According to an announcement made jointly by the two companies on Monday, Take-Two has successfully closed the acquisition of social game developer Zynga for a total price of $12.7 billion. Take-Two Interactive Software not only gains ownership of major Zynga franchises such as FarmVille as a result of the acquisition, but it also gains access to Zynga’s expertise in the development of massively popular free-to-play mobile games.
Many well-known game studios have made significant investments in mobile gaming, and many of the industry’s most popular games have proven to be extremely effective at generating revenue. According to Sensor Tower’s research, for instance, the lifetime revenue of Activision’s Call of Duty: Mobile, which was released in October 2019 and has since surpassed $1.5 billion, has recently been surpassed. And Sensor Tower reported in November that Krafton’s PUBG Mobile had surpassed an astounding $7 billion in lifetime revenue. (By the way, Tencent is playing a significant role in the development of both of those titles.)
Take-Two, the owner of major properties such as Grand Theft Auto, BioShock, and Civilization, most likely wants a piece of that mobile money. At the time of the deal, the company stated in an investor presentation that it intends to bring more of its franchises to mobile platforms with the assistance of Zynga.
The transaction was made public for the first time in January, which ultimately served as the catalyst for a string of blockbuster gaming acquisition announcements. Take-acquisition Two’s of Zynga was thought to be one of the most significant purchases in the history of video games; however, just over a week later, Microsoft announced that it would pay $68.7 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, which significantly surpassed Take-previous Two’s record. And at the very end of that month, Sony announced that it would be spending $3.6 billion to acquire Bungie, the company that developed Destiny.