Currently, Microsoft is in the process of battling in court to be able to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion, and during this process, they are being very transparent in their past with other ways they have tried to expand into the gaming industry. This includes how they have tried to acquire numerous gaming developers, and even though they may not have succeeded, they have discussed what is going to be a better option for them which is the current Activision Blizzard deal that they are fighting so hard to obtain.
What deal did they have with Zynga, and why did it fall through?
During the current trial that Xbox is undergoing to earn permission to acquire Activision Blizzard, the CEO of Microsoft gaming and current head of the Xbox brand Phil Spencer revealed that Microsoft did in fact, attempt to buy Zynga. There were many reports of this over the years. For example, there was a report that Xbox attempted to buy Zynga back in 2010, but it fell through; the most recent report of this buyout was back in September 2021 when Zynga themselves revealed that an unnamed buyer was trying to provide them with a deal for their company.
After reportedly making numerous attempts to buyout Zynga, Xbox would be left short as the company Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of games like the Grand Theft Auto titles, would swoop in and purchase Zynga for $12.7 billion, but after Take-Two Interactive bought Zynga, there were reports that Activision was meeting with financial companies to try and beat their Take Twos offer to Zynga and buy it out from under them currently this hasn’t made any changes to Zynga and Take Twos partnership.
Related: 2019 Email From the FTC Case Shows Xbox Saying It Could “Spend PlayStation Out of Business”
What does this mean for the Activision Blizzard trial?
As the trial continues, we have to ask ourselves why Microsoft want to acquire Activision Blizzard and what it will do for them; the reasoning behind this is that after their failed acquisition of Zynga, Microsoft determined that they wanted to go for a company that had a larger impact on the mobile gaming community, which led them to Activision Blizzard as they have a lot more mobile games currently released and many more on the way.
The main talking point that is being used by Microsoft is that even if they did own Activision Blizzard, they still wouldn’t be a larger company than their competitors, for example, Sony, which is why they want to start to expand into mobile gaming as they feel that PC and console gaming doesn’t have the rapid growth that it once did and that phone games are becoming a lot more popular but unfortunately has its problems for such like there are no handheld controllers, smaller screens and even small screen keyboards.
Currently, there is no telling how the trial will conclude, but there are a lot of different ideas on how it can go; it all will depend on what Microsoft will do with their acquisition and how it will impact the gaming industry whether or not they will gain a monopoly over the mobile gaming industry or if it will be just another drop in the water. What do you think about this whole situation? Let us know in the comments!
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