Activision Buys Candy Crush Saga Dev King For $5.9 Billion

[Steven Bogos]

Activision Buys Candy Crush Saga Dev King For $5.9 Billion

The deal between Activision Blizzard and King should be made final in Spring, 2016.

If you thought Microsoft buying Minecraft developer Mojang for $2.5 billion [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137435-Microsoft-Buys-Minecraft-Developer-Mojang] was a lot of money... well, i've got some news for you. Activision Blizzard, the parent company behind both Blizzard Entertainment and Activision has just announced its purchase of Candy Crush Saga developer King, for an eye-popping $5.9 billion.

It's a lot of money for a developer that doesn't have fucktonne of money [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131475-Candy-Crush-Saga-Studio-Trademarks-the-Word-Candy].

"Other than YouTube or Facebook there isn't a worldwide network that has a bigger number of audience members [than King]," said Bobby Kotick, Activision's chief executive. "A big part of the opportunity is to explore the intellectual property that exists at Activision Blizzard and see if it makes sense in that network."

The acquisition has to go through approval in Ireland, where King is based, but Activision says they anticipate that everything will be official by spring of 2016.

Source: The Financial Times [http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/680ccbd2-81d4-11e5-8095-ed1a37d1e096.html#axzz3qPf8EsPv]

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[Frezzato]

Everything about this makes sense.

Unfortunately.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Jesus Hieronymous Christ... What in the fuck? $5.9 billion? I think Activision is putting themselves over a barrel with this. I mean ok, it might be a draw but I've got the feeling that they're buying the company on the back-end of its profitability and not on the upswing, which is a really stupid investment. The reason I say this is because trends like this tend to fall off sooner rather than later and for the big money maker of CCS, sooner is much closer than anything. WoW is in decline, but its an MMO and has been populated by a loyal userbase for 11 years this month. CCS is a casual game and I don't see casual gamers being as loyal as WoW diehards, and as soon as something else comes along new and shiny those casuals are gonna be damn quick to abandon the ship in favor of the "new and shiny" I mean, who the hell plays Farmville anymore? 2009-2011 was the most profitable time for Zynga's flagship and its never quite reached those heights of profitability since.
CCS is about the same age of Farmville at its height and I'd bet heavily that a decline is in the works real damn soon. Activision, I've never accused you folks of being smart before, so its not hard for me to say you would be idiots to pay this much for a company that is less likely to be profitable by the time the deal actually goes through. Waste money on something else, or *gasp* invest in actually innovating in the industry instead of banking on other folk's successes. The price of not doing so may end up being the difference between a respectable AAA publisher (is that an oxymoron?) and another THQ.

 

[weirdee]

Now, see, at least Minecraft somehow manages to continue producing milk no matter how ridiculous or farfetched the idea is, but even this game is pretty much a one trick pony that isn't nearly as marketable as Angry Birds.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

Nothing about this makes sense.

 

[Zontar]

Lucasarts/Lucasfilm, owner of Star Wars and other minor IP that has defined pop culture for the past 40 years: $4 billion
Marvel, owner of Marvel comics IP excluding the movie rights to a few minor properties that have defined pop culture for the past 60 years: $4 billion
King, owner of a single mobile game with pretty much no pop culture value and pretty much one game: $5.9 billion

Activision is not going to make their money back on this one.

 

[Ldude893]

A publisher known for abusively milking its game series' dry while barely possessing any originality, and a developer which once wanted to trademark the word 'Candy' and 'King' while known for one mediocre copycat game designed to suck money out of people.

Yeah, they make quite a couple.

 

[KoudelkaMorgan]

Lol, buying a developer always struck me as a poor investment. Even if they have more than one decent title, people in the game development industry come and go at the drop of a hat. If you get a great team together and make something awesome, that team will likely disintegrate before the end of the quarter. Even companies like Konami that could at one point slap that logo on anything and print money can fall apart in no time.

So, good job on that acquisition Activision. You paid out more than the GDP of probably 2/3 of the countries in the world combined for a developer that outright stole from other games to make something people play while shitting. I assume, I haven't played it due to lack of interest.

I bet that goose will keep laying golden eggs for you, after they find something on Itch.io to copy and then sue into oblivion afterwards for infringement after the fact.

 

[Gronk]

Nothing about this makes sense.

Maybe they want to call their next game: "Warcraft Saga"?

 

[Robeltu]

to make something people play while shitting. I assume, I haven't played it

You tryin' tell me you don't poop?

OT: General consensus seems to be right, ridiculous amount of money for a one trick pony. How could stockholders sign off on this?

 

[Zontar]

Lol, buying a developer always struck me as a poor investment. Even if they have more than one decent title, people in the game development industry come and go at the drop of a hat.

When a publisher buys a development studio it tends to be for the IP they own and not the incredibly expendable talent behind it. They'll usually try to keep the people who are already there due to their typically being competent people there who know what they're doing, but that's a bonus on top of the actual goal.

So, good job on that acquisition Activision. You paid out more than the GDP of probably 2/3 of the countries in the world combined for a developer that outright stole from other games to make something people play while shitting.

Actually there are only 31 countries which have a GDP at or lower then the buy out. It is, however, more then the combined 12 bottom countries by GDP by almost 600 million.

 

[Dornedas]

OT: General consensus seems to be right, ridiculous amount of money for a one trick pony. How could stockholders sign off on this?

Well if we ask Jim Sterling.

Spoiler

I wouldn't be surprised if the stockholders believe to own 2/3 of all vidya now.

 

[OldNewNewOld]

Well, here is hope that Activision will be in deep shit thanks to this so they might have to start making good video games like they did a decade ago. Maybe we will even see a Crash game. A good one.
Ha, I'm good. I even made myself laugh with this one.

But still, almost 6 billion dollars. I can't even imagine working with that kind of money.

 

[Erttheking]

I admit I haven't been paying the slightest bit of attention to Candy Crush, but is it really worth THAT much?

 

[Pinky's Brain]

Well, here is hope that Activision will be in deep shit thanks to this so they might have to start making good video games like they did a decade ago.

They killed Troika, just split off Blizzard and let it die. The name Activision is poison.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

I admit I haven't been paying the slightest bit of attention to Candy Crush, but is it really worth THAT much?

P/E wise it would take 10 years to earn back at current profits. For a real company that might be fine, for a one trick pony relying on a single mobile game it's insane unless there really was some kind of synergy but I don't see it.

PS. this doesn't make a whole lot of money for the original developers, they cashed out at the IPO.

 

[Mangod]

Lucasarts/Lucasfilm, owner of Star Wars and other minor IP that has defined pop culture for the past 40 years: $4 billion
Marvel, owner of Marvel comics IP excluding the movie rights to a few minor properties that have defined pop culture for the past 60 years: $4 billion
King, owner of a single mobile game with pretty much no pop culture value and pretty much one game: $5.9 billion

Activision is not going to make their money back on this one.

This is the most amazing part of this buy-out. Even if King are worth a not-inconsiderable amount of money, for Activision to pay $2 billion more for it than Disney paid for the biggest comics company on the planet and the arguably most famous IP on the planet respectively... I'm sorry, what? King can not, can not, be worth $6 billion.

It's a ridiculous sum for any company, but one of King's size? This is going to bite Activision on the ass.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Maybe this is good news. After a few years, Activation will have milked Candy Crush for all it's worth and pretty much kill off King Games. The idiots at Activision will have wasted money (or at least a lot of effort if they do turn a good profit out of this), and the crooked idea-stealing mobile game company we all hate will be a dried husk of its former self.

The only bad news about that proposed scenario is the people at King who don't deserve to lose their jobs... will. The greedy ones will be laughing all the way to the bank as soon as the buyout is approved.

I can't wait to see when the next hit mobile game will wrench the attention of the casual crowd away from Candy Crush.

 

[dragongit]

You're telling me Disney bought the ENTIRE Star Wars franchise for 4 billion Dollars, and here Activision buys out King who is only really known for Candy Crush Saga, for nearly 6 BILLION DOLLARS!? let me emphasize the previous statement, star wars was bought out for 4 billion, this was bought for 6... WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?

 

[Yopaz]

Lucasarts/Lucasfilm, owner of Star Wars and other minor IP that has defined pop culture for the past 40 years: $4 billion
Marvel, owner of Marvel comics IP excluding the movie rights to a few minor properties that have defined pop culture for the past 60 years: $4 billion
King, owner of a single mobile game with pretty much no pop culture value and pretty much one game: $5.9 billion

Activision is not going to make their money back on this one.

Actually, according to the Wikipedia article they've got 12 games, 11 of them released on iOS and Android.

What makes me both cry and laugh when I read the list of games is that they are all described as "Similar to X", so every single game they have is either a derivative of a game that already exists or a sequel to one of their own games.

OT: I guess that based on how successful releasing Angry Birds as a 60 dollar console game they are going to conquer the market by releasing more mobile games on consoles. I see no way this can possibly turn out anything but extremely successful.