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Acquisitions in the Gaming Industry - Discussion, Evaluation and Predictions

enpleinjour said:
Versus Xbox, Playstation already has something like 70% of the software/MTX market and likely 70%+ on hardware revenue. Might be 80%+ hardware revenue this gen.

I really don't think its necessary and its because Playstation Studios are so big now. They've got 10 GaaS games now alongside Bungie. TLOU Factions could be a huge hit. Destiny is a top 10 GaaS, and Bungie has 2 more IPs in development. If cultivated properly, Bungie could become like Blizzard or Riot.

Something like Square Enix would add FF14, the 2nd most popular MMO and another ~ top 10 GaaS.

And mobile should be an addition, not a necessity, especially not something that justifies a $20B acquisition laden with debt that will irreversibly muddy the balance sheets. Many PC/Console GaaS make way more money than mobile games, and Zynga was actually loosing serious money throughout the years.

Playstations Studios + Bungie + a few more studios/Square Enix could already rival EA/Nintendo on console and it would cost 1/4th of T2.
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Square Enix is a good buy, it would make Sony a top 10 mobile publisher and adds solid live service revenue from FF14 and has a lot of IPs that will be good for mobile publishing and turning them into anime/movies or tv shows, so great for PS productions.

Regarding T2, net debt for T2 is only $1.98B. Sony can certainly afford T2 and it would dramatically grow PS division earnings.

Sony is missing a COD sized IP and T2 is the only other publisher (other than Nintendo) that has IPs that can compete. Red Dead (50M) and GTA (175M). When we talk system seller, this one of the few IPs that would get people to switch platforms.
 
www.gamesindustry.biz

Thunderful Group acquires Say No! More developer Studio Fizbin

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox Thunderful has acquired Germany-based deve…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Thunderful has acquired Germany-based developer Studio Fizbin through its subsidiary Headup for an undisclosed sum.

This is the eleventh acquisition Thunderful has made so far, and the first time it's picking up a studio with which it has previously worked as publisher.
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Thunderful published Studio Fizbin's 2021 title Say No! More. The developer is also known for its puzzle platform game Minute of Islands, which was released in the same year, and is currently working on a new action roguelike, codenamed Project Kokidon.

Studio Fizbin, its team of 20, and its two offices in the German cities of Berlin and Ludwigsburg will be part of Headup going forward. Its IP will also belong to its new parent company.
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www.gamesindustry.biz

Take-Two acquires mobile games subscription service GameClub

Take-Two has acquired mobile games subscription service GameClub for an undisclosed sum. The news was first reported by…
www.gamesindustry.biz www.gamesindustry.biz

Take-Two has acquired mobile games subscription service GameClub for an undisclosed sum.

The news was first reported by analyst Piers Harding-Rolls last Thursday. Take-Two confirmed the information to GamesIndustry.biz but had no additional information to share.

GameClub was founded in 2018, with the aim to update and bring premium, classic mobile titles to current devices via a monthly subscription fee. In 2019, the company raised $2.5 million and talked about the "growing sense of freemium fatigue in the mobile games market."
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Saudi company Savvy Games Group has agreed to acquire game-maker Scopely for $4.9 billion​


 
For reference, they bought GSN Games from Sony in 2021. They also own Stumble Guys (one of the most popular mobile games recently), Marvel Strike Force and WWE Champions
 
GaiusBaltar25 said:
This seems like a decent move by Sega if they're going to be taking the mobile market seriously in the future.
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Umm... buying a dieing mobile game company to combined with Sega own very incompetent mobile game development team is not signs of decent moves.

As big Sega mobage follower, their record has been absurdly incompetent.
 
AruanaRiva said:
Umm... buying a dieing mobile game company to combined with Sega own very incompetent mobile game development team is not signs of decent moves.

As big Sega mobage follower, their record has been absurdly incompetent.
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Competent mobile developer with a lot of experience + Sega IPs including Sonic could be a very decent move. Its all about the execution in the end, a billion for a company with the know how and data of Rovio seems like a solid deal if they know what to do with them.
 
cw_sasuke said:
Competent mobile developer with a lot of experience + Sega IPs including Sonic could be a very decent move. Its all about the execution in the end, a billion for a company with the know how and data of Rovio seems like a solid deal if they know what to do with them.
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as big player of chain chronicle, hortensia saga and numerous sega japan mobile games. I would fear more of how sega mobile incompetency would seep into Rovio lol.

But considering how Rovio is also just one hit wonder, i would not be surprised if getting even a single hit would be very hard task for Sega now.
 
AruanaRiva said:
as big player of chain chronicle, hortensia saga and numerous sega japan mobile games. I would fear more of how sega mobile incompetency would seep into Rovio lol.

But considering how Rovio is also just one hit wonder, i would not be surprised if getting even a single hit would be very hard task for Sega now.
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I can see why you would be skeptical based on the games you listed heh. I think this would really be more of a play for games and content with a much broader and global approach compared to the mostly japanese focused gacha games.

We also know that Sega in addition to Sonic plans to bring back games like Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxy and co. to cater to the Fortnite market. I can see why they would wanna bolster their mobile presence and workforce if the goal is to target players on mobile in addition to console/PCs while reintroducing these series.

If Rovio can help them in their effort of reintroducing these dormant series to a broader market, thats a win longterm.
 
Hardlight is already a pretty competent (and successful) dev for mobile Sonic. I don't think Rovio will be taking over that really.
 
AruanaRiva said:
Umm... buying a dieing mobile game company to combined with Sega own very incompetent mobile game development team is not signs of decent moves.

As big Sega mobage follower, their record has been absurdly incompetent.
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My reasoning for believing it to be a good move is mainly the same as why you think it's a bad one. Sega is largely incompetent when it comes to mobile development. I think having a seasoned mobile developer on hand could help them improve their approach to the mobile market, even if Rovio isn't as healthy as they once were. It's honestly pretty similar to Sony's acquisition of Bungie, which was partially the result of Sony being incompetent at creating GaaS games and wanting Bungie's expertise to be in-house.
 
Ryuichi Naruhodo said:
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Still feels like a very strange move.

GaiusBaltar25 said:
My reasoning for believing it to be a good move is mainly the same as why you think it's a bad one. Sega is largely incompetent when it comes to mobile development. I think having a seasoned mobile developer on hand could help them improve their approach to the mobile market, even if Rovio isn't as healthy as they once were. It's honestly pretty similar to Sony's acquisition of Bungie, which was partially the result of Sony being incompetent at creating GaaS games and wanting Bungie's expertise to be in-house.
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The thing is. Rovio is literally like Sega mobile department. An old ancient mobile devs that had head start in success when all the other competitor havent even started yet.

And then they keep floundering their lead that now they are not even on the same level as those mobile companies that havent even entered the market when they are at the top.

Well, it is still to be seen how this venture will go, but atm i certainly not impressed with this purchase especially at that price point.
 
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I'm not too pessimistic on the acquisition. I think Rovio has the ability to make a good game but they need the IP attached to it to do so. Sega cam help with that aspect
 
The wish-fulfilling dream of MS or Sony acquiring Sega any time soon that's frequently bandied about can be put to bed, at least. You don't spend that kind of money acquiring a company like this when you intend to sell. At the very least, we have until the end of the year give or take before that idea regains traction yet again.
 
Terrell said:
The wish-fulfilling dream of MS or Sony acquiring Sega any time soon that's frequently bandied about can be put to bed, at least. You don't spend that kind of money acquiring a company like this when you intend to sell. At the very least, we have until the end of the year give or take before that idea regains traction yet again.
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Yeah, this pours cold water on the Sega divestment/selloff theory. Which itself was a longshot but also probably the most realistic chance at anyone acquiring one of the big JP traditional console pubs. I doubt it changes much though tbh, people will still keeps the fanboy wish-fulfillment going about all of them (Capcom, Square Enix, Konami, Sega, Kadokawa, etc) to some extent.
 
AruanaRiva said:
Still feels like a very strange move.



The thing is. Rovio is literally like Sega mobile department. An old ancient mobile devs that had head start in success when all the other competitor havent even started yet.

And then they keep floundering their lead that now they are not even on the same level as those mobile companies that havent even entered the market when they are at the top.

Well, it is still to be seen how this venture will go, but atm i certainly not impressed with this purchase especially at that price point.
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Rovio definitely hasn't been a strong mobile developer for the past few years. I'm just hopeful that the deal will be mutually beneficial.

Terrell said:
The wish-fulfilling dream of MS or Sony acquiring Sega any time soon that's frequently bandied about can be put to bed, at least. You don't spend that kind of money acquiring a company like this when you intend to sell. At the very least, we have until the end of the year give or take before that idea regains traction yet again.
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Yeah, Sega isn't acting like a publisher that wants to be bought. It's a popular theory that one of the JP publishers will be acquired in the near future, but I think developers are much more likely.
 
It's worth remembering that the big pubs that have been acquired were Zenimax which was private and ABK which was scandal plagued at the time.

To echo what others have said I doubt many other pubs will have the same circumstances surrounding them that made these 2 possible.

The only other one I could see is Ubisoft and they are a can of worms themselves.
 
Astrogamer said:
Probably. Like if Rovio were maintaining their profit level, the price would be made back in 3-4 years but, they've been on a decline so that return is going to take much longer unless they put out a new big hit under Sega
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They are still relatively profitable. Though mobile evaluations are crazy, however even in that regard Rovio is not that big.
 
Astrogamer said:
Probably. Like if Rovio were maintaining their profit level, the price would be made back in 3-4 years but, they've been on a decline so that return is going to take much longer unless they put out a new big hit under Sega
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the infrastructure and data would be worth it even if Rovio itself doesn't churn out a hit game because it can allow sega to achieve that elsewhere. sega can hit the ground running rather that build up stuff from scratch
 
ILikeFeet said:
the infrastructure and data would be worth it even if Rovio itself doesn't churn out a hit game because it can allow sega to achieve that elsewhere. sega can hit the ground running rather that build up stuff from scratch
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Ignoring that Sega has some of that already (the Sonic mobile games were still massive hits even if they weren't all that profitable), that doesn't necessarily correlate with valuation. I wasn't saying that they weren't going to be profitable just that a business on a downward swing could have been gotten for a fair bit cheaper later on. The return on data and infrastructure probably wouldn't be attributed much to Rovio unless they are actively leading it
 
Hardlight's Sonic games all did really well. It was really just Sonic Team's inhouse effort (Runners) that flopped years ago.
 
BoktaiFan said:
It's worth remembering that the big pubs that have been acquired were Zenimax which was private and ABK which was scandal plagued at the time.

To echo what others have said I doubt many other pubs will have the same circumstances surrounding them that made these 2 possible.

The only other one I could see is Ubisoft and they are a can of worms themselves.
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Tbf Zenimax also had issues that made it easier to acquire just not as widespread as ABK.
For Ubisoft I think it depends on the Guillemot family & if they wanna keep. If the controversies became widespread like ABK then they may pull the lever like Bobby & ABK shareholders did.
 
Personally, I see Microsoft acquiring Sega once the ABK deal is all wrapped up. Sega increases their value with Rovio especially for Microsoft, their shareholders will make more money on a buyout and Microsoft adds a Japanese publisher and another mobile developer for their eventual own mobile store front. And it's one less acquisition that Microsoft would have to make since Sega did it for them. This is a great move for Sega and in turn, Microsoft because I do believe that if it wasn't for ABK, Microsoft would have already acquired Sega. But we'll see.
 
peter42O said:
Personally, I see Microsoft acquiring Sega once the ABK deal is all wrapped up. Sega increases their value with Rovio especially for Microsoft, their shareholders will make more money on a buyout and Microsoft adds a Japanese publisher and another mobile developer for their eventual own mobile store front. And it's one less acquisition that Microsoft would have to make since Sega did it for them. This is a great move for Sega and in turn, Microsoft because I do believe that if it wasn't for ABK, Microsoft would have already acquired Sega. But we'll see.
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that might cause redundancy firings because through ABK, they get King
 
Terrell said:
The wish-fulfilling dream of MS or Sony acquiring Sega any time soon that's frequently bandied about can be put to bed, at least. You don't spend that kind of money acquiring a company like this when you intend to sell. At the very least, we have until the end of the year give or take before that idea regains traction yet again.
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It did the opposite, you got Xbox fanboys saying this is "Sega fattening themselves up to be more attractive to Microsoft (and only Microsoft apparantly)" lol. Same kind of stuff as people saying Square Enix sold their Western studios to "slim down" to be more attractive to Sony.
 
ILikeFeet said:
that might cause redundancy firings because through ABK, they get King
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I don't see Microsoft stopping in regards to adding more mobile studios just because they have King. I think that they'll truly want to make it a major pillar of their gaming business.
 
peter42O said:
Personally, I see Microsoft acquiring Sega once the ABK deal is all wrapped up. Sega increases their value with Rovio especially for Microsoft, their shareholders will make more money on a buyout and Microsoft adds a Japanese publisher and another mobile developer for their eventual own mobile store front. And it's one less acquisition that Microsoft would have to make since Sega did it for them. This is a great move for Sega and in turn, Microsoft because I do believe that if it wasn't for ABK, Microsoft would have already acquired Sega. But we'll see.
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Sega Sammy would need to offload Sega, and I just don't see that happening in the near future. Plus, MS already gets a large portion of Sega's games on Game Pass day one.
 
ILikeFeet said:
that might cause redundancy firings because through ABK, they get King
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It is not like you need to have only one mobile publisher under your hood...

GaiusBaltar25 said:
Sega Sammy would need to offload Sega, and I just don't see that happening in the near future. Plus, MS already gets a large portion of Sega's games on Game Pass day one.
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We don't know Microsoft's plan for Japan. I would not be surprised if Microsoft acquires whole Sega Sammy and form Microsoft Gaming Asia - stakeholders get their paycheck, while the current chairman will become the executive director of Microsoft Gaming Asia, overseeing the whole region - it undeniable that Microsoft needs some independent entity to oversee the region. Considering that the current chairman is the son of the previous Sammy chairman - who knows, maybe he wants to have an executive position within Microsoft. Doing that Microsoft will get access to various japanese industries at once (including anime even).

Anyway, big acquisitions in Japan are inevitable.
 
Yeah despite the rising interest rates cooling expansion. The hyper casual game market is still actively having giant purchases. I don’t think Rovio will be the only big mobile studio acquired this year either.
 
Cantaim said:
Yeah despite the rising interest rates cooling expansion. The hyper casual game market is still actively having giant purchases. I don’t think Rovio will be the only big mobile studio acquired this year either.
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The thing is that the mobile and PC market is not stopping growing. So they are the worthy investment when you have money.
 
GodlyTrident said:
We don't know Microsoft's plan for Japan. I would not be surprised if Microsoft acquires whole Sega Sammy and form Microsoft Gaming Asia - stakeholders get their paycheck, while the current chairman will become the executive director of Microsoft Gaming Asia, overseeing the whole region - it undeniable that Microsoft needs some independent entity to oversee the region. Considering that the current chairman is the son of the previous Sammy chairman - who knows, maybe he wants to have an executive position within Microsoft. Doing that Microsoft will get access to various japanese industries at once (including anime even).

Anyway, big acquisitions in Japan are inevitable.
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MS has yet to show an interest in purchasing side businesses like that, so I'd be surprised if they tried to buy Sega Sammy. Yes, MS has expressed a desire to improve their market share in Japan, but that doesn't mean that publishers are going to automatically agree to be purchased by them. MS isn't owed a JP publisher.
 
I think that if Microsoft were to buy SEGA Sammy it would be mostly to get their PC business (Total War, Football Manager, Company of Heroes, Dawn of War, Humankind, Two Point) and everything would stay multiplatform.

But the Pachinko and resort business divisions make it more complicated than that; I also doubt they want to sell right now.
 
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