Microsoft Tried to Acquire Zynga Before Activision Blizzard Deal - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 July 2023 / 17,996 Views
Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition is part of company's strategy to grow its presence in the mobile market, however, this isn't the first time Microsoft has tried to get into the mobile market.
Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer during the FTC vs Microsoft hearing today revealed they had discussions to buy mobile game company Zynga before Take-Two Interactive acquired them for $12.7 billion in January 2022.
"We entered into some discussions with a company called Zynga, it ended up getting acquired by Take-Two," said Spencer.
"I have a lot of respect for the people at Zynga and what they've built. In the end, for our opportunity, we thought we needed to have something that was even bigger than what Zynga was given our very small starting space in the mobile gaming business."
Spencer mentioned Activision Blizzard is the largest publisher of mobile game content outside of China due to franchises from King like Candy Crush.
"I spent time with Amy Hood...to look at the mobile opportunities that were in the market, and Activision was the biggest publisher of mobile content," said Spencer. "And it’s a partner we know well, given a long history of working together, so we both had comfort with the studios and the teams. But most important was their portfolio and engagement they had on mobile."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I know there was some speculation that this was the case, but is this the first time it was confirmed?
They could but. What's good with Zigna ? How caN that company help Ms in the short or long run. I feel like the effort should go somewhere else like platinum games they hinted they wanted to be bought by Microsoft. They got a good track record in most of their games and it can help appeal to Japanese players. I said help not magically overtake ps5. I said help lol . Or my other option is work on their promotions. I see way more ps5 ads and billboards then anything else. Advertising is the other thing they need to work on. Do they need anymore studios after activation blizzard? Honestly I don't think they need more . But more power to them if they can add more studios but again I suggest they pour more money on tv ads, promotions, and more.they finally got some traction going after the redfall disaster.
Mobile is the main part of the gaming market that's really growing, though.
As popular as the Switch is, it's not substantially more popular than the 3DS/Vita combined, or the the DS/PSP combined (especially after removing whatever portion of the Switch market largely plays docked).
As popular as PC gaming is, it's not seeing exponential growth.
As popular as modern consoles are, they're not substantially more popular than the PS360Wii (not even after adding in whatever unknown proportion of the Switch market largely plays it docked).
And now that things have gone largely digital, it's harder to move the needle in the console market as people have large and growing digital collections that they want to bring with them.
Consoles have been flat for generations (which is actually a good news story, as it has bucked predictions of decline... but it's still not growing). So if growth is negligible in console and in PC and handheld, then mobile is where Microsoft has the most growth potential. And they plan to do it by growing Game Pass to an alternative to the App Store and Google Play for playing mobile games. So I can see why they want to be there, and how they have an opportunity to do so.
Oh OK. Didn't know that. Not to that extent atleast
Yeah, I didn't know that either, and was corrected by someone in the comments here. The PS360Wii hardware total may never be beaten for home consoles, and the DS/PSP total may never be beaten for handhelds. The 7th generation was a BEAST! The console industry has been treading water ever since. That's why you see more and more battle passes and microtransactions. They're trying to find ways to grow revenue because the console market itself is no longer growing.
But that's still bucked predictions of declines. The console industry has managed to avoid significant declines, at least.
Well, Take-Two bought Zynga already, so unless MS is going to take on another large publisher buyout in Take-Two, that's not happening.
There is some number at which Take Two would sell Zynga to MS.
Sure, everything has a price. Take Two paid over 12 billion for Zynga, MS would likely have to pay more than that to get it off of Take Two. At that point might as well make an offer for all of Take Two :-D
