Phil Spencer Confirms Microsoft Tried to Buy Zynga Before Take-Two Acquisition

Take-Two Interactive announced plans to acquire Zynga in 2022, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer has revealed Microsoft seriously considered buying the mobile game giant prior to that.

During his cross examination at today’s Microsoft FTC trial, Spencer talked about struggles in the mobile game business, saying Xbox has “no strategy to win organically in mobile gaming”. Spencer insisted mobile gamers don’t want traditional Xbox console experiences, and console gamers aren’t asking for that dedicated experience on mobile.

Spencer revealed that Microsoft tried to acquire Zynga to solve this problem, but the developer was acquired by Take-Two instead for $12.7 billion. At the time, it was the largest game company acquisition in history. Spencer admitted Microsoft spent “quite a bit of time” working on a potential Zynga acquisition, but it turned out Microsoft wanted something even bigger to get started in the mobile business.

“… We needed to have something that was even bigger than what Zynga was given our very small starting space in the mobile gaming business.”

“I have a lot of respect for the people at Zynga and what they’ve built. In the end, for our opportunity, we thought we needed to have something that was even bigger than what Zynga was given our very small starting space in the mobile gaming business,” Spencer said.

In November 2021, Microsoft’s attention turned to the Activision Blizzard acquisition. Spencer noted that Activision is the largest publisher of mobile content outside of China thanks to King’s existing franchises like Candy Crush.

“I spent time with Amy Hood, the CFO of [Microsoft], to look at the mobile opportunities that were in the market, and Activision was the biggest publisher of mobile content. And it’s a partner we know well, given a long history of working together, so we both had comfort with the studios and the teams. But most important was their portfolio and engagement they had on mobile.”

Microsoft also reportedly considered buying Zynga in 2010, back when Don Mattrick still ran the Xbox business.

For more, check out everything that’s happened at the Microsoft FTC trial, including how Starfield apparently almost skipped Xbox entirely before Microsoft acquired Bethesda.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN covering video game and entertainment news. He has over seven years of experience in the gaming industry with bylines at IGN, Nintendo Wire, Switch Player Magazine, and Lifewire. Find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.