Blizzard entertainment and Activision to merge


Recommended Posts

SANTA MONICA, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Vivendi (Euronext Paris: VIV) today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business -- which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s? World of Warcraft?, the world’s #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise -- with Activision, creating the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

Activision, one of the world’s leading independent publishers of interactive entertainment, is best known for its top-selling franchises, including Guitar Hero?, Call of Duty? and the Tony Hawk series, as well as Spider-Man™, X-Men™, Shrek?, James Bond™ and TRANSFORMERS™. Blizzard Entertainment, a division of Vivendi Games, has projected calendar 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion, operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit. Blizzard owns the #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise, World of Warcraft, which currently has over 9.3 million subscribers worldwide. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Warcraft?, StarCraft? and Diablo? games account for four of the top-five best-selling PC game titles of all time. Vivendi Games also owns popular franchises, including Crash Bandicoot™ and Spyro™. Pro forma for calendar 2007, Activision Blizzard expects to generate approximately 70% of its revenues from owned franchises. As a result of the business combination, Activision Blizzard expects to have the most diversified and broadest portfolio of interactive entertainment assets in its industry, positioning the combined company to capitalize on the continued worldwide growth in interactive entertainment.

Source: Businesswire

Well, this can't be good.

The companies behind Call of Duty and World of Warcraft are merging in a deal which could shake up the global video games industry. Activision and Blizzard have said they will form "the world's most profitable games business" in a deal worth $18.8bn (?9.15bn).

US-based Activision also makes hit console games such as the Tony Hawk series and Guitar Hero.

Nine million people pay a monthly subscription to play World of Warcraft.

I dunno why you'd think that. Activision puts out some pretty great games. I'm actually less a fan of Blizzard than Activision, but only because I'm just not really interested in the games they create, not because I think they aren't a great quality developer.

-Spenser

I don't like this one bit. It's just one more step towards giant conglomerate companies monopolizing the gaming market. Too many smaller companies and games are going under because they don't have the money and resources to compete with companies like this. In the long run it only stifles competition and innovation.

I don't like this one bit. It's just one more step towards giant conglomerate companies monopolizing the gaming market. Too many smaller companies and games are going under because they don't have the money and resources to compete with companies like this. In the long run it only stifles competition and innovation.

I agree, it's getting tougher and tougher for companies to compete. It doesn't just take a good game anymore, but a massive marketing engine backing it, for example.

After reading that FAQ all I get out of it is, "Everything will stay the same".

What's the point?

What WILL it change?

Money.. Just means the money will go to 1 central pot. And activision can put their name on the game. Also Activision is HUGE as far as Publishing goes. Just means they can now Publish Blizzards' games.

lol World of Call of Duty anyone?

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • This and Crazy Taxi are the two games that interested me the most from this showcase.
    • Good, because the nonstop chattering from the voices in her head made me quit the second game.
    • This new cabinet design lets you run AMD, Intel, and Nvidia PCs inside one case by Sayan Sen At Computex 2026 earlier this month, AMD announced a couple of new X3D processors for both sockets AM4 and AM5 as it confirmed the support extension of the latter till 2029. And although Intel didn't unveil any new desktop chips, the company's Core Ultra 200S Plus series is relatively new too. Let's say though that you want the best of both worlds simultaneously, and instead of running two different systems, you can have both running together side-by-side, or rather on top of one another. That's exactly what Thermaltake's CAPO X dual system is made for doing. While it's not exactly mandatory to run AMD with Intel, or vice versa, you get the idea. As you can see in the render above, it is essentially like a double-decker PC case that is capable of holding two microATX (mATX) motherboards. Even running just one discrete graphics card in a PC can get toasty, so you may be wondering how well the cooling is designed on the CAPO X, Thermaltake has confirmed, as is evident from the marketing promo image above, that the case supports up to two 360 mm AIO liquid coolers. 420mm is not supported. In total there is room for 13 120mm case fans. In terms of I/O (input/output) options for the two systems, there are naturally two places for those ports, one at the top and one at the very bottom of the chassis in the front panel. In terms of use cases, there are many possibilities. Thermaltake itself, for example, highlights how one system can be your main PC while the other could be the AI agent PC. Another example given is how it can be used to stream and game simultaneously with dedicated systems instead of hogging one with the entire load. Nothing regarding pricing or availability was said. Source: Thermaltake (YouTube, X)
    • There might be some passive design improvements (cooling, etc), but I doubt they'd change the core performance spec of the hardware mid-generation when they've already got a new console in development.
    • State of Decay 3 is out in 2027, reveals Plague Nests with new co-op gameplay trailer by Pulasthi Ariyasinghe A few months ago, Undead Labs broke its silence about the third entry in the State of Decay series since its announcement in 2020. Today, the studio had a brand-new trailer to reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase, finally giving players a look at the Unreal Engine 5-powered title. A broad 2027 release window is now attached to State of Decay 3 too. The studio confirmed that every scene seen in the gameplay trailer (except for the studio logo) released today is from the game with no cinematic footage. "The quality bar of the moment-to-moment experience is higher than anything we’ve achieved in Undead Labs’ history," says the studio. "State of Decay 3 is being built in Unreal Engine 5, and we’re creating better quality versions of what makes our game the survival sandbox it is, and the combat experience is really, really important to us, and I think you can see it coming through in this trailer." One new aspect of this upcoming entry is the Plague Nests. These are supposed to be dynamic, dungeon‑like enemy hubs with varied “personas” that change tactics each time one appears on a map. These areas will have the best loot in the game for players brave enough to tackle them. The combat system is being overhauled too, letting players do quick and power attacks depending on the situation. This isn't just on the player's side though, as zombies themselves now have multiple new types of behaviors depending on how fresh or decayed they are. "All of these play very differently, especially as you start getting outnumbered or when you’re making noise and running around and trying to save your rear end or the rear end of your friend next to you," adds the developer. Of course, settlement building and community management are massive parts of this third entry too. These are being further expanded with the cooperative focus, giving players much more freedom for playing together than in State of Decay 2. Players will even be able to split up and build settlements in different areas of the same map with different goals. Undead Labs confirmed that playtests are already ongoing for the title, and interested players can sign up to participate by heading over here once more slots open up ahead of the full release. State of Decay 3 is coming out on PC, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Game Pass sometime in 2027.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Dedicated
      Mark Spruce earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Collaborator
      conkir earned a badge
      Collaborator
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      492
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      247
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      68
    5. 5
      ATLien_0
      67
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!