At the beginning of the year there was Take-Two, a distributor Grand Theft Auto, He who announced the acquisition of development studio Zynga for $ 12.7 billion; Soon Microsoft bought Activision Blizzard, another video game giant in charge ძCollection of duty Or world of warcraft, About 68,700 million. This week, Embracer Group acquired several studios from Japanese Square Enix (Crystal Dynamics, Eidos-Montréal, Square Enix Montréal), as well as several of its franchises (Tomb robber, God is the former, Cain’s legacy) For $ 300 million. Although the price is relatively low, it is still a reflection of global dynamics. This has already happened in cinema, in the publishing field, in music. The Business Acquisition monitors medium or small companies in the video game world While large competitors absorb huge conglomerates.

These 2020 figures are a copy of the movements of recent years, which is not surprising as video games are the cultural sector that makes the most money. Chinese giant Tencent has already taken control of Supercell – a mobile game studio Clash Royale- $ 8.6 billion in 2016; Microsoft has already acquired ZeniMax Media (Developer) in 2020 Doom Or Head windings) 7.5 billion; o Activision acquired King (Candy Crush) To $ 5.9 billion in 2015.

For Victor Navarro, a professor at Pompeu Fabra TecnoCampus specializing in cultural companies, these monopolistic movements are due to their economic scale, the need for sales, and the massive influence they generate. Harmful to the triple front. In First, economicAs development studios shift their economics to the business model that the company prefers: “In the world of video games, this translates into games that are monetized as the game itself makes sense: NFTs, microtransactions, extensions or multiplayer modes. . Often games have to include them just because the company requires it and not because the game benefits from them. Uncharted (Exploration and adventure saga for one player) Finally it had a multiplayer mode. “I do not know anyone who bought the game for this add-on.”

In Second, there are the issues of creative content itself., Which are at risk of being modified by the dynamics of a large company. “Let’s think,” Navarro said on Twitter, for example. “Video games, though less and less, carry the stigma of cultural legitimacy. Which can change the creative course of the game.How many times have we seen a movie, or TV series completely changed for fear of network reactions.Monopoly has a place of risk but does not want to take it.

Finally Navarro talks about it Legislative issues. And he cites the example of China, which is not that in video games it has a system of recommendations according to age, but rather has three censorship bodies that oversee content negatively (to eliminate them) or positively (to force their inclusion). “What will a game like that aspire to sell all over the world, including China?” – reads Navarro. “Obviously, adapting to this regulatory framework is sacrificing creativity. And if it’s not just China, but has to adapt to various restrictive legal frameworks, Only products that no one bothers will be created“.

“This has already happened in Spain,” said Emmanuel Carcio, technical director of DEV, the Spanish Association of Video Game Development and Development Companies. “In the last three years, all the studios have been acquired with the most potential,” says Carisio. “We saw the acquisition of Digital Legends, we saw the acquisition of Tencent in Tequila Works and Novarama, we saw the 2020 acquisition of Genera Games by Scopely. “Large international companies are well aware of the value of Spanish companies and have been focusing on purchasing and investing in Spain for many years. “This is a trend that will remain,” he said.

For Navarro, who looks to the future, The solution is the opposite: fragmentation. “With the excessive amount of content we experience in all areas of culture,” he explains, “we need to find a way to get each product to the ideal consumer, instead of homogenizing everything.” Monopolies combine poorly with diversity and polyphony. That is a must Transform everything for creativity“Create niches where each player can find what he is looking for.”