Blizzard Buys Candy Crush for $6 billion with a B

[xantub]

Took this from someone's post in Reddit, makes you think (and facepalm?):

• Disney bought Lucasfilm (Star Wars) for $4.06 billion

Lucasfilm, which includes the movies (both Star Wars and Indiana Jones), Industrial Light & Magic (I think), plus all the merchandising and movie rights, for less than Candy Crush.

 

[Silverforce11]

Mobile "gaming" is serious business.

 

[Piotrsama]

Took this from someone's post in Reddit, makes you think (and facepalm?):

• Disney bought Lucasfilm (Star Wars) for $4.06 billion

Lucasfilm, which includes the movies (both Star Wars and Indiana Jones), Industrial Light & Magic (I think), plus all the merchandising and movie rights, for less than Candy Crush.

A few other comparisons from the article's comments:

just for reference EA bought Popcap games back in 2011 for $650 million.

And Microsoft bought Mojang for 2.5 billion...

 

[Jeshu4ever]

gr8 to see that we are slowly getting monopolies in gaming too. yaay

 

[Chocu1a]

Reminds me of Zynga buying OMGPop. Then closed the company down when nobody cared about its games anymore.

 

[darkewaffle]

It's a sound investment if they actually think King can hold people's interest with the Candy Crush brand. Which is a major "if" considering how Rovio and Zynga have fallen before them. But all those people on their phones and tablets want SOMETHING to play, no doubt.

 

[lupi]

Comparing this buy to those others...would hate to be an investor waiting on the full return to be made.

 

[Aikouka]

But all those people on their phones and tablets want SOMETHING to play, no doubt.

I think that's the biggest pro and con here. People enjoy a good time waster on their phones because... it helps them waste time when they're indisposed (boring meeting, waiting room, commute, etc.). However, the mobile market is far more of a "throwaway market" than anything. If I download an app for free, and I see a new and interesting app a week or two later, I'm much more willing to toss the older one away if I've made little investment into it. In other words, the mobile market is incredibly volatile.

A few different players have stood out over the years, but as we've noted, even huge giants like Rovio are starting to fall. The question is how long will it take for people to stop caring about Candy Crush? Will it be about the time when they announce a poorly construed movie tie-in?