Video game acquisitions have been happening over the past decade, with big companies taking over smaller dev studios. This has led to classic titles becoming owned by some of the biggest video game companies in the world. Sometimes, this meant more resources, more opportunities, and more profits for these franchises. However, sometimes it leads to disappointing results – with franchises dying and games left in limbo. Perhaps the most popular of these acquisitions is Electronic Arts' acquisition of Bioware in 2007, which resulted in both great games as well as its own fair share of failures.
A recent study by BusinessFinancing.co.uk tallied up all of the video game acquisitions in history and found out about the biggest acquirors and the biggest acquisitions. They found that 2020 saw the biggest acquisitions ever in the history of the video game industry. From there, the landscape of gaming has changed forever, for better or worse. With these recent acquisitions, we look at the biggest acquirors that graced the video game industry. Here are the top 3 video game studio acquirors of all time, with Electronic Arts just being #3.
#3 Electronic Arts – CODEMASTERS, BIOWARE, RESPAWN, POPCAP
Electronic Arts are one of the oldest players in the video game industry today. Founded in 1982, the video game company has been around for almost four decades. They've been an industry leader for a good part of their run, and they continue to be one of the biggest entities in gaming today.
EA's success isn't entirely through their own merit, though. That's at least if we consider indie game devs' they've acquired over time as “not entirely their own.” Over the years, Electronic Arts has acquired studios like DICE in 2006, Respawn Entertainment in 2014, Bioware in 2007, and most recently, Codemasters just this year. Through these acquisitions, Electronic Arts took over the publication of successful franchises like Plants vs. Zombies, DIRT, F1, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, and Titanfall, just to name a few. The earliest acquisition by Electronic Arts was of the now-defunct Origin Masters, developers of Ultima and Wing Commander, way back in 1992.
Over the three decades of acquisitions, Electronic Arts' acquisitions have an estimated total value of $7.8 billion.
#2 Microsoft – ZeniMax Media, Mojang Studios, Rare, Inc.
Microsoft is almost synonymous with gaming today, but it never started as a part of the gaming industry. In fact, Microsoft can be considered to be a late investor into gaming, with their Xbox entering the industry in the early 2000s. Since then, Microsoft became one of the three biggest players in the console manufacturing industry, with their Xbox Series X just the latest among a line of successful console generations.
Just like Electronic Arts, Microsoft also sought to bulk up their position in the video gaming industry by acquiring smaller studios. Microsoft would pick up the likes of Rare and Mojang Studios, with the latter proving to be one of their most lucrative acquisitions of all time, thanks to Minecraft. Most recently, Microsoft acquired ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, creators of the hugely popular Elder Scrolls and Fallout games.
While things are looking up for Microsoft's acquisition of Bethesda, we still haven't seen it turn profits for Microsoft. The acquisition is one of the biggest in history, and Bethesda will have to sell a lot of their games in the near future to make this business venture worth it. Overall, Microsoft's acquisitions have an estimated total value of $11B.
#1 Tencent – Riot Games, Supercell, Leyou
Last but not least is the Chinese giant, Tencent. The gaming company has become synonymous with mobile games thanks to their massive investments into mobile gaming. However, most of its value comes from just three acquisitions: Riot Games, creators of League of Legends and VALORANT, Supercell of Clash Royale fame, and Leyou (Samurai Shodown). When Telltale Games went bankrupt, Leyou's partner LCG Entertainment acquired its assets, taking over the work that was left behind.
Today, Tencent stands tall as the biggest acquiror in the video game industry. It also doesn't seem that Tencent is slowing down soon. Compared to Microsoft and Electronic Arts, Tencent's the youngest, only being founded in 1998. Tencent only started entering the gaming market in earnest in 2008, but their executives realized just how lucrative the industry is and went all-in ever since. With an estimated value of $11.5B, Tencent is today's biggest spender in the video game industry, and it's likely to grow even more as Tencent looks into acquiring even more studios both in China and overseas.
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