Activision Blizzard -- a new era?

simply put - Vivendi is planning to acquire a controlling stake in Activision, a deal that would give birth to Activision Blizzard.

this piece of news is of coz beyond huge. Acti Blizz has the potential to best EA and become the world's largest independent game publisher. while no collaborated project or title is announced, it's safe to say that whatever move this new-born giant makes, it's gonna reshuffle the entire industry.

so, guys -- what are you expecting from Acti Blizz? let's discuss~

it seems that, domestically, the merging doesn't give way to any collaboration in terms of product development. it's more of a marketing decision aimed at getting a bigger ( in this case, the biggest ) piece of action in the market. i could be wrong tho.

As long as Blizzard has full control of their PC games, I don't really care. Just make sure that their PC games don't become Cross-Platform...(I don't mind ports, as long as the game is built centering around a PC)bigmit37

I agree my only worry is that if Blizzard gets tied up in some evil giant super company they will lose there privilege of delaying the games for years so they are perfect when they are released. I don't mind the new era so long as they don't try to fix something that's not broken and blizzards gams stay PC/Mac hybrid. I would be horrified if Actavision did what EA did to Westwoods.

WoW has been losing steam in the past 6 months. Their subscription levels have shown a dramatic drop. Once almost 7 million players worldwide, they're now seeing numbers in the 5 million range and dropping. They're hoping the new expansion will bring those numbers back, and they will for a time; but they'll drop off again after that.

My guess is that they're pushing this merger through to keep their options open; a brilliant strategy really. Their #1 game at the moment, WoW, won't last another 3 years before they start to lose profits, so they're looking ahead to the future.

The problem with a merger like this is that you're going to have 2 basic companies controlling the PC gaming realm: EA and Blizzard. IMO that severely limits the possibilities for fresh and creative new games. It'll be huge for a while yeah, but 6 years down the road, we'll be playing "World of Tony Hawk's Call of Duty" and "Half Crysis" or some crap. No thanks...

WoW has been losing steam in the past 6 months. Their subscription levels have shown a dramatic drop. Once almost 7 million players worldwide, they're now seeing numbers in the 5 million range and dropping. They're hoping the new expansion will bring those numbers back, and they will for a time; but they'll drop off again after that.

My guess is that they're pushing this merger through to keep their options open; a brilliant strategy really. Their #1 game at the moment, WoW, won't last another 3 years before they start to lose profits, so they're looking ahead to the future.

The problem with a merger like this is that you're going to have 2 basic companies controlling the PC gaming realm: EA and Blizzard. IMO that severely limits the possibilities for fresh and creative new games. It'll be huge for a while yeah, but 6 years down the road, we'll be playing "World of Tony Hawk's Call of Duty" and "Half Crysis" or some crap. No thanks...

TheCyberKnight

I dont know where you heard that....since Blizzard says the subscription levels are at an all time high of 9.3 million.

Ireally don;t know what to think about this .... 1st of alll Activision was doing great as they were ... SIERRA(vivendi) stealls franchises & make crappy sequels think about FEAR ....HOMEWOLRD + some more ... & i just have read on a GT forum that they are applying the same marketing plan like EA .... & that means bad games .... i only hope that Activions studios do a great job ...because i can't think of vivendi with a great studio ..except Blizzard maybe but evan Blizzard may still have the imagination of a good story but lost theyr touch on innovative gameplay ...STARCRAFT 2 for example , Warcraft 3 ..etc .! Not a MMO player so i didn't mentioned WoW ! Hope that UBI wont merge with EA after thisor something because were all done for ...we will se Need of Speed PERSIA or something .... or Tom Clancy's Medal of Honor !

In the end every publisher owned his right to & theyr games & grow ...making games is a privilage that in Activisions case they have worked for it & Vivendi just bought it ! :(

1st of alll Activision was doing great as they were ... SIERRA(vivendi) stealls franchises & make crappy sequels think about FEAR ....HOMEWOLRD + some more ... & i just have read on a GT forum that they are applying the same marketing plan like EA .... & that means bad games .... i only hope that Activions studios do a great job ...because i can't think of vivendi with a great studio ..except Blizzard maybe but evan Blizzard may still have the imagination of a good story but lost theyr touch on innovative gameplay ...STARCRAFT 2 for example , Warcraft 3 ..etc .!beckoflight

something that impresses me about Activision is the variety of genres they are producing, and withaverage to outstanding quality too. my hope is that Blizzard,in collaboration with Activision,will get to expand their port folio to cover more genres and titles. In fact, i have a feeling that Starcraft Ghost might resurface.

something that impresses me about Activision is the variety of genres they are producing, and withaverage to outstanding quality too. my hope is that Blizzard,in collaboration with Activision,will get to expand their port folio to cover more genres and titles. In fact, i have a feeling that Starcraft Ghost might resurface.

Jinroh_basic

Call of Warcraft FTW ??? :roll::oOkuLaris

You played a lot of hours of Crysis this week. !!!!

I strongly dislike the idea of Blizzard losing their autonomy. The fact that they were so talented and that they answered to no one was what gave them the ability to produce such near-perfect games. Hmmm... a ruling corporate overlord taking the reins of a successful studio. How many times have I heard that before? I don't even remember a lot of those studios that used to exist and a publisher just bought the devs so they could gain access to their IP. It's not as damning in Blizzard's case because generally they are just putting out sequel after sequel already. I don't think that will change much. I doubt we will see any more good IPs from Activision's Blizzard studios. We will get Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, World of Starcraft, Warcraft 4, and the like. Meanwhile, most of the really talented designers and developers will found small studios to create new IPs. If they produce a strong IP, their studio will eventually get bought by one of the conglomorates for the IP. I think that's just the way corporate physics works.Srinivassa

Your right. I hope they still have the freedom and time to be able to polish their game throughly.

I hope they don't go the console route like everyone seems to be going these days. But then again, we are getting more European developers for the PC...

Well we always have that first IP from a small studio...

I dont often favor companies merging. It will lead to non innovative games and games that are poorly made. Less creativity comes out of games when one company starts thinking for everyone else.

However, I dont think it really matters to this industry. Activision Blizzard will make a vacuum within the publishing market. Smaller companies like Southpeak or Gamecock, will move in and fill those gaps left behind from activision.

[QUOTE="Srinivassa"]I strongly dislike the idea of Blizzard losing their autonomy. The fact that they were so talented and that they answered to no one was what gave them the ability to produce such near-perfect games. Hmmm... a ruling corporate overlord taking the reins of a successful studio. How many times have I heard that before? I don't even remember a lot of those studios that used to exist and a publisher just bought the devs so they could gain access to their IP. It's not as damning in Blizzard's case because generally they are just putting out sequel after sequel already. I don't think that will change much. I doubt we will see any more good IPs from Activision's Blizzard studios. We will get Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, World of Starcraft, Warcraft 4, and the like. Meanwhile, most of the really talented designers and developers will found small studios to create new IPs. If they produce a strong IP, their studio will eventually get bought by one of the conglomorates for the IP. I think that's just the way corporate physics works.bigmit37

Your right. I hope they still have the freedom and time to be able to polish their game throughly.

I hope they don't go the console route like everyone seems to be going these days. But then again, we are getting more European developers for the PC...

Well we always have that first IP from a small studio...

[QUOTE="bigmit37"]

[QUOTE="Srinivassa"]I strongly dislike the idea of Blizzard losing their autonomy. The fact that they were so talented and that they answered to no one was what gave them the ability to produce such near-perfect games. Hmmm... a ruling corporate overlord taking the reins of a successful studio. How many times have I heard that before? I don't even remember a lot of those studios that used to exist and a publisher just bought the devs so they could gain access to their IP. It's not as damning in Blizzard's case because generally they are just putting out sequel after sequel already. I don't think that will change much. I doubt we will see any more good IPs from Activision's Blizzard studios. We will get Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, World of Starcraft, Warcraft 4, and the like. Meanwhile, most of the really talented designers and developers will found small studios to create new IPs. If they produce a strong IP, their studio will eventually get bought by one of the conglomorates for the IP. I think that's just the way corporate physics works.Makari

Your right. I hope they still have the freedom and time to be able to polish their game throughly.

I hope they don't go the console route like everyone seems to be going these days. But then again, we are getting more European developers for the PC...

Well we always have that first IP from a small studio...

As long as Blizzard has full control of their PC games, I don't really care. Just make sure that their PC games don't become Cross-Platform...(I don't mind ports, as long as the game is built centering around a PC)bigmit37

Being PC-only hasnt hurt Blizzard, hopefully they remain as loyal to us and we have been to them.

Some people are still failing to read the details of this deal. Read the WoW forums, sometimes you get Blizzard employees talking about it.-Unreal-