Activision Blizzard Buys 'Candy Crush Saga' Developer King Digital for $5.9 Billion

Activision Blizzard, publisher of video games like Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Destiny, has purchased Candy Crush Saga creator King Digital for $5.9 billion. Activision Blizzard has built a successful portfolio of video games on consoles and PCs, but has struggled to find the same success in the mobile space. King CEO Riccardo Zacconi notes the Candy Crush maker had 474 million monthly active mobile and Facebook users in the third quarter of 2015.

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We believe that the Acquisition will position us very well for the next phase of our company’s evolution and will bring clear benefits to our players and employees. We will combine our expertise in mobile and free-to-play with Activision Blizzard’s world-class brands and proven track record of building and sustaining the most successful franchises, to bring the best games in the world to millions of players worldwide.

Activision Blizzard says the acquisition will make the company the global leader in mobile gaming while also giving the company over half a billion active monthly users in 196 countries. In the past 12 months ending September 2015, Activision Blizzard reported revenues of $4.7 billion while King reported revenues of $2.1 billion. While quarterly spending in King's signature game, Candy Crush Saga, has declined in the past 18 months, players still spent $1.3 billion on in-app purchases in 2014 alone.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that Candy Crush Saga represented 45 percent of King Digital's quarterly revenue. King has been working to diversify its gaming portfolio to rely less on Candy Crush and remain profitable. Like Infinity Blade and Angry Birds before it, Candy Crush Saga is one of the few games to become a smash-hit cult-like success in the App Store.

Tags: App Store, Candy Crush Saga, King Digital

Top Rated Comments

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garirry

43 months ago

If the purchase means death to the franchise, then praise god and be happy forever.

If the purchase means milking the franchise for more money, then **** my life.

Rating: 3 Votes

levitynyc

43 months ago

This won't end well for them.

Remember when Zynga bought OMGPop? (Draw Something)

That didn't pan out as expected.

Also, its nice to see them spend 6 billion dollars and then turn around to nickel and dime Destiny players.

Rating: 3 Votes

noslenam

43 months ago

How many people actually pay for these games? I myself download a free game and never pay a dime. I'll play it for a little bit until my free play is done for the day and I'm done. I get my fix and that's it. I can't believe people pay to play these games. I'd be more likely to play it longer if it was a flat fee upfront like to old days. 5.9 billion Wow! Not getting a dime from me to help that one.

Rating: 3 Votes

fullauto

43 months ago

Tasty..

Rating: 2 Votes

Fortimir

43 months ago

How many people actually pay for these games?

LOL. You serious? The reason so many games offer in-app purchases and micro/transactions is precisely because so many people do pay for them. Candy Crush is the crown jewel of this model.

You and I don't, but we are in a small percentage of people who know how many GB of RAM our iPhones actually have.

Rating: 2 Votes

alexgowers

43 months ago

Unfortunately many people are addicted to these games. They are just gambling in effect. These guys spend thousands on candy crush and I really feel sorry for them.

I love that candy crush is basically making a load of money but has declining games, I think activision bought the wrong company at the wrong time.

Rating: 1 Votes

Cooee!

43 months ago

What in the world?

Rating: 1 Votes

tremblewithfear6

43 months ago

I participate in micro transactions for games I enjoy. I've never paid a dime for Candy Crush but I've spent money on other games such as Dungeon Boss etc.

Exactly. I think a lot of people aren't realizing that this company has a suite of games, not just Candy Crush. They have a bunch of Candy Crush spin-offs, including Soda Crush. They also have the Witch games, which involve "popping" things. At one point in history, I've probably tried most of their titles. I never really enjoyed them, and disliked the monatization model that they use in most titles. You are capped at how much you can do per day/time, unless you pay (like many other games), and the game purposely gives you poor sets of candies to make you fail over and over, or pay to get the next level/buy additional candy and stuff.

These games are destined to fail. There isn't any new content. They produce new levels, new mechanics at the levels, but ultimately are all the same. It's much like tetris or bejeweled. Furthermore, as more and more games flood the mobile market, they have nothing that sets them apart. There aren't crazy graphics, the gameplay is repetitive, the concept is simple enough, but lacks anything new.

I feel that these games feed off of the addition that people get when they start playing. A niche of players fork over hundreds monthly on mobile game micro transactions, and that's probably what is paying King Digital's bills. When those addicted players finally find another game or reality (which one comes first?), they will stop playing, and the revenue will significantly drop.

I haven't spent a dime on any of King's games, but I can see why people eventually do. However, people will grow bored, and eventually move on. I mean, how many people still really play their titles? I feel that the amount of people actively playing King's games have been severely cut with the insane amounts of new mobile games on the market. When King started working with Candy Crush, things on the mobile market space were quite different. Nowadays, the connect-3 puzzle games are in the thousands, with none really having any significant mark in the genre. Furthermore, all use similar transactional models as King. Unfortunate, at best.

Rating: 1 Votes

kissmo

43 months ago

Diablo 3 : Reaper of Candy coming soon

Rating: 1 Votes