Microsoft-Activision: How much would it cost to buy all other video game publishers?

news business Microsoft-Activision: How much would it cost to buy all other video game publishers?

“money is everything”

First, a brief review of the case that has been shaking the industry for a few days: to everyone’s surprise Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Activision-Blizzard, no more and no less than one of the most important publishers in the video game landscape, for the insane sum of 68.7 billion dollars. As a result, iconic and hugely popular franchises like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Crash Bandicoot will actually be part of Xbox, which won’t offend some.

Even if the acquisition is booked after about a year – until then Activision is working to offer its games a priori on all media – to get your hands on Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout) that had already impressed. A digital monster like Microsoft can therefore afford to break the bank (when it’s barely broken) to expand its ranks and try to assert itself very seriously against its competitors.

How much are other publishers in the industry worth?

This is Geoff Keighley the host and founder of The Game Awards or Summer Game Fest who shared some interesting information about it Twitter by asking a question: Given that Microsoft can afford to spend that kind of sums, would it be possible to buy out the other big video game companies?

He therefore listed the value of the market capitalization of the big players in gambling as follows:

• SHE : $38 billion
• Take two : 18 billion dollars ($28 billion after closing of Zynga acquisition)
• Nexon: 15 billion dollars
• Bandai Namco: 15 billion dollars
• Hug: $10.8 billion
• mesh marble : 7 billion dollars
• Ubisoft: 7 billion dollars
• Konami: 6 billion dollars
• SquareEnix: $5.6 billion
• CapCom: $4.9 billion
• Sega: $3.6 billion
• Nintendo: $53.79 billion

If we add up the members of this list (which is also not exhaustive), this amounts to a total of 130.9 billion dollars. However, as Keighley reminds us, it is important to state an important fact: this is the market value and the actual purchase price may be significantly higher.

For example, the Activision-Blizzard group is being acquired by Microsoft at 45% above its market cap, bringing the final (and phenomenal) figure of $68.7 billion. And that’s already more than Nintendo’s value shown in the list…

Do you think Sony will respond to Microsoft by also buying a major publisher in the industry?

---