Microsoft was originally scheduled to complete its acquisition of Activision Blizzard on July 18, but unfortunately, due to the influence of the CMA, the acquisition has been delayed. At the same time that the acquisition was announced to be postponed, Activision Blizzard also released its financial report for the second quarter of 2023.
Recently, Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agreed to postpone the acquisition plan from July 18 to October 18, which is two months. This time is basically consistent with the postponement of the appeal date requested by the CMA and Microsoft. .
However, the postponement of the acquisition time to October 18 does not mean that the acquisition must be completed in October. Microsoft has now asked the FTC to cancel the internal judgment originally scheduled for August 2 and instead must make a decision within one day. As for the CMA, Microsoft also plans to resolve it within 6 weeks. If nothing else happens, the answer will be available by the end of September.
Perhaps because of worries about being affected by the postponement of the acquisition, Activision Blizzard also released its Q2 quarter financial report. Judging from the financial report, Activision Blizzard is really having a good time now.
The specific situation is as follows:
1. In the second quarter, Activision Blizzard’s overall net sales increased by 50% year-on-year;
2. Blizzard’s revenue increased by over 160% in the second quarter;
3. Blizzard achieved quarterly net sales of $1 billion for the first time, setting a segment revenue record.
After Blizzard's Q2 quarterly financial report was released, it also attracted the attention of many Chinese server players. After all, some players thought that Blizzard's revenue would plummet after leaving the Chinese server. However, the current situation is obviously not the case, so some Chinese server players began to sit back. I can't help but think that Blizzard may not plan to open a national server.
Regarding the second quarter financial report released by Blizzard, players in the Chinese server currently have two different views:
The first point is that the closure of the Chinese server has not affected Blizzard’s revenue.
The reason is that the Chinese server seems to have many monthly active players, but the income it provides is very low. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Blizzard has not reopened the national server. After all, the revenue is not high in the first place, and it has to be divided with agents.
The second point of view is that the closure of the national server still has a certain impact on Blizzard.
On the one hand, this is because Blizzard’s Q2 financial report is good entirely because of the emergence of “Diablo 4”. On the other hand, because when the Chinese server was still there, Blizzard’s financial report would mention “Hearthstone”, but now that the Chinese server has been closed, Blizzard Not only was "Hearthstone" removed from the carnival promotional images, but "Hearthstone" was also missing from the financial report. It can be seen that the contribution of the national server to "Hearthstone" is still very large.
It is undeniable that both sides have certain truths, but Brother Fat believes that there is no direct connection between the size of Blizzard's financial report and whether the national server will be reopened.
Blizzard’s Family Bucket can take away 264 million U.S. dollars from the Chinese server every year. This is a pure profit and does not require Blizzard’s operation and maintenance. Although Activision Blizzard is a large game company with a market value of tens of billions of dollars, its net profit of $264 million is also a large number.
After the closure of the national server, Blizzard's revenue has indeed skyrocketed with "Diablo 4", but "Diablo 4" has also been purchased by many domestic players, and a game with a buyout system like "Diablo 4" itself is a one-time deal. Other games are fundamentally different.
"World of Warcraft", "Hearthstone", and "Overwatch" are all Blizzard's main games. You can't give up these basic games just because of the one-time sale of "Diablo 4", and these three games have a large number of players in the Chinese server. With a huge player base, and the revenue of the domestic Hearthstone server being lower than that of foreign servers, Blizzard has no reason to give up on this market, not to mention that the future will still be dominated by Microsoft.
In short, the return of the national server is certain. The rest is just a matter of time. Players in the Chinese server can wait slowly. They have been waiting for half a year, and there will be no more than a month or two.