An interesting article from gamesindustry.biz about the acquisition of Insomniac Games by Sony. It is reported that Sony paid $229 million dollars for the studio.
That is a lot of money. With big budget titles rarely crossing the $100 million mark, and Insomniac Games making games for less than $20 million a pop (seeing as they do not feature in the list of most expensive video games to make), it is tremendous what market value the clout of the studio alone has. The fact that they make good games that sell well clearly played the biggest part of the acquisition most probably. That and their IP.
For context, this is the 14th highest amount paid (and reported on) for a games studio. The list of most expensive game studio acquisitions are as follows:
| Acquirer | Target | Year | Deal Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhongji Holding | DianDian Interactive | 2014 | 960,000,000 |
| Churchill Downs Incorporated | Big Fish Games | 2014 | 885,000,000 |
| Electronic Arts | BioWare and Pandemic Studios | 2007 | 775,000,000 |
| Electronic Arts | PopCap Games | 2011 | 750,000,000 |
| Electronic Arts | Jamdat Mobile | 2005 | 680,000,000 |
| Disney | Playdom | 2010 | 563,000,000 |
| Zynga | NaturalMotion | 2014 | 527,000,000 |
| Nexon | Gloops | 2012 | 486,000,000 |
| DeNA | ngmoco | 2010 | 400,000,000 |
| Electronic Arts | Playfish | 2009 | 400,000,000 |
| Tencent | Riot Games | 2011 | 400,000,000 |
Interesting to note that, of this top 10 list, only two studios are “proper” games studios, with the rest being all mobile game studios.
