Activision and Blizzard Merge to Create Activision Blizzard!
A big shake up in the world of the video game Publishers has occoured this afternoon. Activision famous for its Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk and Call of Duty franchises and Blizzard Entertainment known for its 9+ million subscriber MMORPG World of Warcraft have announced that they will merge to create Activision Blizzard the “world’s largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher“. Move aside Electronic Arts. 
UK corporation the BBC were the first to reveal the news ealier today. As a result of the merger, Activision and Blizzard will henceforth be called Activision Blizzard, a deal which is worth $18.8 billion.
The deal will work by Blizzard investing $2 billion into Activision Blizzard and Activision will invest a lowly $1 billion. The CEO of the new company will be the current CEo of Avtivision, Bobby Kotick. However French mega company Vivendi Universal the owner of Blizzard wil remain the biggest shareholder in the company, retaining 52% of all the shares. 
Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi, said, “This alliance is a major strategic step for Vivendi and is another illustration of our drive to extend our presence in the entertainment sector. By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry.”
Mike Morhaime, CEO and president of Blizzard, said, “From our interactions with the Activision team, it is clear we have much in common in terms of our approaches to game development and publishing. Above all, we are looking forward to continue creating great games for Blizzard gamers around the world, and we believe this new partnership will help us to do that even better than before.”
Both Activision and Blizzard have issued press releases filled with jargon and technical stuff confirming the merger but at least we know its for real. I dont know if i like this or not but either way a new super power in the video game industry has been born. I guess time will tell if this is a good thing or bad thing… Let war commence.
Comments(82)
FIRST!
And DAAMN. The New Alliancw :/
wow… this is gunna be pretty tite
actizzard?
blizzivision??
What a mistake, blizzard has lost its identity with this.
First…and WoW sucks
DAMN. The New Alliance :/
I wonder if we should be excited or very worried…
WOW, that’s a lot of money.
Didn’t see this one coming.
can I get it from Moviex?
LOL @4. You got owned by 3 places.
The beginning of the end
the next step is that Activision Blizzard an EA merge to creat EA Activision Blizzard.
EA wont need to merge…even when Activision and blizzard merge, they wont be better than EA
I actually believe this can be good.
next step is valve buying ea activision blizzard ubisoft…
i hope this just makes WOW that much better. To the dude that said it sucks…your names c-money..go play some Grand Theft Auto then..now that crap is what sucks..how many times can u go through a town and rob people, steal THE SAME OLD CARS and do stupid missions lmao. WOW takes time, the right gear & skill. just b/c u cant play it or afford the monthly payments doesnt mean u gotta cry lil guy.
Blizzard is stupid. Activision will ruin Blizzard…
thats good
Holy Christ. You must swear with this one.
hmmz bad days are coming
One less awesome cult company to worship..
But they had already lost the cult status when WoW became too successfull.
Old awesome Blizzard is now officially gone forever
“world’s largest, most profitable pure-play video game publisher“
and square-enix is? are they different from what square-enix is? (since they are publishers)… this is a real question
Hmm, actually, from what I’ve read, it’s not really Blizzard and Activision that will merge, but Vivendi Games and Activision.
Blizzard Entertainment Inc will still remain, and as stated in some wow-board FAQ, Blizzard won’t/shouldn’t be affected in any way really.
@9 Vivendi Universal all ready own valve
since when is $1 billion lowly ?
linky http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=3168513659&sid=1
I am used to great Activision games like River Raid, Grand Prix, and Barnstorming. And of course the most famous of all. Pitfall. Now I fear, due to the merger with Blizzard, that the quality of the games will suffer.
oh great, create another bigger corporate bureaucracy. not good for competition, less creativity.
Woohoo can’t wait for their next game: Call of Duty 5: Welcome to Hell, merging both Diablo and CoD universes.
World of Call of Duty?
awesome!
ppl that defend WOW go to watch south park – make lovo not warcraft and get a real life .
Poor days for Blizzard, if the are in need of such an alliance :/ They are going for profit even more, and that means more “soulless” games. No really enjoyable games nowadays, adventure genre is dead. It is like in the film industry. Tons of sh*t, even fever “diamonds”.
and up next week on big mistakes:
Microsoft and Sony join to form “Microsoft Sony”
Mergers of this size are bad. The more powerful a company gets, the less they like competition from smaller companies, and the more able they are to blitzkrieg them.
In the rulebook of Capitalism (like there is one) there should be a cap on the size of any one company. They say it’s all about competition, but when the world is finally made up of mega corporations, what will happen to variety and freedom of choice?
Say the long goodbye the family business corner shop game developer.
Then again, I could be wrong and this is great news for everyone concerned.
maybe they will let you play as an SAS soldier in the next WOW expansion…maybe then the game will be worth playing
@32. Are you kidding? – the name is Sony$oft. Or Microny.
everquest 1 owned all. wow is way too easy and is for young kids.
Why World of Warcraft sucks (and ruins your life – according to a blogger, and since I have never played / never will play it, I agree):
World of Warcraft is the most played MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role playing game). It’s also knows as WoW (capitalized letters matter). There are some things you should know about it:
15. The real game starts at lvl 60. You can get to lvl 60 in about 3-4 months: $ 49.99 (box) + $ 41.97 (3 months fee) = $ 91.96. Isn’t it too much to start playing?
14. You can never say: I’ve won. WoW never stops, it’s a fact that there’s not an ending.
13. The best things in the game happen by chance. It is irritating.
12. Digital characters cannot make virtual sex
11. Servers are full of lamers.
10. Linux is not a supported platform.
9. It is not intended for short-time fun: WoW needs you play for at least 1 hour without interruptions everytime you log in.
8. WoW not only steals your money, it steals your time. Want to be a good and respected player on your server? Prepare not to sleep for months and months.
7. Unless you play at the beach, you can’t get tanned while playing WoW, and no one likes “death-white” faces.
6. The more you play, the less you can practice sport, the less you can practice sport, the fatter you get (probably).
5. Yes, that’s a hidden undead rogue! And yes, your eyesight has diminished after intensive playing: you need glasses.
4. After enjoying your perfect control (with a mouse) of your character, ask yourself what carpal tunnel syndrome is.
3. You just can’t stop playing WoW: it can be is addictive.
2. Killing that last monster could lead you to be late at your night date. Monster owned, (wo)man of your life gone.
1. It’s not about your free time, it’s about your life: the more you play WoW the less you can live your life.
Ten more reasons why WoW sucks (maybe duplications):
1. Levelling is tedious – once you hit about level 35, it’s simply taking way too long to advance. I am a normal person with a full time job and I really can’t be bothered to do a repetitive task for hours at a time. It’s like having a second job I don’t get paid for.
2. Badly designed world – Weather was only introduced recently and it only occurs in some areas. Areas of wildly varying level requirements, and very different climate, are located right next to each other at random.
3. Repetitive monsters and quests – Every few levels you get to collect Murloc eyes or scales or fins. Or spider parts. Or bits of wolves. I realize that populating an entire world is difficult, but it feels like you run across the same 10 types of monsters all the time – just scaled up to show that “these guys are tougher!”
4. Comic book feel – The graphics of World of Warcraft are, for the most part, pretty horrible. I never liked the comic book style of Warcraft. WoW is simply not pleasant to look at; the absolute antithesis of Guild Wars
5. Blizzard is soft-hearted – Once reported players for talking about having sex as kids (”I started when I was 10 year old”) in Goldshire (Beginner area). They never were banned, as far as I can tell. The same problem applies to people with idiotic names and others who violate the rules; Blizzard seems to be relatively lenient on even clear transgressions.
6. WoW players can’t get laid – Or how else should I interpret the fact that I can get 3 whispered pickup lines simply by logging in and going to Goldshire with my female priest? Nevermind that they will insult you for “bad roleplaying” when you tell them off. The nerve!
7. Ignore list is limited – and there’s a nearly unlimited number of annoying people playing World of Warcraft.
8. Horde sucks – One of the two factions, The Horde, contains only absolutely horrible races, who, on top of being horribly ugly, get stereotyped into being evil. Maybe that’s hot in Asia (or so I have heard) or with the little gothlings who also used be proud Vampire:The Masquerade players, but I simply can’t stand to play them. The Blood Elves of the expansion ought to fix this problem, but it just means that suddenly everybody will be playing a Blood Elf.
9. Infrastructure is horrible – I’m not even talking about the queues that happen on full servers; but it seems that every few weeks the master authentification server is down. Lag is a daily occurance, especially when I start new auctions. The software that powers their discussion forums is horrible, and suffers from hellishly slow logins as well. Maybe I am just spoiled by the great Bioware forums.
10. No character development – All characters that have a given race-class combination are exactly the same. Exceptions: Talents (skills) and equipment. You can’t combine classes, and you really don’t have much choice with the talens either. I greatly preferred the Dungeons & Dragons system of Neverwinter Nights, where players could build pretty unique characters. World of Warcraft is probably much better balanced than D&D, but couldn’t they have built a system that contained the best of both worlds? It was probably deemed too complicated for the players of insufficient intelligence who flock to the game.
ROFL, it sucks!
Mergers are never a good thing for customers.
Look at the communications industry in America who were legislated to break up and now we see convergence and more monopolization.
Chrysler and Daimler Benz. What a pile of crap they have been pounding out. Every year Chrysler keeps slashing their lineup and even killed a division … Plymouth.
Audi and VW. Now we have a bunch of VW/Audi’s driving around where fat sluggish vw’s keep getting made and audi just reusing VW designs with their tech in them.
Dell and Alienware. Since when is it ok to spend $5000 on better than average gaming rig???
Microsoft and Bungie. Ugh … console only releases that take forever to reach the PC.
There is like NO reason for Activision and Blizzard to merge whatsoever unless it’s a joint operation on a single game and that is not a merger. Both these companies make a huge chunck of change and really have nothing to threaten that. Blizzard’s future is secure with WoW and those monthly cheques that roll in with nothing going out but 1’s and 0’s. They really don’t have to spend $$$ on packaging whatsoever. Their now putting TV commercials on constantly with stars in them. That’s how much money they have to waste. Activision is/was well respected because they make games that people buy which are not associated with EA long before Activision adopted the old name.
blizzard should stay blizzard. they have been pretty much independent ever since they were bought by vivendi, which may be partly due to the financial success brought to them/vivendi with wow.
as long as they keep making money with wow they will stay independent i think
StarCraft 3 (FIRST PERSON SHOOTER) coming soon
StarCraft 3 (FIRST PERSON SHOOTER) coming soon
StarCraft 3 (FIRST PERSON SHOOTER) coming soon
StarCraft 3 (FIRST PERSON SHOOTER) coming soon
StarCraft 3 (FIRST PERSON SHOOTER) coming soon
….. lol
Microny? Cool name
This will definatly…. and i underline DEFINATLY… Gonna delay Starcraft II.
At 37
this is most stupid txt i ever read,
(in the headline, you are missing an “i” in activisIon)
I hate EA, only good at releasing sucky sport games and WW2 games without any once of imagination. Let’s hope they never merge with EA.
I’m definatly buying stocks – when is the deal complete?
good maybe they can afford to make a Diablo 3 now…
WoW is fun to play. Just use a private funserver, not a Blizz server. Level 70 in 2 hours? Not a problem, and quite fun to pass a bit of time. And free.
But 2 hours later, at level 80+, you realise the game is pretty boring and repetitive – take away the difficulty and perceived “goals” and it’s just the same thing over and over again.
Yeah, find a good private server with a cool crowd and it’s much more fun than the official game. Manners are respected, people help each other, GMs are often around and lamers are kicked pretty damn fast.
Definitely did not see this coming.
I’m not sure the developers of games such as diablo, warcraft/starcraft will mix well with developers of guitar hero and tony hawk games.
Not saying i don’t like activision or blizzard, personally I’m a wow head and love games like guitar hero. I believe both of these company’s have many good traits.
I’m just more worried about both companies finding common ground when creating games in the future.
Now on the other hand if i were to see Bethesda studios and blizzard forming an alliance i would understand, because they have some common ground in the gaming world.
Same as if i were to see a company like valve (have they made any alliances I’ve heard rumors but i don’t know myself) and Activision i could possibly understand even that because they both put fun first and graphics second.
But I’m preaching to the quire here aren’t i? What’s done is done and all we can hope for now is the best.
I never played WOW but my friend is addicted and he always asks me when i’ll start playing. Anyway i don’t want to get addicted to just one game. I’m waiting for Starcraft 2. Don’t care about other games much.
AWESOME!!!! I needed more games i wanted to play but my computer cant run!!!
WoW is just an addictive MMORPG, some love it, some hate it. nuff said.
Activision have been terrible for a long time now, turning out all that Activision Value crap for one thing (generic game engines with different graphics depending on the game).
Sounds like a terrible move…
You might want to read up on it some more. Blizzard Entertainment aka producers of World of warcraft will stay in itself.
Vivendi and Activision made this merge. and they made the name Activision Blizzard instead of Vivendi Activision, or vice versa.
Before you speak read the facts.
Q: What are the details of the deal?
A: Under the terms of an agreement with Vivendi, Blizzard and the other companies that make up Vivendi Games will combine with Activision to form a new public company called Activision Blizzard. We do not anticipate any difference in Blizzard’s operations as a result of the combination. Joining forces with Activision will create a stronger and more diversified company that we anticipate will benefit and strengthen both brands.
Q: What will happen to the Blizzard brand name?
A: The Blizzard brand name will stay the same as it’s always been: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.
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. All of the people, processes, and philosophies that have made Blizzard so successful will be preserved. Blizzard will benefit from all-star sales and distribution teams to service our products. In addition, the combined company will be stronger financially, managerially, and operationally.
Q: How will this impact Blizzard’s games?
A: This will not impact Blizzard’s games. We remain committed to providing the same high-quality game content and support that we always have. Development on Wrath of the Lich King and StarCraft II, as well as on our unannounced games, is continuing as normal.
Q: Will there be any visible differences in Blizzard’s logo or packaging/marketing materials as a result of this deal?
A: No, there won’t be any changes to our company name, logo, packaging/marketing materials, or anything else along those lines.
Q: Will there be any management changes at Blizzard as a result of this deal?
A: No, there won’t be any management changes at Blizzard as a result of the combination.
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.
Q: Will the release schedules for any Blizzard games be impacted?
A: No, the transaction will not have any impact on our games, our day-to-day operations, or our release timelines.
Q: Will any of Blizzard’s offices close as a result of the deal? Or, will any new offices open?
A: No, all of our offices will continue to function as they have, and we don’t foresee the need to open any new offices for the time being.
Q: Will any employees move to different offices as a result of the deal?
A: We don’t anticipate making any such moves as a result of the deal.
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.
Q: If Activision Blizzard is a public company, does that mean I’ll now be able to buy stock in Blizzard?
A: Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard, Inc and will continue to be a publicly listed company traded on NASDAQ. You will be able to buy stock in the combined company.
Q: When will the transaction be complete?
A: The transaction is subject to approval of Activision shareholders, customary closing conditions, and regulatory approvals. Pending approval, the companies expect the transaction to be completed by mid 2008.
I have to agree with what some people have said…Activision hasn’t been churning out the best titles and I don’t know if this was such a good move. Only time will tell.
if there going to be Diablo 3,i have a bad
feeling they going to fu@k it up:( now!!
why?? they merge?
Why the bad critics? Activision has done some awsome games, so has blizzard? and to merge gets me excited
Yeah activisions best title would have to be COD4. The rest are junk really. Some gooduns, but just the call of duty series a few others.
They just screw things up by making alot of differently budged games.
This should be good though… I guess.
@ 42:
It is not my writing, it was a simple case of copying and pasting, without consent.
I still agree with it, regardless.
@36
UO owned Everquest and everything else. Until they had to go ruin it so the mentally challenged people could play it. (kind of like wow)
nite
I dont care if they merge, as long as they create games for some of us to enjoy…and rlslog will also post their links to the torrents and cracks of their games that these companes will create
Hopefully this will mean that EA finally has some good competition and force EA to start producing some reasonably good games.
Sixtythree!!!
LOL
Well at least they didnt sell out to EA yet.. Hopefully they can just keep the companies together and make money enough to work together and release great more games. I just hope they dont become a new microsoft game like company where they swallow up game compnaies and then close them down cause of the competition. Yes world of warcraft series is horrible. I dont understand the big deal with the wow3 or the online game. The graphics are lame and paying for a bad game ;(.
Hopefully this all goes well, cause they are both good companies nontheless.
Wow, I just bought Take 2 stock right before the close on Friday, it’s been trading low, hopefully this deal will let the street know how much it’s really worth , that and the new GTA due out, I’m buying more, I’m rich biatch.
R.I.P. Blizzard
;_;
@37 lol thats funny, if u didnt read who ever wrote that you would know he started playing when he was 10 lol… and now he has a job so im guessing he played for a long time. And guessing by his epiphany that he had about WoW being a %#$*y game. Well he is a stupid for saying that cuz he himself is a victim to it, therefore he has no right in saying it is bad cuz he himself loved the game once and probably is still playing it right now. So dont even speak RoFlCaKes, i already know who u are…a follower. One reason u copy and pasted that post rather then using ur own brain.
FYI– i dont play the game and its not because of those reasons its because we all are free to do wat ever we want.
What most people failed to realize is that in the last few years Blizzard has failed to enter the console market – Their PC games are AMAZING – However, they could never break into Consoles (think about the miserable failure of Starcraft:Ghost) no matter how hard they try – With Starcraft Ghost I think they went through 3 different studio’s that they hoped would get their Starcraft: Ghost into the console market – But those studios could never meet up to Blizzard’s standards…
I think this merger with Activision is just another attempt to enter the console market… Not with Starcraft:Ghost… But with WoW, which has always been their goal. Activision is going to help create the first console version of WoW – Most likely with the release of Wrath of the Lich King you will see a console version available…. With servers set up exclusively for console players.
Might sound a little far off to you right now. But I used to work for Blizzard and was one of the first Game Master’s to serve many of you – And I know that was their ultimate goal then… And my friends that are still there tell me that this is what the merger is all about. Bringing WoW to console.
@68.
If that is what all this is about, I’m fie with it. A good company being bought/funded by a rich company never hurt anyone. A good company being bought outright by a rich company, that is what F_<ks developers over big time.
I think this will only allow Blizzard more freedom of cashflow and may actually help them in some ways. Hopefully they will get back to their Diablo roots soon though, I’m tired of hearing about WoW and all the spin-offs that’l be coming about in the next few years.
@68.
If that is what all this is about, I’m fine with it. A good company being bought/funded by a rich company never hurt anyone. A good company being bought outright by a rich company, that is what F_<ks developers over big time.
I think this will only allow Blizzard more freedom of cashflow and may actually help them in some ways. Hopefully they will get back to their Diablo roots soon though, I’m tired of hearing about WoW and all the spin-offs that’l be coming about in the next few years.
Crap… Can I get a deletion, please? Thanks.
If you google my name you will see I was the first person to break the news about Diable 3 about 2 years ago. I used to work for Blizzard you will be able to tell just from my google results… I worked for the company for a few years – I know they are the most anti-company against “selling out for money”
I really think that this is just a move to push themselves into the console market… With WoW, and hopefully in early 2009 when they announce D3. Maybe this is a push move to help them get StarCraft 2 up to speed for console (since it would sell millions upon millions of copies in Korea and China alone if it was available on console)
Like I said Blizzard wants to be able to reach everyone… Especially those people who can afford a good console machine to run their games but can’t afford a 1500 dollar computer to play them…
I hope more people read what I have just type the last couple posts and take to heart what I have said – Blizzard didn’t sell out for the money, they are just trying to reach the console market.
Blablabla, like Blizzard gives a f… about the people who have a nostalgic feeling about warcraft and all their other games. They are still going to produce high quality products that are going to sell just as well es their past games, and I f…ing hate world of warcraft.
Just read that dudes post above, Blizzard is smart and knows how business works, deals like this just mean a whole lot of money and prestige for a couple of people, probably the ones at Vivendi.
It’s simple when you can’t beat someone buy it, that’s why EA CAN buy for example Ubisoft and so on. This is just a bussines
the end is nigh!
This is horrible. Activision was the very first third-party game company, and now, they no longer exist in their original form.
I hate this.
i honestly do not support this bizzard+activision merge. i was quite impressed when activision released call of duty 4. but when vivendi decided to merge the two companies, i was so disgusted that greedy corrupted blizzard is going to profit off of activision. it’s probably because they want to make money off of cod4 and guitar hero,since they’re losing wow subscribers daily.
Fine, now can we get Diablo 3 thats not a MMORPG or some stupid 3d game.?
Take-Two CEO: Video game consolidation “inevitable”
NEW YORK, Dec 3 – Take-Two Interactive Software Chief Executive Ben Feder said on Monday consolidation in the $40 billion video-game industry “ultimately is inevitable,” as growth continues.
Feder, whose comment came one day after Vivendi said it would take control of Activision Inc. in a deal valued at around $9.9 billion, noted that the cost to develop a video game is very close to the outlay for production and marketing of a Hollywood film.
“I do believe that consolidation ultimately is inevitable,” he said at a UBS investment conference. “Video-game development is not getting any cheaper. Its a capital-intensive business, and I don’t see that going away. That will drive some of the smaller competitors out.”
So even less innovation than currently exists. Hell, the graphics get fancier, games routinely take up 10 gigs or more, yet actual game time can be measured in 4 or 5 hrs!And just last year there were reviewers whining that Call of Juared took ‘only’ 8 hrs to finish when Call of Duty 4 takes barely 4 or 5 and Blacksite Area51 barely 4 hrs despite taking up 11 gigs! Even RTS type games now take up gargantuan amounts of space for just a handful of missions, only modern exception is C & C Tiberium Wars, which has a lengthy campaign.
Seems that the future is just going to be made of ’safe’ releases: Never ending RTS and FPS based on established franchises, each with less gameplay than the last and the typical open ending that always leaves room for another short sequel. Flight Sims, military sims, adventures, even single player RPG’s will all disappear, the FPS and RTS will lose their single player modes as it’s a time consuming thing.
The only hope I have is that the success of COD 4 is in large part to its short, but very well put together single player, and maybe such games continue to be produced.
Great , blizzard is doomed … haha real men play Lineage 2 wow blows … and alliance are sexually perverted…
does this mean they will make starcraft 2?