Updating my list, I believe I didn’t miss anything major. Didn’t put rumors surrounding WB, Ubisoft and Quantic Dream as it’s not corroborated or tangible enough.
(orange = mobile focused acquisitions)
(green = acquisitions above 1 billion)
2018
February:
THQ Nordic acquires Koch Media (including publisher Deep Silver) for $149M
May:
Zynga acquires Gram Games for $250M
Nordisk Film acquires Avalanche Studios for $103M
Avalanche Studios
Expansive Worlds AB
Systemic Reaction
June:
MS acquires Playground Games
MS acquires Ninja Theory
MS acquires Compulsion Games
MS acquires Undead Labs
MS announces The Initiative
November:
MS acquires Obsidian Entertainment
MS acquires inXile Entertainment
December:
Zynga acquires Small Giant Games for $700M
2019
February:
Sony acquires Insomniac Games for $229M
THQ Nordic acquires Warhorse Studios
June:
MS acquires Double Fine
December:
Google Stadia acquires Typhoon Studios
2020
January :
Tencent acquires Funcom for $148M
February:
Embracer acquires Saber Interactive for up to $525M
June:
Warner Bros looking to sell gaming division, interest by MS, Activision, EA and Take Two (didn’t sell ultimately)
Focus Entertainment acquires Deck13
Zynga acquires Peak Games for $1.8B
July:
Sony weighing a bid for Leyou Technologies according to Bloomberg
August:
Embracer acquires 4A Games (Metro) for up to $71M
Take Two acquires Playdots for $192M
Tencent acquires Leyou Technologies for $1.5B
Splash Damage
Athlon Games
Kingmaker
Radiance Games
Digital Extremes
September:
MS acquires ZeniMax-Bethesda for $7.5B (roughly 2.5k employees)
Bethesda Game Studios
Arkane Studios
id Software
Machinegames
ZeniMax Online
Tango Gameworks
Alpha Dog Games
Roundhouse Studios
October:
Sumo Group acquires Pipeworks Studios for up to $100M
Creatures Inc acquires Ambrella (Hey Pikachu!, Pokémon Dash, Pokémon Rumble)
November:
Take Two acquires Codemasters for nearly a billion
EA outbids Take Two and acquires Codemasters for $1.2B
Enad Global 7 acquires Daybreak Games Company for $300M
Nordisk Games acquires 40% of MercurySteam
2021
January:
Nintendo acquires Next Level Games
Tencent acquires majority stake in Klei
February:
Embracer acquires Gearbox Software for up to $1.3B
Embracer acquires Aspyr Media for up to $450M
Embracer merges with Easybrain in $640M deal
EA acquires Glu Mobile for $2.4B
March:
Epic acquires Mediatonic (Fall Guys)
Nordisk Games acquires 30% of Supermassive Games
MS completes ZeniMax-Bethesda acquisition
June:
Sony acquires Housemarque
EA acquires Playdemic from Warner Bros for $1.4B
Take-Two acquires Nordeus for up to $378M
July:
Tencent acquires Sumo Group for $1.27B
Sony acquires Nixxes Software
September:
Sony acquires Firesprite (which also acquired Fabrik)
Sony acquires Bluepoint Games
Netflix acquires Night School Studio
October:
Tencent acquires 22% of Bloober Team for $19.5M
December:
Tecent acquires Turtle Rock Studios
Embracer acquires Perfect World Entertainment for $125M
2022
January:
Take-Two acquires Zynga for $12.7B
Sony acquires Bungie for $3.6B (roughly 1k employees)
MS acquires Activision-Blizzard-King for $68.7B (over 10k employees)
Infinity Ward
Treyarch
Sledgehammer Games
Raven Software
Beenox
High Moon Studios
Demonware
Toys for Bob
Solid State Studios
Digital Legends
Activision Shanghai Studio
Blizzard Entertainment
King
February:
Nintendo acquires SRD
Tencent acquires Inflexion Games
March:
Sony acquires Haven Studio
Tencent acquires majority stake in Tequila Works and minority stake in Offworld Industries
Netflix acquires Next Games for $65M
Netflix acquires Boss Fight Entertainment
April:
Saudi Prince acquires 96% of SNK
Embracer (through Aspyr) acquires Beamdog, Lost Boys Interactive
May:
Embracer acquires most of Square Enix’s western division (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal and Square Enix Montreal) and a catalogue of IPs (Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, Legacy of Kaine…) for $300M (~1.1k employees)
August:
Embracer acquires Bitwave Games, Gioteck, Limited Run Games, Middle-earth Enterprises** (including all rights related to LOTR & The Hobbit, excluding the original books; but including Movies, Games, TV, Board Games etc), Singtrix, Tatsujin, Tripwire Interactive, Tuxedo Labs and an undisclosed company
Does anybody have background on Activision/Blizzard acquisition history? I imagine they won’t be changing their M&A strategy to throttle down after they are acquired.
I heard some theories that there will be more acquisitions by more parties now because they saw that Microsoft was stuck with ABK so they would have more chances to win the bidding. So they will become more aggressive.
I don’t believe that personally. But interesting theory that a lot of people here share.
Let’s not forget embracer has multiple divisions and I’m sure if Microsoft wanted specific IP and studios they could put a package together under say the THQ label and just buy that. I’m thinking square west and IP and maybe metro and Darksiders with studios just examples obviously then sell that for enormous profit considering what embracer paid for it I’m sure they would do a deal like that if the money was right.
I personally share the opinion that Microsoft can and will acquire everything they want even with ABK deal being in progress. I mean nobody raises a voice regarding IPs or amount of studios there.
It’s really not the biggest deal if we don’t get an exclusive superhero game. There will be plenty of them in the coming years from many different developers. Not just Sony.
That’s true, that’s why I hope Sony won’t grab all of WBs good studios because then say bye bye to DC on Xbox as well. But if MS were to acquire Rocksteady for example they’d have a top notch and proven superhero studio right there. They could then perhaps make a deal with WB for a game.
I probably should have worded that differently. What I meant is that at this time they aren’t able to make them, they all have their hands full with their own projects. People have been asking Xbox for the longest time to give their answer to Sony having Spidey and now Wolverine, but in terms of their own studios they just have not been in the position to make one. That’s what I meant.
I believe it’s because the studios simply don’t want to, unless MS coerce them. I imagine that happens with Bethesda, but XGS acquired their studios on the promise of making whatever they wanted, so unless the studio wants it’s not gonna happen. Maybe they can with their old studios like Coalition, possibly.
Bethesda has room to coerce (I don’t know if it’s the right word) their devs like other publishers and so that’s how we got Indy and seemingly more licensed IP games. That’s just what they said, it wasn’t MachineGames’ pitch.
It’s because we wanted and literally dreamed of that happening. It was one of the most wished acquisitions on here. And it seems it was easy to accomplish that all along.
I really think, now that Square West is gone, that the next two acquisitions from Microsoft will be Ubisoft and Netherrealm+MK-IP.
Netherrealm plus the Mortal Kombat IP are a no brainer. And if Ubisoft is really looking to sell, Microsoft will pick them up.
You get a ton of Studios/Developers, some legendary IP and so much potential.
I know that some of you don’t like Ubisoft but you can’t deny, that they have some really popular and strong IPs.
As much as i would like Microsoft to acquire a japanese publisher, i don’t see it happening anytime soon.
