Gaming Deals Activity Report Q1’23
Download PDFApr, 2023 Q1’23 Gaming Deals Report
Cooling Off After
Years of Blistering
Growth
Executive Summary
3
Executive Summary
Highlights:
getting back to regular levels of deal activity
— Investment activity remains strong,
showing increase in the deal count vs.
the previous 3 months, and halting the
negative trend. This growth was mainly
driven by Early-stage and Corporate
deals (+30% growth vs. Q3’22).
Executive Summary
4
Private Investments:
remain strong with a slight pullback from previous record highs
— The total amount of raised capital
remains stagnant, as we see very few
Late-stage deals, while most Corporate
investments do not disclose amounts.
The largest Late-stage deal was VSPO by
Savvy Games Group ($265m), which
accounted for 65% of the total value.
— The Early-stage market continues
to be robust and is expected to be
a significant driving force behind
the emergence of new unicorns in
the next 3–5 years.
Corporate & VC Investments Activity
M&As:
hit its lowest point with strong rebound in the coming quarter
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Executive Summary
— Despite a harsh start of the year,
Q2’23 has already seen two significant
deal announcements: Scopely
acquisition by Savvy Games Group for
$4.9B, and Rovio acquisition by SEGA
for $0.8B.
Closed M&As Activity
— M&A activity in Q1’23 showed
a significant drop in the total
disclosed deal value, and saw ~2x
less closed deals vs. the previous
years’ average (Q1’21/Q1’22).
Public Offerings:
remain stalled, with no signs of improvement so far
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Executive Summary
— Public Offerings activity continue to
struggle, due to the current situation on
public markets and high interest rates.
— In the coming quarters the public
activity will probably remain low,
largely depending on Q1’23 earnings
season results. Nevertheless, based
on Take-Two Interactive’s Public
Offering in the amount of $1B, we still
may see some notable offerings by big
strategic players.
Public Offerings Activity
Gaming
Deals with Targets represented
by Video Game Publishers and/or Developers
Highlights:
gaming deal activity saw a steep decline
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Gaming
— Early-stage investment has displayed
a rebound following a notable decline in
Q2’22 and continuously showing an
increase in the deal count. However, we
should highlight that the average size of
deal size has been decreased.
Early-stage Investments:
lots of fuel for future unicorns
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Gaming
Early-stage Gaming Activity
— The emergence of new gaming
unicorns in the future may be largely
driven by the current positive trend in
the increasing investment activity
from the Early-stage VCs.
Note: (1) based on the internal weighted
average ranking system (see p. 14);
(2) based on investments in Gaming
with the disclosed deal value (no Web3
gaming deals included)
Gaming
10
Most Active VC Gaming Funds for Q1’23
Late-stage Deals:
uncertain year ahead
— Late-stage investment activity
continues to struggle, what with the
bearish public markets and slowdown
in the M&A activity, with only 2 closed
deals happening.
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Gaming
Late-stage Gaming Activity
— In the upcoming quarters, Late-stage
negative trend will most likely continue
with a small number of deals to happen,
due to high checks, plus the potential
problems to raise expected amounts.
— In Q1’23, Corporate activity in
gaming is almost on the same level as
it was the year prior; however,
the majority of the deals sizes were
not disclosed.
Corporate:
attractive valuations to drive growth
12
Gaming
Corporate Gaming Activity
— Based on the current market
conditions and relative silence from
the key strategic investors, we consider
that in the upcoming quarters, overall
Corporate activity will be more dynamic
in both the deals value and count.
Appendix
Esports
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Appendix
Methodology & Glossary
The private data contained in this report
is based on information from sources
believed to be reliable, but accuracy and
completeness cannot be guaranteed.
Sources include public media, our business
partners, data provider S&P Capital IQ, and
market insights.
InvestGame tracks closed transactions
(unless otherwise noted) in the Video Games
industry, with target companies having core
business operations related to the Video
Games market. Please note that we do not
track pure gambling, betting, and non-gaming
blockchain/Web3 companies.
Late-stage VC
Corporate
Early-stage VC
Fixed income
IPO, SPAC
PIPE, other
Deal Types Overview
Control
Minority
—
Control M&As
—
mergers and acquisitions
resulting in the change of control
(50%+ ownership)
—
Minority M&As
—
sale of a minority stake
in the business
—
Early-stage VC
—
pre-Seed, Seed, and
Series A rounds with a lead VC fund
—
Late-stage VC
—
Series B, Series C,
and later-lettered venture rounds
—
Corporate Investments
—
investments with
a lead investor being corporation
—
IPOs
—
the process of company going
public including IPOs, SPACs, and direct
listings
—
Fixed-income
—
debt-related instrument
with fixed payments and interest payments
—
PIPE, other
—
private investment in public
equity, direct share issue, and other
transactions with publicly traded stock
Deal Type Terms Glossary
Target’s Sector Overview
Othеr
Hardware
Other
Cash-related
PC & Сonsole
Multiplatform
Mobile
Outsourcing
VR/AR
Platform
Tech
VR/AR
Blockchain-powered
The information, opinions, estimates, and
forecasts contained herein are as of the date
hereof and are subject to change without
prior notification. We seek to update our
research as appropriate.
Gaming
Platform
& Tech
Other
M&As
Private
Investments
Public
Offerings
VC Ratings Calculation
For both the Deals Number and Deal
Value lists, we prioritize as follows:
60%
—
lead deals number / value;
40%
—
total number / value of deals.
Since the funds do not usually
disclose publicly their individual
participation in a particular round
(even if some occasionally do), we
do not take into account the exact
cuts. We prioritise the overall
number and the sum of the deals
while still placing importance on the
value and the count of lead deals.
We would love to thank our dear friends at
MGVC
,
Taylor Wessing
, and
White Label PR
for
supporting this Report. Please note that this
support did not in any way affect the integrity or
fairness of the data, and the analysis presented.
Digest
Patreon
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15
Disclaimer
Appendix
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