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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

 

[migles]

well for that price, why did they purchased 1 copy of the full game? the game sucks, why do someone pays for the full version?
(get it? because it's a freemium game? because if you spend money on it, you will end up burn easily hundreds of dollars?)

 

[Maximilious]

Now that they have actual mobile developers they can work on making actual improvements to Hearthstone's mobile app. It's such a hog on a phone.

 

[Qtis]

The amount of active monthly users is 474 million for King's games, which is just an absurd amount of people. 6.8 million of those users were paying users with an average gross of almost $25 monthly. Now imagine how well Activision Blizzard can leverage the popularity of King for both marketing and other Saga related games with Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, etc characters and stuff.

Good deal for the owners of King and possibly an even better deal for Activision Blizzard if they can leverage the users.

 

[chavosaur]

Ive probably laid down about $150 for card packs in Hearthstone, and let me just tell you, if I can pay for things in candy crush and they give me a way to get exclusive cards in hearthstone, or tie it into other activision mobile properties, theyll make their money back from me alone.

 

[Pleng]

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

Indeed. Candy is *just* what starving nations need to help build a well-nutritioned populous

 

[Blaze163]

Indeed. Candy is *just* what starving nations need to help build a well-nutritioned populous

Pretty sure eating a Mars bar is better than eating fuck all.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

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

Was gonna post this. Man, King is such an A-hole.
I'd like to post something else, but I don't give a sh*t neither about King nor Activision, so, whatevs, ignore this post.

Spoiler

Who the hell gives money for a g**damn match-three game when there's infinite for free out there in the internet?

Oh, yeah. Idiots.

Pretty sure eating a Mars bar is better than eating fuck all.

Until their teeth fall off.

 

[2Hack]

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

But why? So that you could proceed to not pay more? Why try to support you when you will only purchase the game once, when they can support the majority of people who will pay daily to play the game?

The mobile market, to me, gives the impression that popularity can disappear as quickly as it appeared. That said, candy crush could milk it with many variations, merch, and other stuff too potentially make even more money. Or they could lose all popularity overnight.

But I'm no analyst. I'm just a dude who is tired af r reading an article written by DinoChav or sth ;P

 

[Pleng]

Pretty sure eating a Mars bar is better than eating fuck all.

Of course it is. But sending billions of pounds worth of unhealthy foods to starving nations is still a pretty dumb-arse move, when there are far better things you could be sending instead. And I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that was the gist of your post 'there are better things you could do with the money', right?

 

[Blaze163]

Of course it is. But sending billions of pounds worth of unhealthy foods to starving nations is still a pretty dumb-arse move, when there are far better things you could be sending instead. And I think (correct me if I'm wrong) that was the gist of your post 'there are better things you could do with the money', right?

The gist of my post was a play on words for humourous effect. Evidently this gave you a centre parting as it flew over your head.

 

[Pleng]

A play on words is only clever if it makes sense. But, anyway, well done!

 

[Maximilious]

But why? So that you could proceed to not pay more? Why try to support you when you will only purchase the game once, when they can support the majority of people who will pay daily to play the game?

Always brings me back to this clip of Southpark:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/709491

 

[BORTZ]

Couldn't they have gotten it for free if they invited 5.9 billion friends?

But seriously, I really wish there was a game like this but with the Puzzle Quest elements worked in. I would play the shit out of that version of candy crush ("battle" or something lol).