There's big, big money in games this year
The business world is absolutely flooding the games industry with money.
Games make money; that's what they're mostly for, in the mainstream industry. That's why investors call the tunes at your favourite publishers and developers, and that's why we're not all still sitting around playing Cribbage* and thinking it the peak of interactive entertainment.
For a couple of years now game budgets, revenues and install bases have been so high that the industry is being hailed as the new Hollywood or whatever, and you can see the knock-on effects of that in the business world, where money is changing hands in record amounts to try and get in on this action.
The latest example is Amazon's purchase of Twitch. Despite being solely focused on gaming, which is just one topic out of a universe of possibilities, Twitch is the world's largest streaming video services.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
Now, is there any wonder Amazon forked out close to $1 billion in cash for it?
What's even more amazing about the acquisition is that it's just the latest in a year of big spending on gaming-related business. Remember Facebook sinking $2 billion on Oculus Rift, an unproven technology? Be still, my heart.
According to analyst firm Digi-Capital, over $9.2 billion has been spent on gaming-related mergers and acquisitions in 2014 so far - rapidly approaching double 2013's full-year total of $5.6 billion.
"The big games M&A sectors are $3.4B mobile games, $3.2B games tech (where we classify Twitch), $1.7B MMO games and $0.9B console games," Digi Capital said.
The firm said this drive to "consolidate" has been driven by growth in the mobile sector as well as regional realignment, pivots and market cycle.
What it's also driven by is the fact that gaming is a growth industry. Now, if only you and I could get a slice of that action, hey?
*Please note Crib is 100% balling and if you play with me I will absolutely own you.