Friday, March 29, 2024 | Ramadan 18, 1445 H
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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

The entertainment shift towards videogaming

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A few years ago, I wrote on these pages a column about the gaming industry, which at that time it was just starting to get noticed by big corporations. In the article I mentioned that the projection was for the whole of gaming to be worth in entertainment capital more than the whole of Hollywood.


I must admit that at that time I did not believe it. Indeed, I sensed that there was a growing interest in video games, but I frankly imagined that it was about to plateau. Moreover, I grew up with the big blockbusters and the Oscar ceremony awards, so Hollywood was - in my small view - untouchable.


I was very wrong in my prediction. And the latest Oscar night just proved how the entertainment industry has changed before, during, and after the pandemic. From an exclusive elite, to an inclusive endless playable saga.


Video games are no longer just something to be measured in units of matches with limited duration, but rather immersive experiences that can hook audience in for countless hours. Similarly, to a Netflix or HBO series, video games are divided into chapters that can be played - ever slightly differently - over and over again. Recently I became fond of a video game called Red Dead Redemption 2, and while searching tutorials online, I came across a content creator who claimed he spent more than 500 hours on the game. This was unthinkable just a few years ago, when games were just a spare time recreational activities and the term e-sport did not exist.


Given the massive traction in the industry, corporate giants have been stocking up game studios under their direct control, in order to gain access to as much good content as possible. Recently Zynga - which started with the Facebook video game Farm Ville - was acquired by Take-Two. Then Microsoft brought forward a massive $69 billion mega-deal to purchase Activision Blizzard King, and lastly Sony bought Bungie, the developer of the popular multiplayer online game Destiny 2. The year 2022 is already is going to be remembered as the year when major players expanded their portfolios and ramped up their in-house studio expertise, by either acquiring the studios entirely as a direct subsidiary, or through the purchase of the majority of the shares.


Microsoft is leading the ranking of first-party owned game development studios, with 23 of them as of now, and 9 more on the way through the recent Activision Blizzard King acquisition, as long as antitrust scrutiny by the FTC goes smoothly. A bulk of studios came from ZeniMax Media, which Microsoft bought in 2020 for $8.7 billion (inflation-adjusted). ZeniMax Media encompasses 8 studios, including Bethesda Game Studios, known for the franchise Elder Scrolls.


Next in rank are Sony and Electronic Arts (EA) with 21 studios each under their belts. Followed by Tencent, that acquired fully or as a majority shareholder 14 studios since its inception, mostly focusing on online games. Especially through the acquisitions of Turtle Rock Studios, the developers of the multiplayer shooter franchise Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood, as well as Riot Games, the studio behind League of Legends, one of the world's biggest eSports titles. (To be continued)


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