Video game mergers and acquisitions in 2013 passes $5 billion

Investment has reached record levels, as video game mergers and acquisitions have now passed $5 billion for the first time in 2013. This comes largely as a result of Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean cash, particularly recent deals such as Soft Bank and GungHo's 51% stake in Supercell.

There's also Activision Blizzard's buyback from Vivendi and Ourpalm's acquisitions of China's Playcrab and Shanggames. 2013 is already well above 2012, where mergers and acquisitions totaled $4 billion.

Speaking to GI.biz, Tim Merel of investment bank Digi-Capital said:

"Games M&A to date this year has just topped $5 billion for the first time, with most of Q4 2013 left to run. When we anticipated a record for games M&A in 2013 two weeks ago in our Q3 2013 Global Games Investment Review, we were not expecting that record within two weeks.

Supercell pushed it up to $4.8 billion, but the recently reported Ourpalm acquisitions what took games M&A to $5.2 billion so far this year. As was the case in 2012, this M&A was dominated by mobile, and Chinese, Japanese and South Korean buyers."