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Activision Buys Candy Crush Developer For $5.9B (inquisitr.com)
ForgedArtificer writes: Activision Blizzard purchased Candy Crush Saga developer King Interactive Entertainment last night for a cool $5.9 billion USD; about 20% above market value. The move likely leaves them owning five of the top grossing franchises in the industry. "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."
King's game revenue comes almost entirely through in-game purchases of gold bars, which are effectively treated as the currency for their games. You can use them to purchase an extra few moves if you run out but are close to winning a level (called EGPs), and you can use them to refill your lives if you run out, without having to wait for them to re-fill at the rate of 15-30 minutes per life (depending on the game). The only ads in King games are for other King games (called cross-promos).
King's games are a popular thing to hate lately, but the fact is that a huge amount of ongoing work goes into their titles - most of them see new batches of levels every two weeks, and new gameplay mechanics, boosters, and features every month or two. The games are constantly being improved, and the high bar of quality is why King's games have done well while other dime-a-dozen match-3 games haven't.
The other thing to keep in mind is that you can get every last byte of content out of the games without ever spending a penny. Yes, early on there are collaboration locks, and you need to wait for lives to refill, but at the end of the day you can do it if you're patient. King makes its money because most people aren't.
Activision paid over $1billion more for Candy Crush than Disney paid for the Star Wars franchise.
You are welcome on my lawn.