2022年经济学人 微软以690亿美元现金收购动视暴雪（下）（在线收听）

The deal may help Microsoft broaden its reach beyond consoles, says Julianne Harty of Newzoo.

Newzoo的朱丽安·哈蒂表示，这笔交易可能有助于微软将其业务范围扩大到游戏主机以外的领域。

King, a mobile-focused unit of Activision Blizzard, boasts around 245m monthly players of its games, most of whom tap away at “Candy Crush”.

King是动视暴雪旗下专注于移动设备的部门，它自称每月有大约2.45亿游戏玩家，其中大多数人都在玩《糖果传奇》。

It is also a strike against Sony, whose share price fell by 10% on news of the deal.

这笔交易也是对索尼的一次打击，该公司的股价在收购消息公布后下跌了10%。

If Microsoft controls the rights to “Call of Duty”, it can decide whether or not to allow the games to appear on Sony’s rival Play Station machine.

如果微软控制了《使命召唤》的版权，它可以决定是否允许游戏出现在竞争对手索尼的PS机上。

When Microsoft bought ZeniMax Media, another gaming firm, for $7.5bn in 2020, it said it would honour the terms of ZeniMax’s existing publishing agreements with Sony, but that Sony’s access to ZeniMax’s new games would be considered “on a case-by-case basis”.

微软在2020年以75亿美元收购另一家游戏公司ZeniMax Media时表示，它将遵守ZeniMax与索尼现有发行协议的条款，但索尼对ZeniMax新游戏的使用权将“视情况而定”。

It also fits Microsoft’s long-term ambition to become the dominant player in a gaming market that it hopes still has plenty of room to grow.

这笔交易也符合微软长期以来想成为游戏市场主导者的雄心，微软期望这个市场仍有足够的增长空间。

(Mr Nadella, inevitably, gushed about the virtual-reality “metaverse”.)

（意料之中地，纳德拉滔滔不绝地谈论了一番虚拟现实“元世界”。）

The firm is bundling content and pushing the “Game Pass” subscription service, which offers console and PC gamers access to a rotating library of titles—which usually cost $40-60 each—for $10 a month.

该公司正在捆绑内容并推出“Game Pass”订阅服务，该服务使主机和PC游戏玩家能够访问持续更新的游戏库，每月收取10美元，而通常一个游戏的价格是40-60美元。

Adding Activision Blizzard’s catalogue to the service could boost its appeal.

将动视暴雪的产品添加到该服务中能够增强其吸引力。

In the longer term, Microsoft hopes to use its Azure cloud-computing arm to do for video games what Netflix did for films and TV.

从长远来看，微软希望利用其Azure云计算部门为视频游戏提供服务，就像网飞为电影和电视提供服务那样。

In 2020 it launched a game-streaming add-on to Game Pass that beams high-end games across the internet to a phone, TV or desktop.

2020年，它推出了一个Game Pass的游戏流媒体插件，可将互联网上的高端游戏传输到手机、电视或台式机上。

Running a game’s code in the cloud removes the need to own a powerful, pricey console or PC.

在云上运行游戏代码无需拥有功能强大、价格昂贵的游戏主机或PC。

The technology is tricky.

这项技术精妙复杂。

Still, Microsoft hopes that as it matures, it will draw in more players, especially in middle-income countries where smartphones are common but consoles rare.

尽管如此，微软希望，随着技术成熟，它将吸引更多的玩家，特别是在智能手机普遍但游戏主机罕见的中等收入国家。

Although other firms, including Sony, Amazon and Nvidia, offer similar services, none looks as well-placed as Microsoft.

尽管包括索尼、亚马逊和英伟达在内的其他公司也提供类似的服务，但没有一家公司的地位能与微软相比。

The software giant combines a strong content library and decades of experience in gaming with the world’s second-largest cloud operation behind Amazon.

这家软件巨头将强大的内容库和数十年的游戏经验与仅次于亚马逊的全球第二大云业务结合在一起。

Microsoft’s big bet may persuade rivals they, too, need to snap up content while they can.

微软的巨大赌注可能会让竞争对手觉得，它们也需要抢购内容，趁它们还有能力这么做。

The gaming industry was already seeing plenty of merger activity.

游戏行业已经出现了大量的并购动作。

Last year five deals worth $1bn or more were inked.

去年达成了5笔价值10亿美元或以上的交易。

On January 10th Take-Two Interactive, a game developer and publisher, spent $13bn on Zynga, a maker of mobile games.

1月10日，游戏开发商和发行商Take-Two Interactive斥资130亿美元收购手机游戏开发商Zynga。

Sony will be feeling vulnerable after Microsoft’s deal.

在微软的这笔交易之后，索尼将会感到有些脆弱。

Amazon, Apple or Netflix may decide that now is the time to show that they are serious about the business.

亚马逊、苹果或网飞可能会决定，现在是时候展现它们对这项业务的认真态度了。

Consolidation looks like the name of the game.

合并似乎是这场行业游戏的名字。