Meet your new Overlords: Activision Blizzard
by Robin Torres 
Dec 2nd 2007 at 1:25PM
I'm a little overwhelmed by the news that Vivendi has acquired control of Activision to form Activision Blizzard. The PDF (you'll need Adobe Reader) for the transaction is here.There is an excellent writeup of the whole deal with quotes from the principals over at Massively, but here are the highlights:
- Vivendi is contributing Vivendi Games (which includes Blizzard ) and some cash to the tune of $1.7 Billion.
- Vivendi will have a 52% stake in Activision Blizzard.
- Activision will be merged entirely into Activision Blizzard and will bring all of their games including Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Tony Hawk.
What do you think of this news? Will the merger hurt WoW? Or do you think Blizzard will be able to continue mostly autonomously considering they are currently such a cash cow for their owners?
[Thank you to everyone for all the tips!]
Filed under: Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
arun84h Dec 2nd 2007 1:31PM
Oh God. Please don't turn into an SOE shit hole.
Zeplar Dec 2nd 2007 1:31PM
The forum reaction to this was.... wow. Haven't seen that much anger since shamans exploded.
Sylythn Dec 2nd 2007 1:33PM
If they're smart, they'll treat Blizzard as a separate autonomous entity and let them do thing their way, the right way for them - similar to how Fisher-Price is owned by Mattel, but you'd probably never know it unless you saw internal documents or read it spelled out in a news article.
Zeplar Dec 2nd 2007 1:36PM
That part about "it's done when it's done" possibly being removed... DON'T DO IT ACTIVISION! Blizzard rose up 3 or 4 notches in my respect when they canceled Starcraft Ghost after spending millions on it; this would bring them down.
Jagnon Dec 2nd 2007 1:43PM
Look :
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168513659&sid=1
matt Dec 2nd 2007 2:36PM
I'm skeptical, but then again blizz was about the money from the start really.
Scorp Dec 2nd 2007 1:46PM
byebye WoW... Bye bye Blizz.... :'( will miss you very much... /cry
huw1000 Dec 2nd 2007 1:47PM
This is the end of native Mac support for Blizzard games. It'll be dropped to save time and money, then when everyone gets angry and makes a stink we'll get half-assed Transgaming ports 6 months later. Yay Activision.
vlad Dec 3rd 2007 12:31AM
hehe. now what game are all 6 mac users gonna play?
Jamus Dec 3rd 2007 9:06AM
My thoughts exactly. Activision is not welcome news.
RJ Dec 2nd 2007 1:49PM
From what I've gathered, this really has nothing to do with Blizzard aside from the "Activision Blizzard" name (which to be honest, sounds like something a villian with a poor grasp of english would say when activating his blizzard creating doomsday device), and that both companies will be independant of each other. So it seems to be less a merger and more Vivendi buying up Activision and changing the name. Blizzard will still be Blizzard Entertainment, while Activision gets stuck with Activision Blizzard.
Robin Torres Dec 2nd 2007 1:59PM
Lol! You are so right about the name.
Zeplar Dec 2nd 2007 1:49PM
There's a new york times article on this, with allusions to Activision eventually merging with EA to make a near-monopoly. Confirmation?
cjcobbe06 Dec 2nd 2007 1:54PM
Or, you know... they might actually be business savvy and let Bliz do the Bliz thing. Having native platforms has garnered some of the best business in the gaming industry. Bliz has consistently put out top-quality games. I highly doubt that the guys have decided to do away with Bliz's major selling points.
Also: there's probably a lot in the contract that we haven't seen involving those points. Don't get your knickers in a twist until the Apocalypse actually does come.
emir Dec 2nd 2007 4:00PM
sucks ffs
Tavil Dec 2nd 2007 2:08PM
I don't think this will have much of an effect on Blizzard. It will probably be business as usual for them.
Markymark Dec 3rd 2007 12:37PM
As long as Blizz stays blizz... I don't mind.
SaintStryfe Dec 2nd 2007 2:22PM
If Activision was buying Viviendi games, I'd be worried. But it's not - Vivendi is buying Activision.
It's not likely much will change for Blizz itself. Most of Activision will still churn out Tony Hawk games, a small corner will make money with Guitar Hero, and Blizz will still be the company we all know and love.
MaNiAk Dec 2nd 2007 2:26PM
As long as Activision doesn't try to change Blizz...I'll be happy. Blizzard has been doing just fine on their own, and it needs to stay that way! All Blizz needs is the extra funding to help increase the quality of their games. The second I hear of deadlines and release dates...I will be upset :(
Calaana Dec 2nd 2007 2:28PM
Leave blizzard alone, let them keep doing their own thing; It will, in the end, give a better profit margin than a few years of awesome income followed by complete rejection. We might rag on blizzard for it's choices, but nobody has ever ragged on them for producing a bad quality product: They just don't.
The people of the world plea to you Activision; Leave the guys the hell alone. And give them cookies.