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Game Name | Israel today

2022-01-21T06:21:52.412Z


In the last two years, the giant corporations have realized that a company without a gaming division that deals with virtual worlds - will not have a right to exist.


On the way to the new Google?


Technology giant Microsoft announced this week that it plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, one of the world's largest and best-selling gaming companies, behind Candy Crush, Warcraft and Voice of Duty, for a whopping $ 68.7 million. Thus, it will become the third largest gaming corporation in the world, after the companies "Tencent" and Sony.


It is not that the company has not previously had a significant foothold in the gaming world ("Xbox", for example), but the combination of its many development studios, video and console achievements and the "Office" product - will make it even stronger and considered a worthy rival to other giants in its field. Of the "Google" type.

How do you get rid of bad public relations?


Gaming company Activision is now facing what could be considered the death blow of brands in the current world - bad public relations.

Probably on the scale that Activision has created for itself, in light of a scandal that was at the center of it last July.

The 37 employees who chose to leave the company since the summer described a toxic organizational culture, reminiscent of a fraternity of first-year students saturated with hormones and alcohol in an American college.


An investigation by the Wall Street Journal and a police investigation did find evidence of problematic organizational conduct that included sexual harassment, harassment, abuse of workers, gender discrimination and, in exceptional cases, rape;

Accusations that mean a network storm, public criticism, a consumer boycott, a drop in revenue and economic annihilation.


Activision could still have come out of the story relatively clean thanks to sweeping denials, had it not been proven that the company's CEO, Bobby Kotik, knew about the allegations and made sure to ignore or whitewash well. Kotik himself has been accused of sexual harassment, which he denies - as well as the allegation that he threatened the murderer.

The Morality of Microsoft


Morally, the acquisition process of Activision says quite a bit about Microsoft and some of the times we live in - with all due respect to progressive discourse and a culture of cancellation - what determines and dictates world orders is the almighty dollar.

No police investigation, unflattering articles or even a petition from Activision employees have succeeded in ousting Kotik's CEO from the company, and he is currently expected to continue to run it.


For Microsoft, the very submission of Kotik to the CEO of its gaming division, Phil Spencer, is a sufficiently extreme message. True, it is difficult to imagine the same organizational conduct continuing to exist under a well-publicized and institutionalized organization like Microsoft. And a business for a company that does not deserve it.But why should Microsoft risk its name for a deal with what appears to be a company full of talented but terrible people?

The required step of Netflix


The need for escapism is now higher than ever.

Only about six months ago, Netflix announced its entry into the gaming world, as a result of a decline it experienced in increasing the number of its users in the past year.

About two and a half months ago she unveiled her first five games, some of which correspond directly with her original productions, of the popular series "Stranger Things".


Given the meteoric rise in popularity in the field, the establishment of a gaming division is a necessary step.

And if Netflix did, don't be surprised if other streaming services want to take part in the celebration.

The gaming industry is the big beneficiary of the epidemic


In the face of the Corona, the industry is experiencing a tens of percent increase in the number of its consumers, including millions for whom the gaming world was almost foreign before.

In Israel alone, about 30 new gaming companies have sprung up since the beginning of the corona, and the world's numbers show almost inconceivable growth figures.

In its year-end summary reports, Sony reported sales of 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units, and a 40 percent increase in sales in its gaming division.


Microsoft itself also reported a 40 percent increase in its gaming department in the last quarter of 2021. Zynga, the company that donated the beloved "Farmville" to the world, reported $ 1.97 billion in revenue in 2020 - the highest in its history, marking a jump of about 50 Percentage of the year preceding it.


The giant corporations are now in the midst of a crazy acquisition period of smaller companies, with the understanding that already now and as time goes on - a company without a division dealing with virtual worlds will not have a right to exist.

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Source: israelhayom

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