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Activision Buys Candy Crush Developer For $5.9B (inquisitr.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the no-bubbles-here-no-sir dept.

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."

5 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Holy shit... by Harlequin80 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Candy Crush is about as addictive as poker machines except instead of cash you get flashing lights and sounds. Basically you have an amount of in game currency that you can trade in for extra moves, special items (which let you complete levels easier), or more lives. You can play it heaps without paying a cent, but you might have to wait 4 hours to get more lives.

    I think one of the biggest hooks is it integrates with facebook and you can see where your friends are relative to you in the level count. It then makes a big deal of you overtaking your friends.

    The reason they make such a killing is a massive install base that can play at any time. It takes no effort to play, you have the device with you always, and the individual cost per item is quite low. So you're on the train and you almost did that level, well $1 for 5 extra moves and I can overtake my mate - done.

  2. Re:Holy shit... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A little video about Candy Crush's success, from a design perspective.

  3. A new record by nobuddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    largest accidental in-app purchase ever.

    1. Re:A new record by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      How I imagine it came about:

      Exec 1: "With the amount of money my wife/kid dumps into those mobile games I bet I could have bought the company by now"
      Exec 2: "You know that's a really good idea; we should just buy them"

  4. Crushed it by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Activision paid over $1billion more for Candy Crush than Disney paid for the Star Wars franchise.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.