Gaming's Major Players

The video game industry is estimated to be worth $300 billion, with four giants and several feisty independents fighting for market share.

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Sega said it will pay more than $770 million for the Finnish maker of "Angry Birds" on Monday, as regulators continue to examine Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

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With a large market share in Asia and investments across the globe, Tencent is the world's largest game company by revenue.

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Besides Riot Games, the company owns Ubisoft and Activision, makers of French game stars League of Legends and League of Legends 2.

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Moreover, it acquired Supercell, the developer of "Clash of Clans", "Clash Royale", and "Brawl Stars", for $8.6 billion in 2016 -- a world record at that time.

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Over 500 million PlayStation consoles have been sold by Japanese electronics giant Sony since 1994.

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Insomniac and Housemarque are just two of the studios it controls through its subsidiaries. These studios have developed exclusive titles for its machines, such as the "Spider-Man saga," that have only been released on these machines.

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During the first quarter of 2022, Microsoft strengthened its portfolio by acquiring Bungie, makers of the hit video games "Halo" and "Destiny", despite Microsoft still owning the rights to "Halo".

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The company also invested $2 billion in Epic Games, the company behind the popular game "Fortnite", in April 2022.

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When AT&T announced its proposal to purchase Activision Blizzard for $69 billion in January 2022, it would be the largest acquisition in the history of the gaming industry.

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There are several major titles such as "Call of Duty", "World of Warcraft" and "Diablo" that the software giant will be able to get its hands on as part of the deal.

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However, the American, European Union, and British regulators have all opened investigations into the deal as a matter of law.

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By acquiring earlier games such as "Minecraft", "Elder Scrolls" and "Fallout", the Xbox group already controls these titles.

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With its Game Pass online platform, which lets users download games or play them via the cloud, it is now positioning itself as the "Netflix of video games" with which it wants to become the most popular video game streaming service.

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By staying away from the frenzy of acquisitions that plagues the gaming sector, Nintendo stands apart from its competitors by staying true to its self-made sagas, such as "Mario", "Zelda" and "Pokemon".

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In addition to the games it produces in-house, Nintendo also has a dedicated console, the Nintendo Switch, which has moved more than 100 million units since its release in March of this year.

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It has been reported that a number of leading publishers have managed to stay out of the reach of the giants so far, however they could become targets again in the near future.

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In its own right, Take-Two is a heavyweight in the video game industry, with a number of successful titles on its roster such as "Grand Theft Auto", "NBA 2K" and "Red Dead Redemption".

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The company has also played the acquisition game, spending $12.7 billion on acquiring the developer of mobile games Zynga, creator of one of the most popular farming simulation games on the market, FarmVille.

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With a bid of more than $770 million for Rovio, the maker of the "Angry Birds" game franchise, Sega, creator of the "Sonic" franchise, also entered the acquisition game on Monday.

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There are a number of other independent companies with multibillion-dollar valuations, including Electronic Arts and Ubisoft.

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