Microsoft has shared some bold predictions to the European Union about the future of the video game industry.
In the EU’s decision approving the Microsoft- Activision deal, the EU shared these observations, with some notes from Microsoft itself. Note that the ‘Notifying Party’ in this quote refers to Microsoft.
On page 9 of the document, paragraph 26, the EU says this:
“Gaming is a highly dynamic industry, and the fastest growing portion of the media and entertainment sector.
It is larger than pay-TV, home video (including streaming), cinema, music, books or newspapers & magazines. Today, 3 billion consumers around the world play games, a number that the Notifying Party expects to reach […] by 2030.
Gamers are able to access and play thousands of highly differentiated games on a variety of devices, including PCs, gaming consoles, and mobile devices.
The Notifying Party estimates that on a weekly basis, gamers play over […] different games on its gaming platforms alone.
Of the three main gaming devices – PC, console, and mobile – mobile is now the largest in terms of revenues, representing more than half of all gaming services revenue.”
These claims are partly from Microsoft, but also from the EU’s own research. We may note that they are consistent with Microsoft’s own predictions about the video game market, and their rationale for pursuing the deal.
As you may remember, Microsoft has told multiple regulators that their interest in acquiring Activision Blizzard King is actually a gamble in mobile gaming, that also involves other moving factors.
Mainly, Microsoft is banking on the EU’s own decision to force Apple and Alphabet to open up Apple and Android devices to third party stores.
We had reported on this ourselves all the way back in December of last year. At the time, however, we did not know that the EU decided to delay implementation of this law to 2024, to clarify the finer details.
In the meantime, Microsoft has been preparing for when they will be able to bring their own third party store to these devices. The big plan is bringing Microsoft’s games, which will now include Activision’s big games, through those stores, so Microsoft can do business on Apple and Android devices.
If that gamble fails, Microsoft will still have owned one of the biggest game publishers around today (aside from Zenimax, which is also one of those big publishers). That guarantees they are in a good position to capture a good part of the 3 billion gamers they expect to cater to in the near future.
