Activision Blizzard leads the gaming industry
by Alex Ziebart 
May 13th 2008 at 5:30PM
The first comes from VentureBeat. Not directly about Activision Blizzard, this article talks a little about the current state of PC gaming. VentureBeat mentions that The NPD Group, a market researching group, has said that online gaming subscriptions generate around $1 billion per year with World of Warcraft leading the pack. I wouldn't use this as proof of PC gaming still going strong as VentureBeat does, but rather that the PC gaming community has shifted toward subscription based multiplayer experiences with consoles taking over single player experiences, for the most part. You can probably thank piracy for that. That bit is a topic for another time, though.
Our other bit comes from Gaming Today on Filefront. This one is quite directly about Activision Blizzard, mentioning that they've become the number one game publisher around with a net earning of over $2.9 billion. That's a lot of money! Again according to The NPD Group, Activision dominated both the console and handheld markets. Between the Guitar Hero series still going strong and the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King, it won't be much of a surprise to anybody if Activision Blizzard comes out on top again in 2009.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Badger May 13th 2008 8:16PM
Alex: There is an article in this month's PC Gamer magazine concerning the fledgling 'PC Gaming Alliance' between some of the top hardware and software firms in the industry. If you found the comments on the continued viability of PC gaming as a stable or growing medium, you should probably take a look at this article.
The Alliance members seem to say that PC gaming is not necessarily on its way out. Statistically, the PC gaming market is actually doing quite well - but, as the PCGA argues, it could be doing *better* for myriad reasons.
Akido May 14th 2008 10:54AM
"You can probably thank piracy for that."
Or:
"You can probably thank FEAR OF piracy for that."
Fixed.
Zali May 14th 2008 1:05PM
One might thank a fear of Vogon Constructor fleets for someone going to extreme measures to avoid being boiled into space.
Making an effort to fight software piracy, on the other hand, has little to do with fear. I think there exists enough documented proof of the actual existance of software piracy that software producers can be said to be combating actual piracy, not based on fear, but based on experience.