Has money ceased to mean anything?
Take-Two Acquire Zynga in Gaming Industry's Biggest Ever Deal
Written by Ollie Bradley at 01/27/2022, 01:41 PM
Two of the video game industry’s biggest players made history this week as GTA publisher Take-Two Interactive acquired mobile game powerhouse Zynga for a record-breaking and eye-watering $12.7 billion.
To put that inordinate amount into perspective, remember that Microsoft bought Bethesda last year for $7.5 billion. Which was itself enough to make heads spin. But when considering just how lucrative the mobile gaming industry is, it’s perhaps no wonder that Take-Two made such an expensive investment.
...the $12.7 billion deal will be the biggest the gaming industry has ever seen
After all, it’s not as if the publishing goliath can’t foot the bill. Take-Two is the company behind GTA, RDR, BioShock, Civilization and NBA 2K League to name an acclaimed few. But with some of the mobile gaming industry’s biggest titles under its belt - including FarmVille and Words With Friends - Zynga is no small fry either.
Though it has yet to officially close, the $12.7 billion deal will be the biggest the gaming industry has ever seen. But it also represents the latest step towards a more centralised industry, as the biggest names in gaming continue to pull a Disney and buy everything.
For instance, 2021 alone saw Tencent buy Back 4 Blood’s Turtle Rock Studios, Sony secure four smaller developers including Returnal developers Housemarque and even Netflix continued its foray into the gaming sphere by snapping up Night School Studio.
While the consolidation of the gaming industry’s most successful developers is somewhat unnerving, we’re curious to see what this means for Take-Two IPs in future. Perhaps we’ll see a free-to-play mobile rendition of BioShock that will appal series fans initially, yet continue to rake in that sweet microtransaction cash anyway. Hopefully not, but let’s not hold our breath.
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