Today's mammoth announcement that Microsoft is purchasing Activision Blizzard brings to mind IP such as Call of Duty, Crash Bandicoot and Overwatch — but the company is also really excited about the potential for mobile gaming.
Speaking as part of a conference call earlier today, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella stated that "critically, this transaction significantly expands our presence in mobile, the largest segment in gaming business."
The acquisition includes Candy Crush developer and publisher King, so that IP will now be under Microsoft's ownership. Xbox boss Phil Spencer, now CEO of Microsoft Gaming, also shared his excitement about this specifically:
"Extending our horizon a bit, this transaction will make our approach to the consumer metaverse even stronger. That’s because our vision of the metaverse is based on intersecting global communities rooted in strong franchises.
A big part of that is the fact that mobile is the biggest category of gaming, and it’s an area where we have not had a major presence before. This transaction adds one of the most successful mobile publishers to Microsoft Gaming, and I’m personally looking forward to learning from the innovative teams at King."
What are your thoughts about Xbox owning King? Let us know down in the comments below.
Comments 8
Yep. I really think King was the deciding factor. We all love AAA games but there is no way MS would pay anywhere close to $70B without a strong mobile department.
Anyone confused on how MS will make its money back should look no further.
"this transaction will make our approach to the consumer metaverse even stronger. That’s because our vision of the metaverse is based on intersecting global communities rooted in strong franchises."
I just gagged a little. Phil's going into nonsensical marketing drivel already.
It also signals the importance of MTX and it's future dominance. Yuck.
But I did say earlier that King may have been THE focus of this buyout even over CoD and the like. First 2k spent a crazy fortune on Zynga, now that left King as the major player and going through Acti was convenient for their cash reserves. King makes up 1/4 of BlizzActi revenues and only a fraction of their operating expenses. Realistically it might be the ONLY part of BlizzActi they actually wanted.
I just can't wait for Achievements to come to Candy Crush. and NO, i am not joking around. I truly hope achievements come to Candy Crush because i am on level 1938 and i play every single day and this would be amazing.
While probably not get the numbers of Candy Crush (I have no clue of them though) but they're also coming out with Diablo Immortal, a free to play (but it's pay to win) mobile game that's pretty darn fun. It IS going to make some serious money.
@NEStalgia these conference calls are speaking to investors so words like nft, metaverse is big buzz words they like to hear . It's ***** but it's words they can be like oh meta verse = big revenue..
But yeah king was flearly a big drive to way they bought aftivision as honestly outside of a ton of dormant ips the rest work on wow and cod.. with the hope some day we get diablo 4...
@Terrin Candy Crush and Call of Duty are the main IPs here. To me, the best thing is getting Beenox, Vicarious Visions and Toys for Bob.
@Banjo-
Same I am hoping that Xbox cane help bring the life back into the studios and not have them all just make cod. Like would love toys for Bob make a new spyro game or maybe a banjo game (I can dream dammit)
@Terrin Yep 😁.
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