Tag: mobile games

Reports have stated that the purchase of the app developer has now been made for $5.9 billion.

The tremendously popular mobile games developer behind Candy Crush Saga, King Digital, has now been acquired for a reported $5.9 billion by another developer, Activision Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard is the developer of popular video games such as Destiny and Call of Duty.

By way of this purchase, Activision Blizzard will be obtaining all the outstanding shares of King Digital for $18.00 per share, in cash. This is a premium of 20 percent over the closing price of King on October 30, the day the deal actually went through. Once this deal officially closes, it will mean that two of the top 5 top grossing mobile games in the United States (Candy Crush Saga and Candy Crush Soda Saga) will be brought together with the leading console video game franchise (Call of Duty), as well as the largest franchise in PC games (World of Warcraft).

This mobile games developer acquisition has the potential to be a highly powerful one, heading forward.

On the first trading day after the acquisition, the shares of King Digital spiked by 15 percent in pre-trading, while the shares of Activision slumped slightly by 2.6 percent. In terms of the revenues of the companies, during the 12 months that ended with the close of September, King had brought in $2.1 billion while Activision Blizzard took in $4.7 billion.

According to the CEO of Activision Blizzard, Robert Kotick, when discussing King, “They built an incredible business.” He explained that “When we think about people who create compelling content and satisfy large audiences, they’ve been brilliant at it. We thought it would make a great opportunity for us to enter a new market.”

The team of CEO of King, Riccardo Zacconi, COO Stephane Kurgan and CCO Sebastian Knuttsson will be continuing their operations of King as an independent unit of operations. Zacconi said that they will be pooling their expertise in free to play mobile games with the world-class brands at Activision Blizzard, a company that already has a solid history of building and sustaining some of the top video gaming franchises.

Nintendo plans to launch its first authentic mobile game in 2016

Nintendo has become the latest game developer and publisher to begin focusing more on mobile games. The Japanese company has a long history with making games mobile-friendly, being the premier name in the provider of handheld gaming consoles. Now, the company is unveiling its first game made specifically for smartphones: Miitomo. The game will serve as a type of social application, allowing users to share information with one another with their Mii avatars.

Company sees significant promise in the mobile gaming space as more consumers rely on their smartphones for entertainment

The company had initially planned to launch the game at the end of this year, but has delayed the launch until March of 2016. This has cast some doubts on Nintendo’s mobile gaming plans, leading to a 10% decrease in the company’s shares. Despite this, however, Nintendo believes that its Miitomo title will be a success among its longstanding fans, especially those that have become very interested in mobile games over the past several years.

Miitomo will make mobile games more social

Miitomo resembles other social applications in that it allows users to interact with one another in real time. They will be using their Mii avatars to accomplish this, with the avatars themselves serving as a way to allow user sot get to know one another. Nintendo intends to introduce some of its popular characters into the mobile game at a later date, introducing some nostalgia into the title and making it more familiar with consumers that have been Nintendo fans since the company got its beginning.

Nintendo will not be focusing exclusively on mobile games

Nintendo is just one of several companies that has begun to focus on mobile games. Konami, another Japanese developer and publisher, recently announced that it would be focusing almost exclusively on mobile titles for the foreseeable future. Nintendo does not intend to follow suit, but the company will be paying more attention to the mobile space, especially as the demand for enjoyable and highly social mobile games continues to rise among consumers.