Blizzard Almost Single-Handedly Keeping Activision Alive

[Warlock]

http://kotaku.com/5483798/guess-which-three-games-help-keep-activision-afloat

This is an amusing story. Basically the only really profitable franchises for Activision right now are Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and WoW. And I think everyone knows Guitar Hero is heading into the crapper very soon. Add all the craziness starting to happen with Infinity Ward, and things get interesting.

The funniest thing to come out of this article is that WoW apparently accounts for 98% of Blizzard's revenue. The 98% isn't the surprising part, it's the fact that the 2% represents games that are like 8 years old at this point! (and keep in mind, this is 2% of billions and billions). People are still buying the Battle Chests, which is crazy.

Another interesting bit I noticed in the comments section there, apparently Vivendi owns a majority share of their little conglomerate (I looked it up, they own 52%). I wonder if this means if the Activision side dies, Blizzard can scoop them up for total ownership. :D Ah it's fun to think about.

[Exxile87]

http://kotaku.com/5483798/guess-which-three-games-help-keep-activision-afloat

This is an amusing story. Basically the only really profitable franchises for Activision right now are Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, and WoW. And I think everyone knows Guitar Hero is heading into the crapper very soon. Add all the craziness starting to happen with Infinity Ward, and things get interesting.

The funniest thing to come out of this article is that WoW apparently accounts for 98% of Blizzard's revenue. The 98% isn't the surprising part, it's the fact that the 2% represents games that are like 8 years old at this point! (and keep in mind, this is 2% of billions and billions). People are still buying the Battle Chests, which is crazy.

Another interesting bit I noticed in the comments section there, apparently Vivendi owns a majority share of their little conglomerate (I looked it up, they own 52%). I wonder if this means if the Activision side dies, Blizzard can scoop them up for total ownership. :D Ah it's fun to think about.

That's...fucking awesome. Also, since Activison holds the license for all DBZ games here in the States, do you think that means they'll get blizzard invovled when it comes time to adapt the DBZ MMO to an english/American title?

[Warlock]

Blizzard won't get involved in Activision stuff. Really right now, the only thing the two companies share is a stock. They both basically own each other, but they do their own things.

If the Activision side dies though, I think that'd give Blizzard the opportunity to swoop in and buy them up - if they chose to anyways. It would be pretty interesting to see what would happen to Activision under competent management :)

Edit: Sadly most WoW haters don't understand the relationship and basically assume Activision owns Blizzard, thus blaming Kotick for anything they dislike (i.e. Pet Store, character transfer fees, etc). It always annoys me.

[Exxile87]

Blizzard won't get involved in Activision stuff. Really right now, the only thing the two companies share is a stock. They both basically own each other, but they do their own things.

If the Activision side dies though, I think that'd give Blizzard the opportunity to swoop in and buy them up - if they chose to anyways. It would be pretty interesting to see what would happen to Activision under competent management :)

Edit: Sadly most WoW haters don't understand the relationship and basically assume Activision owns Blizzard, thus blaming Kotick for anything they dislike (i.e. Pet Store, character transfer fees, etc). It always annoys me.

Yeah, I know that there isn't a direct ownership and it's more of a partnership and all. I don't think I want to see Activision die, but Blizz would likely handle their shit a lot better than Acti's current management does.

I'd also love to see what Blizz would do with DBZ: Online.

[Ornhelm]

Good. Activision is exactly what happens when a game studio goes corporate: you get shoddy/gimmicky games that may create profit in the short term--they eventually tank do to ongoing design flaws and lack of creativity/reinvention. Kinda what's happening with Bungie/Microsoft: Microsoft got greedy so they pushed a 20$ add-on into a full-price game. Well, it sure bit them in the ass, because nobody except Hardcore Halo fans bought that piece of garbage. Hopefully Bungie will have complete control for their Reach title, thus bringing Halo back on track so it can get a better rating than Halo 3, which I would give an 8.5.

Heh, /endrant :P

[Fordragon]

I would be very surprised if Activison folds with the strong showing their Call of Duty games have been making. They can create a de facto subscription-based game out of MW2 just by releasing a new map at set intervals and charging a few bucks for it. Sure, most of the other games they release are shovelware at best, but the CoD games have a fanbase that is crazy in to them right now.

[HalfElfDragon]

This hadly surprises me, though its good to see that WoW isn't 100% percent of their revenue

On the topic of CoD, apparently they're making an action adventure CoD game. Personally, I'd like a CoD game set in the future.

[Mark_Romaneck]

God of Modern Warfare!

[Ornhelm]

I don't like the COD franchise. They are pumping out games on a yearly basis and it is starting to show. There are very, very, few game-play changes/enhancements between their last 3 games. Stagnant game-play may be fun for the hardcore FPS fans, but for everyone else it gets real boring real quick.

[Zula]

So who wants to bet this was in Metzen plans all along going back to the days of warcraft one, where he plotted his ascedance into the future CEO of Blizzard?

[Joshmaul]

Sadly most WoW haters don't understand the relationship and basically assume Activision owns Blizzard, thus blaming Kotick for anything they dislike (i.e. Pet Store, character transfer fees, etc). It always annoys me.

I've always tried to remind those people that 1)Kotick has nothing to do with the operations of Blizzard, that's Mike Morhaime's job, 2)Kotick has a boss higher than him, the president/CEO of Vivendi SA, and 3)Kotick, through his French masters at Vivendi, knows not to fuck with Blizzard because it's the only reason he has a goddamn job. Alas, some people are difficult to convince.

[Aldrius]

Most people don't even know what Vivendi is. :P

Mostly because they don't actually seem to make video games themselves. They just own lots of companies that do.

I mean they're the ones wearing the pants in this web of gaming companies. But why would they mess with anything Blizzard does? Blizzard generates profit for them. Good businessmen aren't going to mess with something that's profitable.

[Fordragon]

I don't like the COD franchise. They are pumping out games on a yearly basis and it is starting to show. There are very, very, few game-play changes/enhancements between their last 3 games. Stagnant game-play may be fun for the hardcore FPS fans, but for everyone else it gets real boring real quick.

The MW games' addition of experience point grinding and shit was brilliant, to say the least. The dudes I worked with played that shit non-stop before and after work for six months.

[ShinMaruku]

Blizzard won't get involved in Activision stuff. Really right now, the only thing the two companies share is a stock. They both basically own each other, but they do their own things.

If the Activision side dies though, I think that'd give Blizzard the opportunity to swoop in and buy them up - if they chose to anyways. It would be pretty interesting to see what would happen to Activision under competent management :)

Edit: Sadly most WoW haters don't understand the relationship and basically assume Activision owns Blizzard, thus blaming Kotick for anything they dislike (i.e. Pet Store, character transfer fees, etc). It always annoys me.

What makes you think Activision has bad management, the management has a bad rep but it is anything but bad, it's just the system they operate under is bad, it's not bad management just detached management.

What I would like to see if Activision folds is blizzard cuts it's chains with most they are tied with.

All the bad ideas that has happened with WoW was always Blizzard's doing Kotick had no bearing.
However some of those choices should have hurt them more, the position they have can be considered dangerous. (But really their competition all seems brain dead)