The Activision-Blizzard group consists of Activision, Blizzard and King publishers. Hence it holds powerful licenses such as world of warcraft, Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch or Diablo. Licenses are available on consoles as well as on PC and mobile. In all, more than 390 million people play one of the group’s products each month.
By buying Activision-Blizzard for $68.7 billion, as well as acquiring all these prestigious licenses for its consoles, Microsoft is also getting its hands on King, the mobile gaming juggernaut.
Candy Crush success
King Digital Entertainment, British video game publisher, born in 2003 in London. The game’s Anglo-Swedish publisher King has built his success on it candy crush.
It was thought of in Stockholm, Sweden by a team from King, Candy Crush Saga It was launched in 2012 on mobile devices and on Facebook. The principle of the game is to make groups with candies. It reminds us of classic Tetris or even Colums. Very quickly, its ease of use and colorful interface captured many players of all ages. In addition, regular updates of candy crush Just consolidate its success.
In 2013, King reported revenue of $1.88 billion, up from $164 million in 2012. In-app purchases also boosted earnings from $8 million to $568 million. Indeed, thanks to a free economic model, candy crush Free, but it includes small payments to deepen the gaming experience, thus, in 2014, 1.2 billion games were played by 128 million active users.
Activision’s takeover of the King
Activision acquired the Anglo-Swedish publisher in 2016 for $5.9 billion. The acquisition is associated with a decrease in the publisher’s book value and revenue.
candy crush soda saga, The second version of the eponymous game as well as other games from publisher King reached 318 million active users in 2015, according to the publisher’s latest tax report. For comparison, King had 354 million players a year ago. In addition to this decrease in the number of active players, King reported another issue. Of the 318 million users in 2015, only 6.6 million had to pay to play. compared to 8.3 million in 2014.
So Activision’s acquisition of King was a boon to both parties. Indeed, since the acquisition of the English publisher, mobile games have occupied an increasingly important and fruitful place in the Activision catalog. for example, Call of Duty Mobile, which was created in partnership with Tencent is a success. So in its latest quarterly earnings statement, Activision revealed that King was its most profitable division. The Anglo-Swedish publisher reportedly made a net profit of $652 million during the third quarter of 2021.
Embedding Microsoft’s mobile transformation
By acquiring Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft is signing off on a fresh start on mobile. Thanks to the acquisition of King, the giant ensures development in terms of native mobile applications. So far, the giant has based its strategy on promoting the Gamepass offer on mobile phones.
Acquisition of the king opens new doors for him. It remains to be seen how Microsoft will integrate the group’s activities into its strategy…
