The most expensive game company acquisition
Less than a week after Take-Two Interactive acquired mobile game developer Zynga for $12.7 billion, Microsoft earned the title of the most expensive game acquisition in history.
The tech giant will buy the famous game company Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. This makes them one of the largest market players in video game development (a fact that has not escaped the attention of the FTC).
This multibillion-dollar acquisition of a game company is quickly becoming the norm. Some of the biggest acquisitions have occurred in the last three to five years.
A brief history of acquisitions of major game companies
Until January 2022, Tencent's $8.6 billion acquisition of game publisher Supercell was the largest acquisition in the video game industry.
2022 revolutionized that, with two of the biggest acquisitions occurring in the first few weeks.
Here are the 15 most expensive gaming company acquisitions in history:
10 of the 15 largest game company acquisitions have occurred in the past three years.
Microsoft's billion-dollar bet on video games
Microsoft's announcement of the acquisition of Activision Blizzard is the clearest sign of the company's ambition to become a giant in the gaming world.
The merger will make Microsoft the third-largest video game company in the world and a publisher of games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft.
The acquisition of Activision Blizzard isn't the only major acquisition Microsoft has ever made. Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion in 2020 and Minecraft creator Mojang Studios for $2.5 billion in 2014.
Here are all the game companies and studios that Microsoft currently owns:
Part of the reason Microsoft made such a massive acquisition was to catch up and compete better in the gaming market. Their Xbox consoles are also selling relatively poorly compared to PlayStation devices.
Sony's announcement of the acquisition of Destiny creator Bungie may be an attempt by them to offset Microsoft's recent acquisition, and it remains to be seen how this will work.
The future of the game and further acquisitions
With the explosion of mobile gaming revenues, companies are trying to capitalize on their relevance in the online social space. Even during the pandemic, there were about $1,500 acquisitions worth $43 billion in 2020.
As new changes in the field of user experience continue to emerge, games are now inextricably linked to current virtual world trends. As online gaming and streaming become mainstream, we may experience gaming in a whole new, immersive way.
As big tech companies continue to dabble in gaming to diversify revenue streams, we're likely to see more acquisitions and consolidations coming.