While the new year has barely started, the video games industry has already had three massive acquisitions shake up the entire landscape.
On January 10, Take-Two Interactive purchased Zynga for 12.7 billion USD. On January 18, Microsoft announced its acquisition of Activision Blizzard for nearly 70 billion USD. Not even two weeks after that, on January 31, Sony bought Destiny 2 developer Bungie for 3.6 billion USD.
The three separate acquisitions further intensified the arms race of video game publishers to create the biggest video game company in the world. While these types of acquisitions are not new for the video games industry, the amount of money moving around in such a short time span is unprecedented.
In 2021, there were a total of 38 billion USD in merger and acquisition deals, according to Drake Star Partners. In January 2022 alone, just the three deals are worth 85 billion USD in total. The increase is stark, but what does it mean for the video games industry?
These acquisitions are leading to video game companies at the top growing even more, and that company expansion will lead to financial gains quickly down the road. But for video game fans, it could bring a better gaming experience depending on which console you own.
In Microsoft’s announcement on its website, the company stated it would “offer as many Activision Blizzard games as we can within Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass, both new titles and games from Activision Blizzard’s incredible catalog.” This would increase the ever-growing list of titles on the company’s membership program, and give current members even more great games to play.
These acquisitions are also a way for the purchased companies to keep their intellectual properties alive and active instead of going bankrupt with the company. While Activision Blizzard and Bungie certainly weren’t in danger of bankruptcy, these massive mergers could mean that the companies are too big to fail.
While the video games industry waits to see what will come from these deals, we can predict that the future of the market will include many more acquisitions and mergers that will move money around, proving the worth of video games in today’s world.
GosuRabbit is a marketing agency that specialises in providing entertainment, esports and gaming marketing services for brands, businesses and agencies across the globe.
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