Blizzard and Activision Announce $18.8bn Merger

[Grav]

With respects to /.

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).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7123582.stm

[!King_Amazon!]

Saying they will for the "world's most profitable" business makes me think they don't give a shit whether or not their games are good, just that they make money. Fuck Blizzard.

[Lenny]

Less of Blizzard and Activision announcing the merger, more of Blizzard's owning company, Vivendi, buying a controlling stake in Activision, and then merging the two.

Should be interesting - Blizzard are primarily PC, Activision are primarily consoles. Go figure?

Oh, and they're now the biggest third party publisher - EA *spit* are second.

[!King_Amazon!]

Holy fuck guys, this is in the News and Events forum! Keep your spam out of here.

[kaos]

So we might end up with an FPS starcraft and first-person Diablo @_@?

[Sum Yung Guy]

So why do I get my post removed and slaynish doesnt? Thats just racism.

[D3V]

Vivendi is an oddly particular company, I'd say it's safe to assume that some sort of new gaming will come from this, they probably bought stock in them to get some new employees..

Here's a weird-though, Starcraft 2 on Steam? I mean they're all through Vivendi, and I would assume that they could implement a new system and totally get rid of Battle.net, or maybe just incorporate that into it.. the possibilities are Endless....

[Willkillforfood]

Maybe a WW2 game where you shoot zerg and horde?

[D3V]

I'd be down with that.

[D3V]

What's odd. Now, I was on steam yesterday and bought CS (source) Finally, and seen a SHIT LOAD of games on there, because now that Activision and Bilzzard we're partners, and Steam is thrown into the mix, it's just one huge gaming monopoly.

I would imagine them using the steam platform for future games such as SC2 possibly, maybe integrate Battle.net into this somehow?...

[Asamin]

Blizzard is already rich enough! They are getting $15 a month from over 7 million people! That is more than $105 mill a month! There is no way that WOW costs that much to run. Or even close to it. Why do they now feel that they need more money?

[Kaneda]

Maybe a WW2 game where you shoot zerg and horde?
LMAO. falaffal

[Willkillforfood]

Blizzard is already rich enough! They are getting $15 a month from over 7 million people! That is more than $105 mill a month! There is no way that WOW costs that much to run. Or even close to it. Why do they now feel that they need more money?

I guess you don't understand the market economy do you?

[Asamin]

Most likely not. But still. 105 Mill a month! You do think that is a bit much don't you?

[D3V]

9 million now, actually. And when they release Return of the Lich King i'm sure they'll get atleast another 2-3 million within the first month of releasing it as new customers, and probably a good 80% of regular WoW members signing on. And don't forget SC:2, there's still tons of hype for that and i'm part of the bandwagon that will be hopping on once it's released, and it will too, probably cost money to play online.

And just imagine if Diablo 3 came out as a MMO, and charged to play online. Blizzard's earnings would be unimaginable.

[Asamin]

That could end in being around 500 mill. That can't be argued as not to much.

[D3V]

They're going to be making more than Microsoft in no time. Yikes!