Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming

Take-Two to acquire FarmVille publisher in most expensive gaming deal ever

Otto Kratky
By

Take-Two Interactive, the massive gaming publishing company behind Rockstar and Private Division, is expanding into the mobile gaming market with a record-setting acquisition. The company is currently set to acquire Zynga games, the mobile gaming giant behind Farmville, for a mind-boggling $12.7 billion.

The purchase, being made with a mix of cash and stocks, marks the most expensive acquisition ever in the gaming industry, beating out Chinese media conglomerate Tencent’s 2016 acquisition of Supercell, which cost the company 8.6 billion at the time. Take-Two’s deal likewise trumps other recent notable acquisitions, including Microsoft’s purchase of ZeniMax Media in 2020 for $7.5 billion, which gave the tech giant the rights to The Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, and Dishonored franchises.

Recommended Videos

While Zynga may not be a household name for anyone playing games on consoles or a gaming PC, the company is behind some of the biggest mobile games on the market. Best known for developing FarmVille, which gained an enormous amount of popularity on Facebook, Zynga now leads the mobile gaming market with games like Words With Friends, Golf Rival, and more. According to a press release, Zynga’s games have been downloaded over 4 billion times on mobile devices.

With its acquisition of Zynga, which is planned to be completed on June 30, 2022, Take-Two is poised to make an aggressive push into the mobile gaming market. “This strategic combination brings together our best-in-class console and PC franchises, with a market-leading, diversified mobile publishing platform that has a rich history of innovation and creativity,” said Take-Two Interactive chairman and CEO Strauss Zelnick.

Take-Two’s specific plans for Zynga are still unclear. While the mobile giant will be a vehicle for Take-Two to have a larger slice of the mobile gaming market pie, just how the company will actually achieve that is a mystery. It’s entirely possible that, if the acquisition is completed, we could see more Grand Theft Auto games on mobile devices in the near future.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Otto Kratky
Otto Kratky
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…
Publisher Take-Two files trademark claim against developer of It Takes Two
It Takes Two's main characters ride frog taxis.

.Publishing giant Take-Two Interactive has filed a trademark claim against Hazelight, the developer of co-op adventure game It Takes Two. According to Eurogamer, the claim came about after the game was released in March of this year. As a result, Hazelight has abandoned trademark rights to the game's name.

Neither Hazelight nor publisher EA has said whether this will result in a new name for the game or an adjustment in the game's marketing plans.

Read more
Minecraft, It Takes Two, and more come to Xbox Game Pass this month
Cody and May stand with Dr. Hakim in It Takes Two.

Microsoft announced the newest titles coming to its Xbox Game Pass service for November. The new listings are a mixh of different genres of games, with a few indie games thrown into the mix as well. Among the titles is the mega-hit Minecraft and the critically acclaimed 2021 game It Takes Two.

 

Read more
Apple’s maxed-out iPhone 13 is its most expensive handset ever
Apple's new iPhone 13 Pro.

Now that the dust has just about settled following Apple’s big tech event on Tuesday, you may be wondering whether to upgrade your current iPhone to one of the new iPhone 13 models.

iPhone 12 owners are most likely to hold back -- unless it means going from the 12 or 12 Mini to one of the new Pro models -- while those with an older iPhone may be sorely tempted if they have the spare cash.

Read more