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Candy Crush is one of the most lucrative games in the world, earning some $1.33 billion in revenue in 2014 alone according to a King financial statement. The studio, which operates Candy Crush and a number of similar games including Bubble Witch and Farm Heroes, grossed $529 million in the second quarter of 2015. They’ve also got access to a HUGE network of casual gamers that Activision can now access for all sorts of purposes.


Also, as Activision points out in a press release, this gives them a pretty solid monopoly on The Biggest Brands In Gaming:

Activision Blizzard believes that the addition of King’s highly-complementary business will position Activision Blizzard as a global leader in interactive entertainment across mobile, console and PC platforms, and positions the company for future growth. The combined company will have a world-class interactive entertainment portfolio of top-performing franchises, including two of the top five highest-grossing mobile games in the U.S. (Candy Crush Saga®, Candy Crush Soda Saga™), the world’s most successful console game franchise (Call of Duty®), and the world’s most successful personal computing franchise (World of Warcraft®), as well as such well known franchises as Blizzard Entertainment’s Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft™, StarCraft®, and Diablo® and Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero®,Skylanders® and Destiny, along with over 1,000 game titles in its library.

Activision's hold on the casual gaming market has just drastically increased, and this huge acquisition for such a large amount of money may only spell profits for their future.

I would like to point out though, this acquisition price is absolutely insane.

Disney acquired Marvel for $4 Billion back in 2009, one of the biggest super hero brands in existence.

Sounds like Activision just had some strangely expensive taste in Candy.

SOURCE

 

[Xenon Hacks]

Well they sure are retarded but then again they have money out the wazoo so whatever.

 

[Vipera]

Gotta love when the ripoffs get a lot more money than the originals. I'm still waiting for a good Puzzle Bobble game on 3DS. Some VC game would be nice too, but we all know Nintendo...

 

[Ericzander]

Hmm... It'll be interesting to see how they plan to make a profit off of this. Yes, Candy Crush is doing amazing but none of King's other IPs have come close to it in popularity. I guess there's a Witch one? And a Soda one? But Candy Crush is their cash cow.

And yes, that's an insane price. Candy Crush is valued by Activision even higher than Star Wars and Marvel were by Disney.

 

[Blaze163]

I can't help but wonder how much actual candy you could have given out to starving nations with that kind of cash.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

bored housewives finally caught on to the scheme and gave up playing I'm sure

inb4 Puzzle matching Call of Duty / Destiny cash F2P game comes.

 

[duwen]

Figures. Activisions entire philosophy these days revolves around recouping as bigger return as possible on as shittier game as possible.
I thought they were pretty bad when their best output relied on dedicated peripherals, but what they do now with their major franchises is just sheer corporate evil.
I'll never buy anything from them again after they butchered what was an otherwise great game with Bungie's Destiny - but holding stuff back for dlc and sequels ripped the soul out of that game.

 

[TehCupcakes]

I view this more as really expensive insurance, rather than a profit-improving strategy. The gaming industry is still constantly shifting, and there are always those who claim mobile gaming is taking over. While I don't think that's the case, if the market ever were to heavily shift in any one direction, Activision is pretty much covered.

 

[duwen]

I view this more as really expensive insurance, rather than a profit-improving strategy. The gaming industry is still constantly shifting, and there are always those who claim mobile gaming is taking over. While I don't think that's the case, if the market ever were to heavily shift in any one direction, Activision is pretty much covered.

Unless it shifts in the direction of having great games

 

[Deleted User]

Well if Candy Crush made $1.33 billion in 2014 then why don't they wait 5 years and the game will pay for itself? I don't understand how this was an expensive purchase if you look towards the long term.

Oh, and we can't forget about this http://gbatemp.net/threads/candy-crush-saga-devs-to-sue-game-they-copied.362058/

 

[Arras]

Just gimme a good Bejeweled 4 without social shit or microtransactions, please.

 

[osaka35]

I'm guessing this includes all the copyrights and trademarks King had. Considering King trademarked/copyrighted someone else's idea and names and then sued them for having it, Activision can now have that power to be huge jerks.

 

[T-hug]

Maybe we'll get to play Candy Crush on CoD load screens and unlock AK47 skins with a match 5!

 

[Foxi4]

Well if Candy Crush made $1.33 billion in 2014 then why don't they wait 5 years and the game will pay for itself? I don't understand how this was an expensive purchase if you look towards the long term.

Oh, and we can't forget about this http://gbatemp.net/threads/candy-crush-saga-devs-to-sue-game-they-copied.362058/

Absolutely spot on, I was about to write something to that effect when I stumbled upon your reply. The "Saga" games by King are massive money-making machines, it's an excellent investment by Activision.

 

[Bladexdsl]

expect forced micro transactions in candy crush to TRIPLE NOW.

 

[Hells Malice]

expect forced micro transactions in candy crush to TRIPLE NOW.

Activision does some stupid shit but I doubt they felt like throwing 5.9 billion dollars down the drain. You don't fix what ain't broke.

 

[The Catboy]

Activision stopped shocking me years ago.

 

[Vipera]

Absolutely spot on, I was about to write something to that effect when I stumbled upon your reply. The "Saga" games by King are massive money-making machines, it's an excellent investment by Activision.

There is no way that Activision will make those money back for sure. They'd need to milk it as much as Rovio did with angry birds, so they need to develop and advertise new stuff constantly. Five years is a lot of time for a phone game.

 

[Pluupy]

bored housewives finally caught on to the scheme and gave up playing I'm sure

inb4 Puzzle matching Call of Duty / Destiny cash F2P game comes.

Not "bored housewives" but casual players in general.

They always move on to the next fad. Hence being called "casual gamers".

 

[Foxi4]

There is no way that Activision will make those money back for sure. They'd need to milk it as much as Rovio did with angry birds, so they need to develop and advertise new stuff constantly. Five years is a lot of time for a phone game.

Not in the gaming industry. 5 years equals 1-1.5 dev cycle/s for an AAA game. Not only that, we're not just talking about Candy Crush, we're talking about the entirety of King and its properties, including Candy Crush, Candy Crush Soda, Bubble Witch, Pet Rescue, Diamond Digger and more. I would be very surprised if this investment doesn't bounce back within a year or two - unlike the younger core gamers, casual gamers and housewives have disposable income, lots of it, and they'll gladly pay for bubbles, tokens and other assorted nonsense.