Aurélien Fleurot, edited by Gauthier Delomez 06:41, January 19, 2022

Microsoft put nearly 69 billion dollars on the table on Tuesday to buy the American video game giant, Activision-Blizzard, which owns popular licenses among gamers such as "Call of Duty" or "Candy Crush".

A record takeover which should allow the American Microsoft to become a major player in this industry.

DECRYPTION

Unheard of in the world of video games.

Microsoft is going to buy one of the American giants in the sector, Activision-Blizzard, which owns popular licenses among players such as

Call of Duty

or

Candy Crush

, for nearly 69 billion dollars.

A substantial sum which surpasses the previous record, however very recent, of the publisher Take-Two which announced last week the acquisition of the specialist in mobile games Zynga for nearly 13 billion dollars.

The American Microsoft will therefore pay five times more to become a major player in this industry, behind the Chinese Tencent and the Japanese Sony.

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Building a video game Netflix

In its history, Microsoft had never made such expensive acquisitions.

But you need that to exist in the face of competition.

With these successive acquisitions, the strategy is to build an essential platform, a Netflix of video games, thanks to the "Game pass" which allows games to be downloaded on the Xbox console or on a computer.

The takeover also comes as Activision has been going through a turbulent period for more than six months.

Accusations of sexism, harassment, discrimination follow one another: 40 employees have been dismissed, around forty others are subject to disciplinary measures.

The CEO seemed in the hot seat, he will now be supervised by the boss of Microsoft's video game branch.