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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsActivision loses money, Blizzard to release one marquee game per year
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 12th 2009 at 1:00PM
Activision-Blizzard held a conference call for the press yesterday, and so there's all kinds of financial and release news floating around out there. The biggest news isn't necessarily Blizzard-related, but it does mean that our game's company is finally feeling the crunch a bit: Activision-Blizzard reported a loss of $72 million in the last quarter, and their outlook for the coming year fell short of analysts' expectations. Even though that sounds bad, it doesn't mean things are necessarily bad, though: Blizzard themselves added nearly a billion dollars to the total, so while A-B might not be doing so well, B is doing just fine.Blizzard CEO Paul Sams also announced during the call that the company is now aiming for "one 'frontline' title per year," though not necessarily World of Warcraft related. That likely means that we'll see the first Starcraft 2 this year -- our friends at Joystiq have a quick report on the beta appearing soon, as well as the Battle.net revamp we've been waiting for. And it also means that (unless Blizzard is really rolling on Diablo III, which I doubt, given its condition when we played it at last year's BlizzCon), that we'll be looking at mid/late 2010 for the release of the next WoW expansion.
Besides the loss of the $72 million (it's always in the last place you look), things seem to be hopping at Blizzard and their parent company. Should be a pretty busy 2009 for them.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Expansions, Making money, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Dobmeister Feb 12th 2009 2:28PM
Blizzard is doing fine. Activision-Blizzard is also doing fine in a climate of economic losses. $72 million is diddly-squat in loss compared to the number-crunching I've seen over here in Britain, and that's before you account for $1.50 = £1.
Activision-Blizzard is needed in this day and age to go head-to-head with TheSims/FIFA stalwart of EA. Still doesn't mean 1 expansion pack to WoW will be pushed as a half-arsed attempt every 2 months.
Patch 3.0.8 was not the rapture you QQ'ers make it out to be. L2 Normal Distribution of patches. Sometimes they work to maximum capacity, sometimes they don't. It was not a catastrophic failure.
The end profiteers in Activision are not ordering our beloved Blizzard around like a gimp, it's a mutual merger for the benefit of gaming. They couldn't give two faeces whether 3.1 is next week or next millennium, the cash is in their 'expansions' and peripherals to RockBand/GuitarHero (whichever of the two they own as I cba to look it up).
Naix Feb 12th 2009 2:34PM
Cry me a river on your $16500000 ($15 * 1100000). So this means we get...
Starcraft 2
Diablio 3
Next Gen MMO
Without having to wait 10 F'ing YEARS! Thats right Starcraft 1 has been out for 10 years and they are JUST NOW getting to making Starcraft 2. Come on Blizzard at least release the next one every 3 to 5 years, but 10 that is crazy!
TheDeceiver Feb 12th 2009 2:41PM
AND so comes the down fall of the great and mighty blizzard!!! /sigh.
I just hope we don't lose that which is so great.
I don't think words convey the disatisfaction and loathing i know have for activision. Oh how the mighty have fallen. WTB less morons.
The whole reason people buy blizzard games is b/c of the quality, the aticipation of the game, and the shear awsomeness it provides. You try to rush 1 "major" title a year out and they will slowly cease to be blizzard and steadily become EA, lord knows we don't want another EA.
sephirah Feb 12th 2009 2:47PM
If you google it, you'll find
"The company did lose $72 million during its holiday quarter ended
December 31, 2008. Part of this was a result of certain accounting
guidelines.
Revenues for the quarter were $1.6 billion on a GAAP basis, but taking
adjustments into account would show that Activision actually generated
revenues of $2.3 billion in Q4."
Chris Feb 12th 2009 4:39PM
mid 2010 for the next xpak......../cry
Supersonic Feb 12th 2009 5:42PM
"now aiming for "one 'frontline' title per year" hmm isn't that exactly opposite to what Blizzard's game plan is? "Ready when its ready" anyone?
looks like the fall of Blizzard if they plan to release unpolished, half-assed games once a year, like 85% of all the other game companies.
Blizzards games are good BECAUSE they spent so long on them, I cant wait to see how poorly made their games will be once their being forced out "ready or not" as long as you make money right?
WTB pushed Starcraft 2 release with as much problems as the "ready or not" WoW patches!
Sounds like fun to me..
Ed Cote Feb 12th 2009 11:05PM
How is it even possible to lose money with WOW alone raking it in hand over fist? So Activision pulls all these sleazy moneygrubbing stunts and still does so badly that not even mighty Blizzard can bail them out?
Krotchkick should be tarred, feathered, blackballed, and then fired, but CEOs don't get punished, they just get bonuses.
Hyper Feb 23rd 2009 1:38PM
I believe Mr. Schramm is interpreting Blizzard's statement wrong. He seems to think Blizz's announcement means there will only be one game released per year from now on. I take it to mean that there will be AT LEAST one game per year. I really don't understand your "2010 will either be an expansion or D3 but not both" logic.
Also what was wrong with Diablo at Blizzcon? I played it for a grand total of about an hour and it was amazing. I've never seen a game look and play so great so early in development. Were you referring to the length of the demo? Yes it was short but that isn't really indicative of their progress on the title.
Moron Feb 13th 2009 5:14AM
Errm
If anyone still thinks that Blizzard is immune to Activisions influence, I kindly direct attention to the fact that WotLK is (not even) half finished as of today 4 months after release.
Its painfully visible that everything beyond 5mans and the 70-80 leveling process is shallow and unfinished.
Its the classic release it then patch it hoop and you can see the corners they cut on testing and PVE raids. 2 new raidbosses a recycled naxx and recolored armor, thats what you got on top of half finished classes and horrid balance in PvE and PvP.
Its rushed and we all know Blizzard havent been like that.
Its not the same blizzard anymore, look at the patches since the release all of them borke the game to a certain degree. We never seen anything like that in vanilla and BC.
Old Days are gone, prepare for the suck.