You only have to look at the headlines streaming through MCV in recent months to know why this is being described as the games industry’s age of consolidation.

If it’s not 92 per cent of Activision’s shareholders voting for a merger with Vivendi, it’s the gripping – and titillating – spat between EA’s CEO John Riccitiello and Take Two’s Strauss Zelnick over the Redwood leviathan’s bid for the Rockstar parent.

However, ‘Actiblizz’ – now officially the largest independent publisher in the world – isn’t the first financial controversy to make the rest of the industry shudder in their boots, as MCV’s handy history lesson shows…

Click here for the ten deals that shook the global video games industry