There has been a lot of activity on the international market for computer and video games since the beginning of this year. And the pattern is always the same: Large and well-funded technology groups absorb game manufacturers – in the hope of having a say in the annually growing market.
Because the computer and video game industry turns over more than the film and music industries together – 161 billion US dollars annually. According to estimates, there are more than three billion gamblers worldwide, and the trend is rising.
Most recently, the Japanese electronics group Sony took over the US video game development studio Bungie for 3.6 billion US dollars. The New York game developer Take-Two Interactive paid 12.7 billion US dollars for the San Francisco-based game manufacturer Zynga (FarmVille, Mafia Wars, CityVille).
However, the US hardware and software group Microsoft, which wants to take over the market leader in computer and video games, Activision Blizzard, for around 70 billion dollars, is making most of the money. According to Microsoft, if everything goes smoothly, the deal should be completed in the first half of next year. “It’s moving fast, at least fast enough for an acquisition of this magnitude,” Microsoft President Brad Smith said in an interview this week.
One of the best-known games from Activision Blizzard is “Candy Crush”, which is about collecting pairs of virtual candies by swiping across the screen. The portfolio also includes titles like “Call of Duty” or “Warcraft”.
Strategy shift at EA
Electronic Arts’ approach is also symbolic of the fact that no stone is left unturned in the games industry. According to the US news blog Puck, Electronic Arts (EA) wants to take advantage of the moment and offer to take over or merge with another company.
EA is primarily known to computer and video gamers with an affinity for sports, with the titles FIFA and Madden NFL. “Battlefield” and “Sims” also belong to EA. According to the blog report, Apple, Disney and Amazon are among the companies with which EA is said to have already held preliminary talks.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson had recently pursued a different strategy: as recently as February, Wilson assured that the company would concentrate more on taking over other developer studios than being taken over itself. Last year, EA spent $5 billion on acquisitions.
Apple, Disney and Amazon have so far not made any public statements about EA. Experts see the reason for this as the deal between Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, which many in the games industry describe as trend-setting and are therefore stepping on the brakes for the time being.
Source: Nachrichten
