Activision Buys Candy Crush Saga Dev King For $5.9 Billion

[Random Gamer]

So, they sank more $$ than they ever got thanks to 12 years of WOW to buy this?

Look, I've hoped for years, due to their shitty practices, to see Activision-Blizzard go down and bankrupt, but I never dreamed it would happen in such a ridiculous way...

 

[Worgen]

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.

Is it? They aren't as bad as ea, which has gobbled up dozens of studios. Blizzard is still around doing its stupid blizzard thing, pretty much the same way it always has.

ot: 5 billion? How is king worth that much? Aren't most of their brands kinda starting to go down since they are mobile games which never remain money makers on the long run.

 

[fenrizz]

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.

Well... Youd'd be wrong actually.
At least about Angry birds and it's parent company.

King Games reported a $574.9 million profit in 2014 versus Rovio Mobile's $37.2 million for the same year.

OT:
Sad as it makes me, I'm pretty sure Activison/Blizzard has a plan behind this.
Of all the things Activison is know for, losing money is not one of them.

 

[spartandude]

5.9 BILLION!? WHAT THE FUCK!?

 

[Objectable]

... People still care about Candy Crush?

 

[Pinky's Brain]

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.

Unless they insider traded on the option market (which a ton of people undoubtedly did) it only represents a small gain.

 

[Leg End]

... Didn't EA do this exact same thing four years ago with Popcap Games which made the original game, Bejeweled, that *Whatever* Saga is aping? This is a serious case of Deja Vu.

 

[CaitSeith]

So next game in the saga: Candy Crush action-RPG

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

All the humans i know that play this colourful, yet shamelessly unoriginal child's distraction are of the type that you only need to hear one sentence spoken by them to know that there isn't much happening up in that old grey tissue of theirs. To know it is this popular still...assuming the game hasn't evolved in the slightest...is an incredibly depressing nugget of thought. And now Activision have their slimy mitts in the pie too! This is all bad, all over. This is greedy people doing what geeedy people do best, while the not so bright people do what they do best; and there are so many!
I must go now and find some internet kittens to forget about this, see ya inna bit!

 

[CaitSeith]

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!?

AAA publishers have developed a microtransactions fetish. Doesn't it make sense they want to get their hands on the game famous for selling the most microtransactions ever, no matter what?

 

[CaitSeith]

... People still care about Candy Crush?

Activision sure does.

 

[Loonyyy]

As pointed out in the very news article that's being commented on, King made $641 million in Q1 of 2014. That's why Activision paid that much.

So far as this being ridiculous, the end of Activision or whatever, it doesn't look like it. It looks like they just bought another cash cow IP to sit alongside WoW.

I wonder what their game plan is with this, does King have anything else on the fly, or are we going to see a dozen variations on Candy Crush like Rovio did with Angry Birds?

Either way, 500 million active users. That's just kind of mental, it's remarkable by just how much these games dwarf most of the "core" releases. Says a lot for how relevant we, and our opinions, really are.

 

[Kajin]

Now THIS is an acquisition that people should be bothered by.

 

[gigastar]

Either way, 500 million active users. That's just kind of mental, it's remarkable by just how much these games dwarf most of the "core" releases. Says a lot for how relevant we, and our opinions, really are.

I always take those kinds of numbers with a grain of salt, since publishers like to mix up the terms 'active' and 'registered'.

 

[Xeorm]

As pointed out in the very news article that's being commented on, King made $641 million in Q1 of 2014. That's why Activision paid that much.

So far as this being ridiculous, the end of Activision or whatever, it doesn't look like it. It looks like they just bought another cash cow IP to sit alongside WoW.

I wonder what their game plan is with this, does King have anything else on the fly, or are we going to see a dozen variations on Candy Crush like Rovio did with Angry Birds?

Either way, 500 million active users. That's just kind of mental, it's remarkable by just how much these games dwarf most of the "core" releases. Says a lot for how relevant we, and our opinions, really are.

That still doesn't make any sort of sense. You're looking at almost 10 years of profit at that level in order to make back your investment. Now, Candy Crush is a popular game, but all that we've seen says that the number will deteriorate quick. That's the nature of mobile gaming.

No, you buy developers like this because you're not only looking for the profit, but because you can do something with those resources together that you couldn't do something singularly. Activision has money, business expertise (supposedly) and a few other positives. They think they can use that to make something better. At least, assuming that this is an educated decision that will turn out well.

More than likely though, this is a guy in a suit making a decision that the mobile game market is something they want to get into, and so they're going to buy a big boy in the market, and use that to setup their own division. This decision really only makes sense if you ignore the cost/benefit side, and look at it as someone making a stupid decision ignoring the costs.

 

[Fox12]

For reference, all George Lucas owned properties cost Disney a mere 4 billion dollars. Activision could have bought the entire Star Wars universe for less then they spent on Candy Crush.

Whatever, just a bunch of dickheads paying a bunch of other dickheads a buttload of money.

 

[EHKOS]

As soon as I read the title of the thread I took out my phone and deleted Candy Crush. Half out of spite and half out of I haven't touched it in months. I like to think I actively hurt Activision very slightly. That's for giving Radical the Crash Bandicoot IP to fuck up.

 

[flying_whimsy]

That's just madness.

This could be really good or really bad for activision, but either way I don't think it'll work out great for gamers: activision's going to want to get that money back as soon as possible.

...man, what the hell.

 

[RaikuFA]

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.

They also tried to copyright saga then sued the makers of the Banner Saga for having Saga in their name.

 

[Callate]

I don't play Candy Crush, in any form; I still haven't forgiven King for that whole "Saga" debacle. But... really? I know Candy Crush and its various spin-offs aren't the only thing King produces, but I've never gotten the impression that they did anything that was much more than slickly-produced variants of game ideas that were already well-established. If two and a half billion was too much to pay for Mojang (and let's face it, it probably was), nearly $6 billion is... just... well... Let's say I wouldn't want to be an Activision shareholder right now.

By way of contrast, it's estimated that EA paid, at the high end, $1.3 billion for Popcap. And Popcap had more than one name-recognizable title at the time.

Even if there's some stroke of brilliance here that I'm just not seeing, I can't help but think that you could bankroll a lot of good games for that much money instead of sinking it into snapping up a company like King. This isn't game-friendly or creative thinking; this is "Well, the kids sure do seem to like 'x'" kind of thinking. It's a shame.