With the takeover of King, Microsoft seizes a juggernaut of mobile games

The Activision-Blizzard group consists of publishers Activision, Blizzard and King.

It thus holds powerful licenses such as

or

Licenses available on consoles as well as on PC and mobile.

In all, more than 390 million people play one of the group's productions every month.

By buying Activision-Blizzard for 68.7 billion dollars, in addition to getting its hands on all these prestigious licenses for its consoles, Microsoft is also getting its hands on King, a juggernaut of mobile gaming.

The success of Candy Crush

King Digital Entertainment, a British video game publisher, was born in 2003 in London.

Anglo-Swedish game publisher King founded its success on

.

Thought out in Stockholm, Sweden by a team from King,

was launched in 2012 on mobile devices and on Facebook. The principle of the game is to make combinations with candies. It is reminiscent of the classic Tetris or even Colums. Very quickly, its ease of use and its colorful interface won over many players of all ages. Plus,

's regular updates

have only added to its success.

In 2013, King reported revenue of $1.88 billion, up from $164 million in 2012. In-app purchases also boosted earnings from $8 million to $568 million.

Indeed, thanks to a free-to-play economic model,

is free, but includes micropayments to deepen the gaming experience. Thus, in 2014, 1.2 billion games were played by 128 million users. assets.

The takeover of King by Activision

The Anglo-Swedish publisher was acquired by Activision in 2016 for $5.9 billion.

The buyout is tied to a decline in the publisher's book value and revenue.

Candy Crush Soda Saga,

the second version of the eponymous game and other games from publisher King reached 318 million active users in 2015, according to its publisher's latest tax report. By way of comparison, King had 354 million players a year earlier. In addition to this drop in the number of active players, King notified another problem. Of the 318 million users in 2015, only 6.6 million had to pay to play. Against 8.3 million in 2014.

The acquisition of King by Activision was therefore a boon for both parties.

Indeed, since the takeover of the English publisher, mobile games have occupied an increasingly important and fruitful place in the Activision catalog.

For example,

, created in partnership with Tencent is a success.

So in its last quarterly earnings statement, Activision revealed that King was its most profitable division.

The Anglo-Swedish publisher reportedly generated $652 million in net revenue during the third quarter of 2021.

Consolidating Microsoft's mobile shift

By acquiring Activision-Blizzard, Microsoft is thus signing a new start on mobile.

Thanks to the acquisition of King, the giant ensures development in terms of native mobile applications.

Until now, the giant based its strategy on the promotion of its Gamepass offer on mobiles.

The acquisition of King opens new doors for it.

It remains to be seen how Microsoft will integrate the group's activities into its strategy...

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