Posts with tag vivendi

Whether you are for, against, or completely neutral to the Activision/Vivendi merger, you'll enjoy Action Trip's latest comic in light of the situation.

You don't need to know all of the details, or what this means for Blizzard, to understand and have a laugh. Simply note that Activision is the company that brought out titles such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.

I'm a particular fan of this comic, and I'm not exactly sure why. I mean, I do play Horde, and an orc at that; and no one likes to get ganked! The style in which the night elf is depicted, combined with the last frame, had me laughing out loud though.

If you hadn't heard about the merger, or would like to learn more about what this means for World of Warcraft, head over to Mike's recent update on the situation, as well as his coverage of an interview with Blizzard President and CEO, Mike Morhaime. Dan also wrote up a post summarizing the official press release and pointing to some top-notch articles around the web for more information.

If you feel you have a particularly solid grasp on the matter, Elizabeth has asked for your predictions on the future of the company. Because I know you can all tell the future, there's no point in keeping it to yourselves.

We've all had a couple of days to mull over the news of the big Activision Vivendi merger announced this weekend. The forums, official and unofficial, have been filled with outcries of concern over what this means for the future of Blizzard and their favorite game, while Blizzard has reassuringly repeated that nothing is really changing. But after all the excitement dies down, the truth is that it's all just words until we see what happens. But today I'm asking for your predictions: where will the new Activision Blizzard be a year from now?

So now that the news has broken, the CEO has been interviewed, and the dust has settled on this weekend's merger, it's time to ask the big question: Why? Blizzard and Vivendi are on top of the world in terms of their field right now. Why would they combine with Activision, especially if, as they claim, nothing at all is changing? Why go to all the trouble if it'll make no difference in either company's business?

And the answer-- in my analysis-- is, as usual with most mergers: money. The fact is that Activision wants to be the biggest gaming company in the world. They want it all-- consoles, PC games, you name it-- and connecting with Blizzard helps them get a big part of that. World of Warcraft has turned Blizzard from a quality game designer into a videogame powerhouse, and Activision, in reaching for the top, has invited Blizzard on their team.

Blizzard will profit from it as well-- Activision knows how to get games published and marketed (just look at Guitar Hero III, which has done incredibly well for being a game that was not only not made by the original developer, but actually released up against a strong competitor made by the original developer). Blizzard knows how to make great games, and Activision knows how to release them, so both companies obviously think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

But is it?

The strange timing of this massive announcement aside, details are starting to come to light about what the merger of Activision and Blizzard means to all involved. First, Blizzard has made an official announcement in their forums, followed by a separate post with a FAQ about the merger. The FAQ basically says absolutely nothing will change on the Blizzard side. No layoffs, no managerial changes, no ship date changes. This is no surprise since no one in their right mind is going to mess with the success that is the Blizzard name and the team behind it.

The official press release mentioned in our first post today is a bit dense on the corporate speak, but the interesting parts are:

1. The new Board of Directors will have 11 seats: 6 of those filled by Vivendi, 2 by Activision and 3 by independent directors from Activision's board.
2. There will be a live webcast with the management of the two sides tomorrow morning at 8:30am EST and can be viewed at www.vivendi.com and www.activision.com

The BBC site has a very good summary of the merger along with a brief background on both companies. And The New York Times site has a deeper analysis from a business perspective. It points out that Activision is trying hard to compete with EA Games and adding Blizzard will not only put its annual revenue on par with its main competition, but will give it a criticial foothold in the online gaming and Asian gaming markets.

Kudos to our own Art Orneck on the "Activizzard" reference. It sure beat out my "Blizzvision" for cleverness.

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.

My main concern in all of this is a selfish one. I don't want Blizzard to be kept to new deadlines in creating their games. The "we'll release when it's ready" philosophy may be frustrating when we are impatient for new games and expansions, but it produces high quality games. Having worked for a video game publisher before, I know how rigid deadlines can hurt otherwise promising games. And we can see where the Diablo team still produces a fun game, but one that was obviously released before it was ready when we play Hellgate: London.

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!]

Blizzard's publisher Vivendi is rolling in the cash-- they just announced their their quarter videogame numbers, and they're up a whopping 19%. They claim that World in Conflict gave them a nice boost, but c'mon, do you know anyone who's played World in Conflict? Didn't think so.

No, the boost came from our favorite game, World of Warcraft-- Blizzard raised their subscriber numbers by just under a third of a million, making their population now 9.3 million, a raise of over a million in the past year. Burning Crusade's release in China definitely helped, too, and Vivendi's games division raked in $315.2 million.

Now, far be it from us to call a number like 9.3 million "disappointing," but it doesn't seem like WoW will hit that 10 million mark we all expected in 2007. Then again, patch 2.3 could bring a lot of folks back to the game-- is there a chance that .7 million people will sign back in, or will we have to wait for the next expansion to see a big boost?

[Via Massively]

Vivendi, who happens to own Blizzard Entertainment, recently announced its earnings for the second quarter of 2007. Revenues from their gaming division are up 29% (with overall revenues up 7.4%), with the report claiming these numbers were up due to the continued success of World of Warcraft. Despite the fact that the game hasn't been growing as quickly during 2007 than it has in the past (Blizzard's official announcements suggest they're growing at a rate of approximately 160,000 new active subscribers a month compared to approximately 330,000 new active subscribers a month mid-2006), it's still a huge financial success that shows no signs of fading any time soon.

Vivendi is certainly raking in the cash from its subsidiary Blizzard -- the company has recorded a 12.1% boost in profit for Q2 2006, and attributes much of it to WoW's phenomenal success. This isn't exactly news -- Vivendi has been reporting continual increases on last year as WoW has grown -- but it's something to think about as a player.

I frequently see comments on forums and in general channels along the lines of "Blizzard are making loads of money, why don't they fix our servers/add new content/pay attention to me?". It's certainly true that Blizzard and Vivendi are profiting from WoW, but how many corners are being cut in order to announce new profit highs?

Even if Blizzard are doing all they can with the vast sums of money available, having players who think they are doing nothing with it is bad communication. These days, when Blizzard say they are aware of a problem and working to fix it, few of us believe it.

According to Next Generation, World of Warcraft is a nice little cash cow for publisher Vivendi. With first-quarter earnings of $30m this year, an increase of 109% from the same period last year, Vivendi's financials have beaten analyst expectations.

A report from Vivendi says that "this dramatic improvement was driven by a growth in revenues, with an increased proportion relating to the higher margin of World of Warcraft business". While increased development costs are also cited, it seems clear that a fair amount of the money pouring into Vivendi's pockets is staying there.

While players suffer from server and infrastructure problems, is this entirely fair? Well, publishers don't get into the MMO business to make losses. Without seeing a complete breakdown of where our subscription money is going, we're not placed to judge.

As Reuters reports today, Vivendi Universal, the big, scary parent behind Blizzard, has reported a 5.7% rise in 1st-quarter sales this year, spurred on mainly by the enormous cash cow that is WoW & it's six million subscribers, and from recording artists such as...Prince?

Ok, I grew up with Prince, and I'm a fan, but I have to admit, I had no idea he had made a single note of music in years; last thing I heard, some basketball player was suing him for renting his house to Prince, only to return & find it painted purple inside & out. At least I can just type his name & not have to find a character for that stupid symbol...