1.2 M&A, Metaverse and Media

One of the most notable developments in the overall gaming market in 2021 will be a flood of M&A deals, investments, and IPOs, including multiple deals from Roblox, Applovin, Krafton, and Unity.

Most of these deals were completed or announced in the first half of 2021, helped by optimism in the stock market.

Michiel Buijsman, senior market analyst at Newzoo, said: “The number and scale of acquisitions and deals this year was unprecedented. There were multiple acquisitions worth over $1 billion. game production resources, mobile advertising companies acquire game studios and conduct vertical integration, and 3A or 2A publishers try to diversify and expand in terms of markets or platforms.”

Here are a few cases:

·Microsoft acquires ZeniMax, expanding its game library content and Game Pass appeal

·Mobile game publishers acquire ad tech companies to address privacy challenges posed by Apple's ATT policy (e.g. Zynga's acquisition of Chartboost)

·ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, acquired Moonton, entering the fast lane of development and becoming one of the major core mobile game publishers

·Sony acquires several long-term partners with a view to furthering game development (e.g. acquisition of Bluepoint game studio), improving efficiency (e.g. acquisition of Nixxes)

Speaking of Sony and Microsoft, the two companies launched the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, respectively, at the end of 2020. Since then, the supply of new consoles has been tight, but demand has remained high. Although supply is limited, both consoles have outsold their predecessors in terms of sales.

And at the end of 2021, players with these new consoles will even get a glimpse into the future of gaming. The demo of Unreal Engine 5 based on the Matrix universe was impressive.

Julianne Harty, Head of Global Game Market Reports at Newzoo, said: "Unreal Engine 5 will be officially launched in spring 2022, and will provide photo-realistic effects and further simplified development tools, making the future of the game industry even more exciting. All signs point to Unreal 5 being able to bridge the gap between game modeling and movie visuals, providing brands with a key piece of the metaverse puzzle.

Of course, one of the hottest gaming market topics in 2021 will be the Metaverse, including:

·Virtual concerts in Fortnite and other games are critically acclaimed

·Roblox IPO valued at $40.6 billion

·Facebook changed its name to Meta

But what exactly is the metaverse? Who are the biggest stakeholders and innovators?

Mihai Vicol, one of the market analysts who specialize in emerging trends in gaming, said: "Whether people agree with the metaverse-centric future that Meta, Roblox and Epic Games are trying to build, there is one shift that has become more pronounced over the past year. It's becoming clearer: Personal expression and identity have become crucial for gamers. Younger generations are relatively more tech-savvy and their social activities tend to move online. Virtual worlds are expected to be the next decade's Social hubs, while traditional 2D social media platforms will gradually decline.”

Many see the Metaverse as the future of the entertainment industry. At the same time, the advantages of games are gradually expanding when compared with traditional forms of entertainment such as TV, movies and Hollywood.

"Games are to the entertainment industry this decade (2020-2030) what superheroes were to the last decade," says Julianne Harty. "Riot is based on League of Legends. ) universe's Netflix series "Arcane" and the hugely successful second season of "The Witcher", which inherited the visual style of the "Witcher" games, showed that games can also be used for Other forms of non-gaming media enable us. In addition to this, we are looking forward to the future of "The Last of Us" TV series, "Sonic" (Sonic) film sequel and "Uncharted". (Uncharted) movie."