feel like he meant 13 in total after the acqusition, dont think AB would have 13 billion dollar franchises
Satya Nadella: The ABK acquisition has given Microsoft 13 different video-game franchises worth $1 billion or more.
- Thread starter Marano
- Start date
- Sales Microsoft Activision/Blizzard
feel like he meant 13 in total after the acqusition, dont think AB would have 13 billion dollar franchises
The thing I'm trying to understand is whether the statement means:
- Activision has 13 "billion dollar" franchises, which MS has been "given"
- MS now has 13 "billion dollar" franchises, thanks to Activision giving them some number.
I was assuming the former, but everyone else seems to have interpreted it as the latter.
Surely the DOOM franchise must have made over 1 billion dollars by now?
Especially considering:
www.gamebyte.com
It probably does mean 13 franchises from the acquisition though.
Especially considering:
DOOM Eternal Made Half A Billion Dollars Without Using Microtransactions
DOOM Eternal managed to make $450 million without the use of microtransactions, according to iD Software’s Product Management Lead.
www.gamebyte.com
It probably does mean 13 franchises from the acquisition though.
MS is lucky they've got the iconic Gun franchise now. I'm sure it and Wet are at least 2 of them.
COD
Warcraft
Overwatch
Starcraft
Diablo
Candy Crush
Guitar Hero
Skylanders
Crash
Tony Hawk
Hearthstone
Spyro?
???
I'm pretty sure it's just Activision that has 13.
Warcraft
Overwatch
Starcraft
Diablo
Candy Crush
Guitar Hero
Skylanders
Crash
Tony Hawk
Hearthstone
Spyro?
???
I'm pretty sure it's just Activision that has 13.
Not a single week I don't play Flight Simulator (Bought it for my daughter to be familiar with "all the buttons"). It's extremely popular on PC and it's been around for a long time.
Are we honestly sure this doesn't mean 13 NEW franchises worth at least a billion? Because there are definitely more than 13 total. Off the top of my head, just from ABK:
Candy Crush
Farm Heroes Saga (I'm pretty sure Phil mentioned this in his blog post)
Call of Duty
Modern Warfare/Black Ops (could potentially be separate, but that feels like a stretch)
Crash
Spyro
Tony Hawk
Guitar Hero
Warcraft
Starcraft
Diablo
Overwatch
Hearthstone
That's 13, but Modern Warfare/Black Ops could probably be subbed for a different 13th one, maybe there's another Blizzard or King game I'm not aware of (or maybe they're counting WoW as separate from Warcraft)?
Candy Crush
Farm Heroes Saga (I'm pretty sure Phil mentioned this in his blog post)
Call of Duty
Modern Warfare/Black Ops (could potentially be separate, but that feels like a stretch)
Crash
Spyro
Tony Hawk
Guitar Hero
Warcraft
Starcraft
Diablo
Overwatch
Hearthstone
That's 13, but Modern Warfare/Black Ops could probably be subbed for a different 13th one, maybe there's another Blizzard or King game I'm not aware of (or maybe they're counting WoW as separate from Warcraft)?
OP
OP
Surely the DOOM franchise must have made over 1 billion dollars by now?
Especially considering:
DOOM Eternal Made Half A Billion Dollars Without Using Microtransactions
DOOM Eternal managed to make $450 million without the use of microtransactions, according to iD Software’s Product Management Lead.
It probably does mean 13 franchises from the acquisition though.
I think I was blindsided by it (seems like most people were) and the 13 are really only ABK franchises.
But then there is this from vixolus.
listen if satya includes guitar hero and tony hawk as billion dollar franchises im selling MSFT stock
all we investors care about is the future potential
all we investors care about is the future potential
OP
OP
So it seems Guitar Hero and Doom are also 1 Billion + but I dont see how any of the franchises in my list could be taken out of it, so what gives?
Here's the quote from the earnings call transcript.
No relevant additional context.
ill text satya and tell them that these numbers don't count because fake reasons that don't matter in the world of business
guitar hero skylanders and tony hawk are old news .... these shouldnt be considered 1 billion IPs. i.e. would a company pay 1 billion for it? no way
I'm going to say he either misspoke, or he's talking about active franchises, in which case something like Guitar Hero doesn't count.
COD included.
It's really funny watching people continually forget about and underestimate King and Candy Crush's value in this acquisition, since it's the kind of game that most capital-G Gamers would never give a shit air and they're the dominant voice in game coverage and discourse.
The assumed number of sales for the franchise as a whole is somewhere between 50-60+ m copies (40m was the official number in 2007, the trilogy sold 10m and we can assume that the last 3 games (CTR, 4 and Rumble) have move a couple of millions). Pretty sure that it is a billion dollar franchise, but given the ups and downs the franchise has had/different owners, would not be surprise if ABK doesn't consider it a billion dollar franchise from their run with the character.
It would seem that they do. I can't find it right now for some reason, but multiple times post-revival they have referred to it with those words exactly in licensing catalogues and copy for partners.
It's lifetime IP, Halo could cease to exist and it'd still be a $1B+ franchise.
OP
OP
I think it's lifetime + actively developed IP. Though most $1B+ franchies would surely still be kicking lol
OP
OP
If that is true, even if Guitar Hero and Strcraft are not included in it, per others ITT Crash would be and potentially Tony Hawk too.
The thing with Crash is that the series never really had a dip in sales. Even in the wilderness years the games would hit two-three million milestones even if they weren't all that good in the grand scheme.
For example, lots of people peg the Titans games being abject failures that sent Crash to the grave, when that was hardly the case at all. They were commercial hits. Going far as greenlighting two more Crash games off the success of the last game of the series at the time before the hiatus, Mind Over Mutant. Those games got canceled but it had nothing do to with the commercial performance of the series at the time.
They nixed "heroes of warcraft" subtitle years and years ago.
Skylanders and Guitar Hero are both technically billion dollar franchise I think. Acti just ran them into the ground years ago.
They made so many Cabela games I wouldn't be shocked if thats one of them but I believe they dont have the IP license anymore.
There's also Bubble Witch Saga.
Last edited:
Not quite, CoD numbers rival Candy
But yes, the acquisition was mostly about Candy and its been funny seeing that get completely ignored in coverage, usually referring to it as the "Activision Blizzard" acquisition conveniently forgetting the "King" part lol
Here's the exact quote from the Microsoft FY 2024 Q1 earnings call, Satya reports that Microsoft "will have 13 billion dollar-plus franchises" and lists Candy Crush, Diablo, Halo, Warcraft, Elder Scrolls and Gears of War as some of them: