile games and other fields, becoming a world game giant, and its game revenue will become the third largest game giant in the world after Tencent and Sony.
Activision Blizzard "Hero Twilight"?
Activision Blizzard has always been a giant in the global game market, and its "Call of Duty", "Warcraft", "Hearthstone", "StarCraft", etc., are all phenomenal products in the world game field, leading the direction of the global game industry.
Activision Blizzard has long been a "god" in the game market.
▲ Hearthstone game hero. Photo/ Hearthstone official Weibo
However, in recent years, Activision Blizzard seems to be in the end of the hero, for six consecutive years there has been no explosive new game IP, was complained about "eating the old book", and the original game IP update speed is also slower, and even "fried cold rice" overturned, such as "Warcraft 3: Remake" let the players who are full of expectations of the surprise; in addition, the recent "continuous sexual harassment" and gender discrimination culture and other negative news of the Activision Blizzard civil unrest, the departure of core employees, but also hurt it, resulting in its stock price in the past year plummeted by more than 40%.
Today, in the face of one of the largest mergers and acquisitions in the world's game field, people have different views on it, some people think that it is worth the money, some people think that it is not worth it, and some people even unveil Microsoft scars, saying that the mergers and acquisitions since Microsoft's inception are not as expected.
The two businesses are complementary
Value or not value is a judgment based on their respective perspectives and patterns.
The cash acquisition at $95 per share is a 45 percent premium to Activision Blizzard's stock price before its suspension on Tuesday, and it is indeed expensive. However, for Microsoft, which has a market value of $2.27 trillion, Activision Blizzard's acquisition payment is less than 3% of its market value, equivalent to 53% of Microsoft's $130 billion cash reserves.
Of course, this does not mean that Microsoft is "doing charity." Microsoft's offer of $95 per share is not outrageously high, in fact, Activision Blizzard shares reached as high as $103.81 per share last February, and then the company's stock fell, mainly due to "persistent sexual harassment", sexism and the delay in the release of two games in the third quarter and the revenue fell short of market expectations.
On January 18, Microsoft announced that it plans to acquire Activision Blizzard. Photo/unsplash
Obviously, purely from the perspective of stock price trends, it is not so much that Microsoft has a lot of money and a generous shot, but rather that Microsoft is very accurate in the choice of merger and acquisition timing.
At the same time, from the business development strategy, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is mainly the source of automatic vision Blizzard to help make up for the shortcomings in the field of Microsoft games, that is, the two businesses are complementary.
In recent years, Microsoft has carried out a strategic adjustment, the Microsoft that once sold products, is transforming into a product-as-a-service platform, its start-up Windows operating system, Office office system, etc., have achieved subscription service transformation, to achieve platform operation.
Specific to the current game field, Microsoft has built a PC, host, mobile game, cloud game and other systems, especially the cloud game xCloud developed by Microsoft, which can basically realize the use of mobile phones without a host to achieve free travel, and cloud services have become a new strategic competition place in the game market.
Microsoft "Planting Sycamore Trees to Attract Phoenix"
For Microsoft, the infrastructure of the game business has been deployed, just as the plane tree has been planted, and the key is how to attract the phoenix.
Obviously, What Microsoft lacks is the exclusive game copyright, and this acquisition of Activision Blizzard means that Microsoft can directly obtain its game franchise rights from Activision Blizzard and King, and a large number of game IP can be embraced, which can make up for Microsoft's shortcomings.
At present, Activision Blizzard has about 400 million active users around the world, and a large number of phenomenal game IP, how to integrate into its XGP package for Microsoft, enrich its xCloud cloud game ecology, and achieve strategic complementarity is one of the biggest selling points and highlights of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
▲Activision Blizzard logo. Photo/ Activision Blizzard official website
In addition, Activision Blizzard is only a turbulent company at present, and it is not yet possible to directly conclude that it is a declining company. In the third quarter of last year, Activision Blizzard revenue was $2.07 billion, up 6% year-on-year, operating margin was 40%, net pre-sale services revenue was $1.88 billion, and net profit was about $639 million, up 5% year-on-year; net income of its subsidiary King reached a record $652 million, up 22% year-on-year; while Activision, Blizzard, King and other monthly active users in the quarter were 119 million, 26 million and 255 million, respectively.
Obviously, if Microsoft's acquisition can prompt Activision Blizzard to end the internal chaos and promote the return of high-end talents, it will be conducive to the healthy development of the company and re-make good products.
At the same time, as a company that has always been based on PC games, if Activision Blizzard can use microsoft to create xCloud and other cloud games, it will be more effective in activating its classic game IP; moreover, Microsoft is currently making in-depth investment in the world's top content, community, cloud, etc. Once Microsoft and Activision Blizzard can complement each other and boost each other, Activision Blizzard's excellent content creation can provide high-quality content output for Microsoft's game sector, and Microsoft can also use the community, The cloud and other creation and distribution services for Activision Blizzard provide platforms and scenarios, thus creating a new service model of game production and consumption.
After all, genius-minded closed game design and development is not a model that guarantees consistent quality content creation. To ensure the stability and sustainability of high-quality content delivery, not only the brain of a genius is needed, but also an open and free creative scene.
Mergers and acquisitions are in place, microsoft's cloud services can narrow the distance between creators and users, reduce the creative cost of creators, and provide various conveniences for genius brains to create high-quality content.
Microsoft gets a meta-universe ticket
For Microsoft, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is a "small blessing" for its layout in the game field.
If business complementarity and enrichment of the game sector ecology are the restructuring value of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, then enriching the vegetation of the game sector can be seen as a ticket for Microsoft to enter the meta-universe, which may be the big pattern of Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard.
Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said, "Games are the most dynamic and exciting category of all entertainment projects today and will play a key role in the development of the metaverseum platform. ”
Obviously, Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is not only for the immediate "gouge", but also for "poetry and distance".
Games, especially immersive experiential games, are the product of a combination of art, technology, and culture. Providing a free community of open access for game creators and users is actually to collide the cognition of each player with the cognition of the game creator, so that its sparks will splash, which is actually the prototype of a metaverse.
This means that immersive experiential games are no longer simply through the immersive experience of the machine to bring players in, but players will build the universe they want in the game; the game plot is not a universal version designed by the creators, but after the player integrates into the game, promotes the spontaneous evolution of the plot, and truly realizes the immersive integration of "game is life".
In other words, in the future game, the player will no longer be the upgrade of the current game, but only complete the task set by the game developer, but need the player to participate in the construction of the plot and direction, and self-shape through data native.
Everyone has their own metacosm, and the metacosm is not a script designed by an otherworldly brain. This, in fact, is the meaning of the game to the metaverse.
Activision Blizzard into the pocket, rich in Microsoft in the art, technology and culture of the coupling ability, Activision Blizzard with its high-quality content creation ability, can help players shape their own yearning for the metaverse, which may be Microsoft into the metaverse of the sharpest knife.
After all, the metaverse is not the accumulation and utilization of technology, but the "random birth" of users. Who can help users truly achieve digital nativeity in their metaverse, shaping users into a "digital person", rather than designing a script for users to dance with instructions, who can really get metaversic tickets.
After Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, whether it can achieve its expected small luck and big pattern, the answer is left to time, because no one can sketch a blueprint for Microsoft's future based on historical data and cases.
Contributing Writer | Liu Xiaozhong (Special Researcher of The Special Fund for the Development of Emerging Industries of the China Legal Exchange Foundation)
Edit | Zhang Xiaoyuan
Proofreading | Dangerous