INTERNATIONAL_ With the acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft is about to add Diablo, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and many other hit mobile games.
This acquisition significantly expands the Xbox platform’s lineup of games, and the increasingly attractive Game Pass ecosystem is sure to attract more users.
Equally important of the deal was that it immediately gave Microsoft a huge mobile user base.
The world’s biggest video games are now available on mobile devices, and major game publishers have spent a lot of money on this over the past few years.
Just this month, Take-Two (the company behind games like NBA 2K and Grand Theft Auto) paid nearly $13 billion to acquire FarmVille developer Zynga. Prior to that, EA acquired companies like Glu Mobile and Playdemic for a smaller but still huge amount. When a few years ago, Activision Blizzard wanted a foothold in the mobile space, they paid $ 5.9 billion to King, the creator of Candy Crush.
Microsoft’s acquisition of this deal (expected to close until fiscal year 2023) most likely Candy Crush adds a large number of gamers to the company. Analytics firm SensorTower estimates Candy Crush Saga has generated around $7.1 billion in revenue as of January 2014, while the Candy Crush Soda Saga spin-off has grossed $2.9 billion.
Mobile games have become an increasingly important part of Activision’s portfolio since King was acquired. The mobile version of Call of Duty, created in partnership with Tencent, is a big game, and Blizzard has plans to roll out a Diablo version on smartphones.
In its most recent quarterly earnings report, Activision revealed that King was the division with the highest total revenue, posting $652 million in net income in the third quarter of 2021.
For the most part, Microsoft’s efforts seem to be focused on playing Xbox on phones via xCloud. But with the addition of King, the company now has a big opportunity to expand the native experience on mobile.