Blizzard fuses with Activision

[Ralle]

Blizzard has fused with Activision. Let us hope this gives us even better games in the future.
Read what they say:

[FONT=arial,helvetica]<small>December 2, 2007</small>
Blizzard to Join Forces With Activision
We're pleased to announce that along with the other companies that make up Vivendi Games, we are merging with Activision to form a new global entertainment organization called Activision Blizzard (pending shareholder and regulatory approval). Similar to our previous arrangement, Blizzard Entertainment will now operate as a division of this new organization. There will be no changes to our games, our websites, our personnel, or our day-to-day operations as a result of the deal. However, this combining of resources will benefit all of the companies involved and will further strengthen Blizzard's ability to continue delivering high-quality content for our players around the world for many years to come. To learn more about this exciting new development, please read our Activision Blizzard FAQ.
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http://blizzard.com/

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

So all in all no changes will be made.

 

[skrab]

Q: Will Activision and Blizzard now share development teams?
A: No, both of our companies will continue to operate as they have previously with regard to game development.

>.> pf...

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Only difference is that Vivendi owns another company and will force them to do what they want done. Not something to celebrate. Vivendi and EA is the source to all evil.

 

[redmarine]

I presume that they can acces each others resources.

 

[brad.dude03]

This is good, except Activision hasn't really made any good games to date...

Someone correct me here.

 

[RED BARON]

Hmmm sounds kinda interresting.. now hopefully that get some more time onhand to devolope other things then wow

Btw: An other good sideeffect: You dont have to have two folders for their games

 

[Aeroblyctos]

Blizzard fuses with Activision

Now Blizzard have more power. Which can be good or bad side, we will see.

This is good, except Activision hasn't really made any good games to date...

Guitar Hero for PS2.

 

[redmarine]

It would be quite intresting to see their next move.

 

[brad.dude03]

Guitar Hero was Activision? Huh.... And I don't see how Activision gives Blizzard more power.... Blizzard's made more money in 2007 than the entire total earnings of Activision methinks, I mean 1.5 billion dollars a year for Blizzard and what, a couple hundred million (at most) for Activision?

 

[Eleandor]

Q: What will happen to the Blizzard brand name?
A: Stays the same

Q: What will change with regard to the day-to-day operations at Blizzard?
A: There will be no changes in the way Blizzard operates.

Q: How will this impact Blizzard's games?
A: This will not impact Blizzard's games.

Q: Will there be any visible differences in Blizzard's logo or packaging/marketing materials as a result of this deal?
A: No

Q: Will there be any management changes at Blizzard as a result of this deal?
A: No

Q: Will Activision and Blizzard now share development teams?
A: No

Q: Will the release schedules for any Blizzard games be impacted?
A: No

Q: Will any of Blizzard's offices close as a result of the deal? Or, will any new offices open?
A: No

Q: Will any employees move to different offices as a result of the deal?
A: No

Q: Does this deal include Activision's and Blizzard's international offices?
A: Yes, every part of our companies in the U.S. and abroad is involved in this deal.

so...

what changed?

 

[skrab]

The combination of Activision and Vivendi Games, Activision Blizzard, will create the world's largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher with some of the most popular titles in the industry, including Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty®, Tony Hawk, World of Warcraft®, Starcraft® and Diablo®.

something is missing here

 

[Ralle]

Does this mean more games for Mac?

 

[skrab]

I hope they will make Warcraft 4 for PC

 

[Moontraveler]

I don't think WC4 is likily... (Though we can still hope.)

 

[Dr Super Good]

Vivendi does not own activision blizzard, it only owns 55% of it, which although still means it has a lot of controle, it can not totally order it about, and overall it has less controle than it did before.

 

[Cheeder]

Why is this news?

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

Vivendi does not own activision blizzard, it only owns 55% of it, which although still means it has a lot of controle, it can not totally order it about, and overall it has less controle than it did before.

Still, Vivendi having any sorts of deciding power is bad. Vivendi is as power hungry and evil as EA and don't care about the games, just money. They shit on anything community related and once a title becomes a little outdated they forget everything about it and offer no support.

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

This is good, except Activision hasn't really made any good games to date...

Someone correct me here.

CoD4 is good...

Also, when I saw this thread I thought "Oh thank god! Better graphics in Blizzard's games!" But as stated in Elenai's post no changes...

 

[Dr Super Good]

The graphics in SC2 seem pretty up to date if you ask me. They have every single modern effect in it from beams to destortion, which many games still lack.

Also them keeping the models lowish res compared to other modern games will mean that even with 100s of units on screen you will still be able to use AA at high levels so it appears better than most games.

Vivendi only owns stock, it does not own the company so only if profit over all decreases and the stock falls will they worry.

 

[Mor)L(unE]

Im sad, from 10 fusions with game companies 9 go wrong ruining the games.

I dont care if warcraft has better graphics, i love the style warcraft has, that counts more to me then fancy graphics.

It seems Vivendi is going to chase EA to the top, EA sucks so it wouldn't be a good goal. I totally agree with ragingspeedhorn and fear for warcraft 4's life.

Vivendi only owns stock, but if you read the economical news youl notice stock holders have Waaaaay much more power then only getting profit. Because when they Don't get profit or want More profit they wont hesitate to downgrade games (like star wars Galaxies for example) to attract a wider public, wich again fails 8 out of 10 times.

 

[Rui]

I'm not into the games world much anymore, but if Vivendi is as evil as EA, then this was certainly a bad mix.

 

[Jacek]

erm Vivendi is owning Blizzard for at least 2 years...

and it was Vivendi's decision that "Blizzard Entertainment from now on will be making MMO games only"

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

This probably means Blizzard will have a better access to console games, which I think is something they wanted to do with Starcraft: Ghost.

 

[Pyritie]

Never even heard of this other company.

 

[Spudnik]

Oh fuck, so it has finally happened. I mean it was bound to happen sometime, since Blizzard is top of the line. Think of games like WoW, Warcraft III, Starcraft and so on...

I am actually surprised that this has not happened earlier, Blizzard was just making too good games for it to be true...

This development may not seem as dramatic now, but wait for two or three years and Vivendi will be telling Blizzard what to and what not to do.

With 55% pf the stock, Vivendi owns Blizzard since it has more thatn 50 % of the stocks.

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Vivendi owns Blizzard since 2005... we're talking about Activision here.

 

[brad.dude03]

Yeah I don't see what the deal is... Activision is not going to have any influence on Blizzard at all, and for everyone who's afraid of Vivendi... well, Blizzard, even being owned by Vivendi, is still making RTS games, and not just WoW Expansions, so I don't really care.

 

[Xarwin]

So let's be curious.

Blizzard was already good without Activision, so lets see if this increases their limit..

 

[cortezz]

Well there goes good blizzard games. There be more downhill from now and being more cheap for profit games.

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

All the games won't change, Activision is doing this for profits.

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I seriously think they need Activision so they can better access the console market... I don't see any other reason. Blizzard wasn't obligated to merge with Activision, so they obviously did it for a good reason.

 

[Elenai]

]But as stated in Elenai's post no changes...

Who summoned me?

Anyways...I fear for Blizzards quality....GASP!!! THE LIGHT FILLS ME WITH HOLY INSPIRATION! Off I go!

 

[Kaitech[SanD]]

Who summoned me?

Whoops, meant Eleandor.

 

[Amish_KOTP]

Uhhh Ok, I'm sorry but how many games has activision actually MADE...I mean Guitar Hero was bought out, it wasn't made by Activision...as well as tony hawk...and now apparently blizzard... Does activision do anything for themselves or is it just me?

I think this might be the end of blizzard personally...

 

[DwarfZealot]

activision made gh 1, 2, and 3 it is a GREAT company. If blizzard wants to join them... all power to them

 

[ragingspeedhorn]

erm Vivendi is owning Blizzard for at least 2 years...

and it was Vivendi's decision that "Blizzard Entertainment from now on will be making MMO games only"

Exactly what I meant, Vivendi is an evil company, has ruined many good franchises over the years such as Leasure Suit Larry.

Uhhh Ok, I'm sorry but how many games has activision actually MADE...I mean Guitar Hero was bought out, it wasn't made by Activision...as well as tony hawk...and now apparently blizzard... Does activision do anything for themselves or is it just me?

I think this might be the end of blizzard personally...

What drugs are you on? Activision is a great company, the first to start independently releasing console games, ever, they have been making and publishing games since 1979.

 

[brad.dude03]

So let's be curious.

Blizzard was already good without Activision, so lets see if this increases their limit..

I highly doubt it, as it was specifically stated that it wouldn have no impact whatsoever on Blizzard. Basically, all this means is that Vivendi bought another company, and after Cod4, who can blame them? Too bad Valve still > all.

 

[Amish_KOTP]

activision made gh 1, 2, and 3 it is a GREAT company. If blizzard wants to join them... all power to them

"Also in 2006, Activision acquired publisher RedOctane, Inc. (the publisher of the Guitar Hero franchise)."

Quoted from Wikipedia.org...notice they didnt buy redoctane until 2006

 

[Mor)L(unE]

Anyone who played Star Wars Galaxies Pre-Cu fears for the Blizzard Epicness. It will most likely turns out to go like this.

First Months: Almost everything goes like it was before.
After that: support and updates will drop for games like Warcraft 3 ad starcraft.
After that: community will fail, commercialising of popular games like WoW
After that: Bringing up new 100 in a dozen, bad balanced, imba, bad strategy or MMO games.
After that: Blizzard/activision will be abandoned by the most of the public.
Probably after that: Blizzard may be disbanded dissapearing from the market.

I dont want them to have console acces, i want them to make more computer games like the phenomenon Warcraft 4 and starcraft 2 not crappy console shooters

 

[Elenai]

Indeed well said Morlune. HEAR HEAR!!!

 

[brad.dude03]

Anyone who played Star Wars Galaxies Pre-Cu fears for the Blizzard Epicness. It will most likely turns out to go like this.

First Months: Almost everything goes like it was before.
After that: support and updates will drop for games like Warcraft 3 ad starcraft.
After that: community will fail, commercialising of popular games like WoW
After that: Bringing up new 100 in a dozen, bad balanced, imba, bad strategy or MMO games.
After that: Blizzard/activision will be abandoned by the most of the public.
Probably after that: Blizzard may be disbanded dissapearing from the market.

I dont want them to have console acces, i want them to make more computer games like the phenomenon Warcraft 4 and starcraft 2 not crappy console shooters

Alas, Pre-CU SWg was the best MMO I ever played. Thankfully I got 2 years in before they ruined it

 

[Da)sniper]

AWW YEAAHHHH!! Activision OWNS! Besides this can only benifit us gamers with better games!!!!!!!

Uhhh Ok, I'm sorry but how many games has activision actually MADE...

Mainly sports games.. GH 1 , 2 as mentioned above.

 

[Eleandor]

Nothing's going to happen...

 

[brad.dude03]

Activision made Call of Duty, so since it's like 4 billion times more popular (and better) than Crysis, it's basically the biggest shooter of the fall season (Unreal is better and Orange Box is funner, but Cod is the biggest). Along with Guitar Hero, that basically puts them on the map as one of the biggest developers on the planet.

 

[Amish_KOTP]

I personally see them more as brokers than game developers

 

[Serbianbeast]

booo! why would such a perfect company merge with any1?

 

[Just_Spectating]

Activision and Blizzard are the 2 most famous companies anyway. anyone know another one for games?

 

[brad.dude03]

VALVE. VALVE. VALVE. VALVE.

HELLO?!?!?!

Are we forgetting the existance of the greatest game company of all time here?

 

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

All the idiotic pessimists who are speaking about Blizzard's death because it decided to merge with Activision are absolute morons.

Activision is nothing bad. Even Vivendi isn't all that terrible. Besides, it doesn't have any impact whatsoever on their games... nothing is going to happen, you douchebags.

EDIT: Yes, Valve is great. You might also want to include Bungie, since I'm pretty sure the Halo fanbase alone makes them ridiculously popular... or at least known.