[최승진의 게임카페] Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard’s ‘surprise acquisition’, analysis of the number of mega deals

[더팩트 | 최승진 기자] When Microsoft (MS) decided to acquire Activision Blizzard, a game company, at an astronomical amount of $ 68.7 billion (about 82 trillion won), attention is focused on the background. This is because, as well as the game industry, it is the largest in the IT industry’s history, exceeding the $67 billion (approximately KRW 80 trillion) spent by Dell, a computer maker, to acquire EMC, a data storage company, in 2016.

Activision Blizzard is a large game company with intellectual property rights that boast a strong presence, such as ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘Candy Crush’. In particular, Blizzard has considerable recognition among gamers with ‘Starcraft’, ‘Diablo’, and ‘Warcraft’. From a gamer’s point of view, Blizzard has a new owner, but from an investor’s point of view, Microsoft is more curious about the bouncing abacus.

‘Game Pass’, which was first released by Microsoft in 2017, is a subscription service based on a monthly fee. /xbox homepage capture

Microsoft announced on the 18th (local time) of the acquisition, saying, “If the process is completed, it will become the world’s third-largest game company in terms of revenue after Tencent and Sony.” The ‘Game Pass’ that Microsoft has been promoting since 2017 is considered a concrete way to realize this. Like Netflix, ‘Game Pass’ allows you to enjoy various games by subscribing to them at a monthly price of 10,000 won (based on ultimate service).

After securing 18 million ‘Game Pass’ subscribers in January last year, Microsoft increased the number of subscribers to 25 million by adding 7 million in about a year. The number of customers paying for ‘Game Pass’ has increased to the level of the North Korean population (about 26 million) within five years of starting the business. However, when Activision Blizzard is acquired, the situation is different. If you add 10% (40 million) of Activision Blizzard’s 400 million monthly game users worldwide, the number of subscribers will more than double at once. In terms of the amount, based on the subscription fee of 10,000 won, 400 billion won in sales is generated every month. Additionally, the effect of promoting the ‘Game Pass’ can be aimed at.

If ‘Game Pass’ is the present value, ‘Metaverse’, meaning a three-dimensional virtual world, is a blueprint for the future. Microsoft described the acquisition as “expected to accelerate the growth of its game business and serve as a cornerstone for the metaverse.” Games are considered to be the key to realizing the ‘metaverse’, which is expected to grow to about 1,700 trillion won by 2030. In order to bring people into a three-dimensional virtual world, it must be fun and a loyal community must be formed, because there is no device as attractive as a game.

Microsoft predicts that the number of gamers worldwide, currently 3 billion, will increase to 4.5 billion by 2030. Activision Blizzard is expected to have an impact in this regard as well. 400 million monthly active users spread across 190 countries worldwide. There are also global e-sports assets that anyone can enjoy together in the non-face-to-face era.

one more. In order to understand Microsoft’s business vision in detail, it is necessary to understand ubiquitous, a technology that uses services by accessing information and communication networks anytime, anywhere. Microsoft’s game business is changing from a console (game console) center to a ubiquitous ecosystem that can provide services anytime, anywhere. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who took office in 2014, is the main character who led this constitutional change.

After Nadella took office as CEO, Microsoft succeeded in transforming from a Windows and Office-centric software company to a cloud (virtual storage space) company. If the existing revenue structure was Windows 30%, Office 30%, corporate servers 30%, and other 10%, after Nadella took over as CEO, the cloud grew by nearly 40%, leading to a transition. “Gaming is today’s most dynamic and exciting entertainment sector,” he said in a statement. It remains to be seen what the outcome of Nadella’s other challenge will lead to.

shaii@tf.co.kr