Digi-Capital reports that 2012 saw a record amount for mergers and acquisitions. Led by deals that saw Nexon purchasing part of NC Soft and all of Gloops (deals worth $685 million and $468 million apiece) and Sony paying $380 million for Gaikai, the 2012 M&A total was at $4.2 billion.
2011 saw just $3.4 billion in total activity, but the 84 M&A transactions in 2012 was actually down 26 percent year-over-year. The reason for this was that the deals were bigger and more focused on Asia, with eight of the 10 largest deals from China, Japan, or South Korea.
By contrast, gaming investment activity in 2012 was $868 million total, a decline of over 56 percent (over $1 billion) from 2011. Investment amounts were also down 56 percent to $5.2 million, something that was attributed to the drop off of the social gaming market, accounting for a staggering 96 percent of the decline.
Digi-Capital sees growth in online and mobile games market pushing the total games market to $83 billion in fiscal 2016, when the two sectors are expected to account for 55 percent of all gaming revenues. Online and mobile games brought in $31 billion in 2012, or 49 percent of all gaming revenue.
