Video Game Merger

Blizzard Entertainment an iconic figure of great PC (personal computer) games announced today that Activision will be bought by parent company Vivendi games to form Activision Blizzard. So what does this all mean?

Well first let me provide you little background on the two companies. Blizzard is known for 4 out of the 5 all time selling PC games. They are also the creator and owner of the largest world wide subscription based MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game.) World of Warcraft supports 9.3 million subscribers currently. The have such hits has Warcraft I, II, III and Starcraft and Diablo(Blizzard Entertainment,2007. )

Activision is a console based development company. They focus on making games for systems such has XBOX, Wii and Playstation. Activision being console based will allow for less overlapping between the two companies. Activision is the creator of such hits has Call of Duty Series, Guitar Hero, and Tony Hawk (Blizzard Entertainment,2007. )

This merger will bring two power house game companies under one roof. This will provide both companies a broader finical umbrella to further continue to provide the iconic games they are known for. This could allow for the expansion of Activision brands into Asian markets something Blizzard a western company has done very successfully.

Video games are a huge part of popular culture and becoming the entertainment of choice. We used to see video game developers going to movie studios for rights to make games based off movies; today we are seeing the flip side of this. This merger will allow these two large myth weavers to provide more and better iconic games.

I’m personal excited to see how this change both companies. It seems that both companies are not going to change much. They are supposed to continue to run under their own management (Kohler, 2007.) Will this hinder their creative process? I think it will not because Blizzard has been owned by Vivendi for awhile now and the quality of games has been what we come to know and expect from Blizzard’s work. Only time will tell.

References

Blizzard Entertainment. (2007). Vivendi and Activision to create Activision Blizzard – world’s largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher. Retrieved December 3, 2007, from http://www.blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml 

Kohler, C. (2007, December 2). Merger brings Guitar Hero, Warcraft under one roof. Retrieved December 3, 2007, from http://blog.wired.com/games/2007/12/merger-brings-g.html