The Most Valuable Video Game Companies (and Which Microsoft Could Acquire)

By Paul Tassi

In the wake of Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard for nearly $ 70 billion for the Xbox brand, nothing seems to be off the table anymore. This is a completely new world.

Microsoft is the only player in the MS-Sony-Nintendo trio that can withstand such a large acquisition, although it is possible that Sony will buy someone for much less money, and other tech giants such as Apple, Amazon, Google or Facebook to wake up one day and decide they need to get a big video game development studio.

But for now, Microsoft is really the only company making such big moves and therefore, it makes sense that it has not finished with markets like this, especially since Activision Blizzard is one of the biggest deals that will could have done and now other deals suddenly seem much more likely.

I would like to mention some of some of the most valuable video game companies in the world right now and talk about their relationship with Microsoft and whether they could be acquired.

1. Tencent – $ 562.1 billion – We certainly do not mention Tencent here as something that Microsoft could buy. If nothing else, it’s the closest Microsoft has to a real competitor in this area, although Tencent buys fewer companies and invests more (it owns 40% of Epic Games, for example).

2. Sony – $ 156.6 billion – I mentioned in a previous article that Sony is 7% of Microsoft’s size in terms of market capitalization, and here’s what it looks like: $ 150 billion versus $ 2.2 trillion. dollars. If you were to tell me that Microsoft would pay $ 70 billion for Activision when it just bought Bethesda for $ 7.5 billion, I would tell you that you are crazy. Now; Everything is possible, including maybe that. But I doubt it.

3. NetEase – $ 69.42 billion – Another incredible takeover, but again, all you need to see is the size of some Asian companies launching their value through markets and strategic investments.

4. Nintendo – $ 54.89 Billion – You may have heard the story that Microsoft once laughed when it approached Nintendo for a possible acquisition, but the deal with Activision is more than Nintendo’s full capitalization, which is quite shocking.

5. Roblox – $ 44 billion – Due to its public offering, Roblox has become one of the most valuable companies in the field of gaming. This would be another huge investment for Microsoft and it might consider it very similar to Minecraft, which it has already acquired, and for much, much less.

6. Epic Games – 42 billion (estimated valuation) – Epic Games is a private company at the moment, but this was its last estimated valuation about a year ago. And like I said, Tencent owns a huge chunk of it and who knows if either they or Epic themselves would be willing to buy it.

7. EA – $ 38.7 billion – If there was another company comparable to Activision Blizzard on this list, it would be the video game publisher EA, though not exactly the same size. Again, as absurd as it sounds, getting Microsoft one day to acquire Activision and EA no longer seems as impossible as it once was.

8. Take-Two – $ 18.8 billion (before Zynga acquisition) – Take-Two, publisher of GTA and Red Dead Redemption, recently made a huge acquisition of itself, in the form of the acquisition of Zynga mobile game studio. This tells me that they just want to grow and do not intend to be redeemed, but again, who knows.

9. Ubisoft – $ 7.4 Billion – I was really surprised to see that Ubisoft’s market capitalization was so low, as I assumed it was at least somewhere at the level of EA or Activision, which is not the case. Ubisoft declined an acquisition from Vivendi, but an acquisition from Microsoft could be a different case and looks like a possible good customization of all IP data it would bring to the Xbox.

10. Square Enix – $ 5.9 billion – Japanese companies belong to a strange category, as there are laws that prevent the sale to foreign companies to some extent, although there are undoubtedly possible ways to bypass them. Square Enix looks like something the Japanese company Sony could possibly acquire at some point, given the close relationship they already have.

11. Capcom – $ 4.8 billion – Another Japanese company, so there are complications, but this would bring a huge roster of high quality IPs for a relatively cheap price compared to all the rest of the list.

12. CDPR – $ 4.74 billion – CDPR was closer to $ 10 billion in value before Cyberpunk 2077 “sank” it and is now in recovery after losing 60% of its share value in more than one time. Microsoft likes to collect companies in crisis …

13. Bungie – $ 1-3 billion – I have no really good way of estimating the true value of Bungie. They do not seem to want to be bought out and want to remain independent, but there is always an ideal price that could change that. This is my assessment of the potential value compared to these other games, considering that the whole company relies on a single IP right now, Destiny, although more games are expected to come soon.

Who’s next;

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