Just yesterday, one of the biggest acquisitions in video game history has taken place. This acquisition, more than twice as expensive as the Microsoft and Mojang one, and nearly 3 times bigger than Facebook and Oculus sees gaming giant Activision Blizzard take over King Digital, the makes of Candy Crush Saga and many other games for 5.9 Billion dollars. The acquisition will place another powerhouse game into "AB" that already contains the likes of WoW, Diablo, Call of Duty, Spyro, and Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

How will this help Activision? Well it will greatly boost it's standing as one of the worlds biggest gaming corporations, especially when it comes to revenue in which it's the 5th largest. How big is King Digital? Well, last year it was 7th on the list and has dropped to 10th since then, but still ahead of Nintendo, Square Enix, Disney, Zynga, TakeTwo, and many others. When you combine the revenues of both, you're looking at the 2nd largest gaming company in the world, jumping ahead of the likes of Microsoft, EA, and Sony.

The reason for the acquisition is for Activision to grow in the still developing mobile gaming sector which is expected to pass $40 Billion a year in the near future and this team wants to be at the front of it.

What are your thoughts? Can Activision help promote the Kind Digital games to make even more revenue than they already have been making or even help them make more games or will it be a flop in the end.

It really isn't hard to keep something like a big match three company big. All you have to do is slap some new graphics on the same source code every year or two, and everyone will switch to the new game. That strategy is exactly what King has done for years, and what many others do as well, and I'm not criticizing it in one bit.

So yes, Activision will be able to keep this up until the fad dies...if it ever dies.


And I'm actually glad to hear this. If we have to have games like these dominating any game space, at least the money will now go into the pockets of people who develop serious games, and hopefully will be repurposed a little along the way. Plus I like Activision.

Wow. Almost 6 billion dollars for a company that makes smart phone games. Really? And not just that but one that is dropping in rankings.... that doesn't make sense either. It sounds like King already peaked so you're buying a dying brand. Seems like a dumb move to me.

Whatever, it's not my money and I likely won't be buying many, if any, of the games from Activision again so not much is lost there.

geeogree : Well, this could work for two reasons. First, King has been making so much money that even I their revenue gets cut in half, AB will get the money that they paid for it back in about 5 years. Plus King will now have the resources to both make and market their games better.

While at the same time, this opens the door for AB to make their own new mobile games by using Kings resources. So excess revenue can be made in multiple ways for both parties.

zanderlex : [shrug].... I don't see them making back this investment personally. 6 billion dollars versus 200 million in quarterly profit means 30 quarters in order to make back the money they spent or 7.5 years. There is no way that King will remain in it's current spot making that kind of money 7.5 years from now. Technology changes too fast for that. Plus, there is a LOT of cost that goes into an acquisition beyond simply the cost to purchase the other company.

Plus, it is even said to be dropping in revenue since last year. That's not a good sign. That means that unless they come up with something new they likely will continue to drop. Maybe I'm more skeptical than others but I don't think putting a new cover on the same game too many times is going to be successful 5 years from now. However, I'm a picky gamer so I'm not the right person to make that judgement.

Still, I guess someone thought this acquisition was a good idea so they must have plans or see more positive in it than I do.