Massively

Vivendi still trying to sell Activision-Blizzard

Jef Reahard — Wed, 15 May 2013 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: Economy, MMO Industry, News Items

French telecom company Vivendi is still looking to sell off gaming giant Activision-Blizzard, according to the Wall Street Journal. Vivendi announced its quarterly results yesterday and also said that Acti-Blizz's board of directors is still weighing multiple sale options for a company that's been up for grabs since the summer of 2012.

GamesIndustry.biz reports that Activision-Blizzard was worth more than $8 billion when it was put on the open market.

Vivendi still trying to sell Activision-Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 15 May 2013 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Forbes: Activision's dependence on declining WoW subs 'potential for a catastrophic situation'

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO Industry, Guild Wars 2, Miscellaneous

With the recent news of World of Warcraft's struggling subscription numbers fresh on our minds, Forbes investigated WoW's primary shareholder and predicted trouble on the horizon for investors.

"After looking into Activision Blizzard, Inc., we discovered an amazing looking company that is unfortunately almost completely sustained by the revenue it reaps from one game, World of Warcraft," the authors notes. "When considering that the same company has a 60% majority shareholder (Vivendi) looking to sell its shares in the company you get the potential for a catastrophic situation."

Because Vivendi is having difficulty unloading Activision, Forbes says that any sharp decline in World of Warcraft's revenue will drag down Vivendi's stock severely. The authors also note that the company will suffer from the launch of Guild Wars 2: "The bottom line here is that gamers like to start on level playing fields. Gamers love to save money. Gamers are always in a frantic rush to play superior games. These three factors are the main reasons why Guild Wars 2 will win over market share from WoW."

[Thanks to Mike for the tip!]

Forbes: Activision's dependence on declining WoW subs 'potential for a catastrophic situation' originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 03 Aug 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Jukebox Heroes: Chance Thomas talks about scoring Turbine's expansions

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play, Jukebox Heroes

For many Lord of the Rings Online players, the name Chance Thomas is synonymous with the feel of virtual Middle-earth. From the earliest days in the game, explorers have traversed the Shire, Moria, and beyond listening to Thomas' melodies. So we were excited to hear that Turbine is bringing Thomas back to score not only Riders of Rohan (his first soundtrack for the game since Mines of Moria) but also Dungeons and Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark as well.

Thomas is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning composer who's been working primarily in the field of video game music since 1998. Being a huge fan of MMO soundtracks, I made it a personal quest to talk with him about these two new scores and how he feels about working in this genre. In the weeks ahead, I'll be reviewing both Rohan and Underdark's soundtracks, but today I wanted to focus on the man behind the music.

Join me, then, as we embark on a voyage to worlds far away, sailing on the wings of a song. Geez, that's cheesy, ain't it?

Continue reading Jukebox Heroes: Chance Thomas talks about scoring Turbine's expansions

Jukebox Heroes: Chance Thomas talks about scoring Turbine's expansions originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Research firm says League of Legends tops WoW as most-played PC game

Jef Reahard — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Miscellaneous, League of Legends

Well, it's official (sort of). The World of Warcraft-killer has been named, and they're calling it League of Legends.

A research firm known as DFC Intelligence has released a report claiming that Riot's MOBA was the most popular PC game in North America and Europe last year in terms of hours played. The title took home the top spot with 1.3 billion hours of activity, while WoW dropped to second place with 622.4 million user hours.

The numbers purportedly represent "a list prepared by extrapolating from actual usage data from more than 21 million Xfire members." The top 10 list also includes MOBAs and MMOs like Heroes of Newerth, Diablo III, MapleStory, and World of Tanks.

Research firm says League of Legends tops WoW as most-played PC game originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Rumor: Vivendi looking to sell Activision-Blizzard stake

Jef Reahard — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry, News Items, Rumors, Diablo III

Rumors are swirling about the possible sale of Activision-Blizzard after the departure of Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy this week. Vivendi owns 61% of Acti-Blizz, and Levy reportedly walked over a disagreement about splitting up the French holding company.

How this affects Activision-Blizzard remains to be seen, but Bloomberg says that Vivendi is looking to sell its entire stake, according to "a person with knowledge of the situation." The Wall Street Journal says that Vivendi's board of directors is mulling whether or not to split the company, which could potentially affect Blizzard and its World of Warcraft and Diablo III titles.

Rumor: Vivendi looking to sell Activision-Blizzard stake originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 30 Jun 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Activision-Blizzard stocks drop amidst selloff rumors

Eliot Lefebvre — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:30:00 EST

Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Miscellaneous

Activision-Blizzard has certainly done well for itself over the past year. World of Warcraft may have seen a slight dip in subscriptions, but that hasn't made the company any less profitable. But rumors are swirling that owner Vivendi may be looking to sell off the company, either lowering its current 61% share or selling it off entirely. Vivendi will discuss its exact plans in its meeting with investors on June 22nd.

In light of these rumors, shares of Activision-Blizzard have dropped 3.3%, while shares of Vivendi have grown 3.8%. Vivendi as a whole saw a net 28% drop in stock price over the past year, so the company is looking for infusions of cash, but considering Activision-Blizzard's upcoming titles (including the new World of Warcraft expansion, Mists of Pandaria), we can't help but wonder if selling the house might be a bit premature. We'll have more on this story and the impact for both companies as it develops.

Activision-Blizzard stocks drop amidst selloff rumors originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Road to Mordor: Double dragons

Justin Olivetti — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lore, Free-to-Play, The Road to Mordor

Last week Turbine released the concept art for one of its major bosses from the upcoming Rise of Isengard expansion: Draigoch. With it came a number of appropriate "oohs" and "ahhs," and no doubt raiders began thinking up uses for a giant dragon skull in their homes. But there was also a crowd that popped out to cry foul about lore molestation -- that this was a blatant example of Turbine pandering to MMO players by including the expected dragons even when the lore shouldn't support it.

A couple examples of quotes, first. "Yet whatever way you cut this idea, how can you integrate another dragon into the story? Smaug was the last one of his kind," Contains Moderate Peril complains. A commenter on our article sniped, "So Turbine's decided to entirely drop the pretense of sticking to the lore, then?"

Ouch.

As much as I am totally not attached to MMO lore in general, I feel like this might be a good time to both address this particular argument and also the larger one of Turbine's approach to Tolkien's world. Are giant dragons lore-breaking? Does Turbine simply not care about remaining faithful to source material? Do you have my decaf light mocha with cinnamon sprinkles?

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Double dragons

The Road to Mordor: Double dragons originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Middle-earth Online

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:30:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO Industry, The Game Archaeologist

I had so much fun walking down the halls of "What if?" last week that I thought I'd keep the streak going for the rest of the month (if you'll allow for some summertime indulgence). It's not that I necessarily wanted MMO history to turn out differently than it did, but it's always tantalizing to wonder what the field would look like with different games out there. Would they have proven more popular than our current crops? Would they have pushed the envelope of innovation?

Of course, it's easy to project greatness onto never-released titles, bemoaning that "if only MMO X had launched, we would've had the perfect game!" What ifs are interesting but should never be taken as absolute fact.

This week I wanted to look at a project that's related to an MMO near and dear to my heart. As most of you know, I'm somewhat of a Lord of the Rings Online nut here at Massively. Sure, the rest of the staff is upset that I smoke pipeweed inside and never wear shoes, but that's just how far I go to understand the game.

But even my LotRO isn't immune to a massive what if. Known to some but not to all, Turbine wasn't the first MMO studio to take a crack at Tolkien's license -- no, for that we have to travel back to 1998 and revisit Sierra On-Line. It was this company that had a brief but memorable run designing Middle-earth Online, aka "What if LotRO had permadeath?" It's a fascinating glimpse into an entirely different approach to the IP, and even though it died a fairly early death, it's important to be remembered. Frodo lives!

Continue reading The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Middle-earth Online

The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: Middle-earth Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Behind the Curtain: This too shall pass

Craig Withers — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Culture, Economy, MMO Industry, Warhammer Online, Opinion, Tabula Rasa, Behind the Curtain

And so we mark the passing of another MMO. I was going to add an adjective to that sentence, maybe 'great', 'fine' or even just 'good'. I couldn't decide, as I didn't play Tabula Rasa beyond the Open Beta. That's clearly not my fault though, obviously it's something to do with the developers not making exactly the game I wanted, needed or deserved at the time. Cry, whine, QQ, etc.

Don't worry, this won't be an obituary for TR. That would be silly; I'm not lying when I say I didn't play it beyond Open Beta. I liked it well enough, but it lacked the spark that drives me to log on, night after night.

The news of TR's demise however, has got me thinking. Like it or not, nothing lasts forever. MMOs are subject to the same financial rules as any other business, and sometimes those rules mean you lose. Regardless of how long we've been playing any particular game, how many alts you've raised up or how much of a home you've made for yourself in the community there, there's a chance your MMO will die eventually. Some games last longer than others; gaining enough momentum to garner a fair-sized and dedicated fanbase before they're shut down. Others barely get out of Beta testing before things go South, and the doors are closed before momentum really gets going.

Continue reading Behind the Curtain: This too shall pass

Behind the Curtain: This too shall pass originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Activision-Blizzard reveals that it's sitting on a big pile of money

Samuel Axon — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items

This year, Activision and Blizzard merged under French media group Vivendi (Blizzard's parent company) to become the biggest, baddest game publisher in the known universe. To make sure investors know just how awesome that event was, Vivendi sent out a press release describing its generally excellent financial condition.

Earnings for Vivendi as a whole were reported to be up 10.2% for the first six months of this year. While game division earnings are still actually down compared to this time last year, that should be no cause for alarm. It can be attributed to the lack of a World of Warcraft expansion. By this time last year, The Burning Crusade had reached store shelves.

Vivendi assured investors that it still plans to release Wrath of the Lich King by the end of this year, so that bump is still coming. But will Wrath be as big as The Burning Crusade? By definition it can't be any bigger, because you have to have played the TBC content to reach the point where you can enjoy most of what Wrath has to offer, right? Apparently we'll see soon.

One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!

Activision-Blizzard reveals that it's sitting on a big pile of money originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Vivendi Games sales down from this time last year

Shawn Schuster — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Economy

The word around town is that Vivendi Games has suffered an 11% sales drop in the first half of its fiscal year of 2008. Most of this is related to its 24% sales drop in the first quarter alone, but is this the entire story?

Many times these fiscal sales comparisons don't paint the complete picture. In a recent Gamasutra article, it's pointed out that this sales drop is due to the fact that the first half of this year didn't have a major expansion for World of Warcraft in its line-up. So comparing sales figures from a time with no new expansion to that with a new expansion is apples and oranges. In fact, with Vivendi's recent merger with Activision and the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King which should release by the end of this year, we're sure to hear some incredibly positive numbers for Vivendi's sales numbers during the second half of 2008.

Vivendi Games sales down from this time last year originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Shareholders officially approve Activision-Blizzard merger

Chris Chester — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items

Like a storied Hollywood romance, the landmark merger of Activision and Vivendi Universal first took us by surprise; then garnered approval over time; and finally comes to fruition today as Activision's shareholders have approved the buy-out, with a whopping 92% voting in favor of the deal. When you consider EA, their biggest rival, is reporting losses and both Activision and Vivendi Universal riding high on the backs of Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft respectively, this deal will have as much resonance on the stock market as it does within the game industry proper.

We've heard many a detail on the stormy courtship between the two publishers, with hints at who sought out who and to what ends for some time now. Even as much as we've written about it, this whole affair has had a sense of unreality since the beginning, and it's bizarre to think that the deal is finally complete. This blogger, for one, welcomes our new Activision-Blizzard overlords.

Shareholders officially approve Activision-Blizzard merger originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Vivendi and Activision merge nears completion as Delaware Court denies preliminary injunction

Matt Warner — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business Models, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry

It's a hectic summer over at Blizzard HQ. Inundating the masses with Wrath of the Lich King across the pond at the World Wide Invitational, announcing Diablo 3 on top of that, and battling it out in the courts against the kingpin responsible for World of Warcraft's bot brigade. Aside from all that, there's the whole pending merger with Activision and Vivendi approval process with Blizzard Entertainment right in the middle.

The latest legal development involves a preliminary injunction filed by some shareholders who weren't satisfied with the $27.50 per share offer. The injunction suit was filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery last February by the Wayne County Employee's Retirement System in an attempt to halt the merger. Activision has announced that a Delaware Court junked that preliminary injunction, a decision made by the very illuminated and WoW-knowledgeable Chief Judge William B. Chandler III. Activision will be holding a stockholder meeting next Tuesday on July 8, if approved the merger will complete on July 9th and a new titan, Activision Blizzard will join forces and the gaming world will never be the same again.

We wonder how many level 70 characters the Judge plays or maybe he's already level 75 in the WotlK beta?

Vivendi and Activision merge nears completion as Delaware Court denies preliminary injunction originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Blizzard to Activision: we choose you

Chris Chester — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business Models, Interviews, MMO Industry

We don't know if anybody has told you, but Blizzard is actually kind of a big deal. Not many companies can hold the attention of their target audience for an entire week with naught but a series of cryptic splash pages. They're such a big deal, in fact, that when it came time for Vivendi to choose a partner for their big merger, Blizzard's preference for Activision was instrumental in their ultimate decision. That is, if Blizzard COO Paul Sams is to be believed.

It was no secret that Blizzard was the real prize in the merger, having pulled in approximately $1.2 billion for Vivendi in 2007 alone. With the twin juggernauts of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 looming on the horizon, and their "next-gen MMO" project still lurking in the shadows, it seems clear that Sams' comments are anything but idle boasting. According to Sams, the leverage they have in this arrangement is what is going to allow them to preserve their existing management structure that has proved so spectacularly successful. I think that's something we can all get behind.

Blizzard to Activision: we choose you originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Where the Activision Blizzard merger stands

Matt Warner — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO Industry, News Items

Shock and awe hit the gaming industry on December 2, 2007, on that morning two giants announced a deal worth 18.8 billion dollars. Activision and Vivendi Games are to merge, a monstrosity in the making set to rival Electronic Arts for the throne to the word's biggest and most profitable force in game development and business.

An acquisition on this scale doesn't happen overnight, and since the original announcement there have been numerous noteworthy developments. Gamasutra delves into the acquisition providing an in-depth analysis which focuses on the overall impact thus far about key players and their new positions, what this means for Blizzard Entertainment, and of course more numbers. The piece also includes commentary with some respected authorities in their field including Massively's own Michael Zenke.

Where the Activision Blizzard merger stands originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Activision CEO: Blizzard merger best way to enter industry

Samuel Axon — Thu, 29 May 2008 21:30:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Interviews, MMO Industry, News Items

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick told Gamasutra that his company explored avenues by which it might enter the MMO industry, but decided that the only sure way to succeed was to join forces with Blizzard.

That reality was a driving force behind the merger. "We kept looking at it, and realizing that even if we put hundreds of millions of dollars of capital towards it, and had the very best intellectual property, we still would very likely be unsuccessful," he said. "So the merger was really our mechanism to get access to Blizzard's talent, Blizzard's capability, their infrastructure."

Kotick has already said in the past that taking on World of Warcraft directly would be next-to-impossible even with virtually unlimited coffers. But others, such as EA Mythic's Mark jacobs, believe there's room for more than one 800 pound gorilla in the market. Perhaps the problem isn't so much competition as it is the fact that the production values bar has been set so high that MMOs have become too risky. They cost more to produce than most other games, and their success rate is uninspiring.

Activision CEO: Blizzard merger best way to enter industry originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 29 May 2008 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Vivendi leaks a possible Wrath of the Lich King release date

Akela Talamasca — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:45:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, Events (Real-World), Expansions, MMO Industry, New Titles, News Items

In a strange case of one hand not knowing what the other is doing, Vivendi Games, in its latest financial press release, has stated that "Blizzard Entertainment's second expansion, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2008." While that's exciting, Blizzard themselves have not made any official announcement about the expansion's release date.

Does Vivendi think that no one's reading these things besides their investors and business partners? Can this be true? If not, it's a serious error that shouldn't be on a financial press release. We're waiting for Blizzard's response to see if there's going to be any kind of spin control on this. In the meantime, revel in the impending release!

[Via BigDownload]

Vivendi leaks a possible Wrath of the Lich King release date originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 May 2008 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

EU gives Activision-Blizzard a big thumbs up

Samuel Axon — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items

After reviewing Activision-Blizzard's case for a few weeks, the European Commission announced its approval of the huge merger yesterday. The EU had final say approving the merger because Vivendi is a French company. Officials decided the deal wouldn't threaten the fairness of the market.

The commission made a statement, saying that Activision Blizzard "would continue to face several strong, effective competitors, such as Electronic Arts, and the game console manufacturers, such as Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft." There were some concerns that the company could have an unfair advantage in licensing music for games because Vivendi owns Universal Music Group, but they were set aside because "competing game publishers would continue to have access to a sufficiently large portfolio of music rights from alternative suppliers."

The lesson: Activision Blizzard is officially not a monopoly, thanks to EA. We could go into extreme detail weighing the pluses and negatives of the decision, but we've analyzed this merger plenty enough already. At some point, you just have to decide to sit back and see what happens.

EU gives Activision-Blizzard a big thumbs up originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 17 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Another rumor regarding Blizzard's love affair with consoles

Kyle Horner — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Consoles, Rumors

Here we go again, another rumor that World of Warcraft is going to appear on a "next-gen" console near you. This is one of those rumors that have been brought up time and time again. This little buzzing rumor is like that one annoying fly you can't seem to kill for good. What brought it up this time was a comment made by Chris Ansell, Director of Product Globalisation for Radical Entertainment and came through the website Gameplayer.

Radical was recently giving a presentation on their upcoming title Prototype. After demonstrating the game's online co-operative features Chris was asked by Gameplayer if these features would even be available for off-line play. In short the answer was no, their focus is apparently online feature-specific and different types of new play in the online space. The quote responsible for the new rumor is this:

"...we have to make sure we support it. Because next-gen consoles demand it. We have to be online. Obviously it's gonna get more and more like what WoW are doing, with thousands of players on consoles, eventually. Which is pretty exciting. I can't wait for that. It'll be pretty fun."

All right, so someone could assume this means a version of WoW on consoles, except that Blizzard has denied this repeatedly. Even with this very new rumor, Vivendi Australia quickly contacted Gameplayer to inform them that the comment only meant the future of next-gen game development and how multiplayer was an ever-increasing aspect of it.

What we think this means is that it's not WoW that we can expect to show up on consoles, but whatever Blizzard is working on beyond Starcraft II. Hm, now there's something to speculate about -- World of (insert favorite IP here) coming to a PS3 and Xbox 360 near you?

Another rumor regarding Blizzard's love affair with consoles originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Activision execs reap payday from recent mega-merger

Chris Chester — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:15:00 EST

Filed under: Business Models, Economy, MMO Industry

Just in case you weren't feeling a particularly strong sense of class envy today, the Financial Times is reporting that Activision's two top executives will be receiving "change of control" payments to the tune of $40 million, as part of the deal that will see Vivendi merge their Vivendi Games unit into Activision. Both Robert Kotick, Activision Chairman and CEO, and Brian Kelly, co-chairman, will receive bonuses totalling $10 million each as well as 363,637 shares of the newly formed company, worth about $10 million on the market today.

While some industry analysts have looked at the deal as an attempt to catch up with EA's runaway growth, particularly in the MMO sphere, one mustn't ignore the immediate financial windfalls for the men at the very top of the company as a motivating factor. One can only hope they'll be down counting their money in time to start developing some more MMO properties for the new year.

[Via The Escapist]

Activision execs reap payday from recent mega-merger originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 13 Dec 2007 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Warcraft to invade Russia

Matt Warner — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Real-Life, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, News Items

World of Warcraft is literally taking over the world one country at a time. It turns out Blizzard Entertainment, the Vivendi money-maker see great potential in the Russian market and will be translating and localizing World of Warcraft there next. This will be the sixth official World of Warcraft port to another language that supports official localization. Other localizations include: English, Spanish, French, German, and Korean. I think the next localization should be Barrens chat. Blizzard could build their own country out of money and call it the Barrens, and all the players that don't read quests and like Chuck Norris jokes can live and play WoW there.

Translating and localizing the behemoth that is World of Warcraft is no easy undertaking, and Blizzard Europe is looking for new employees based out of their France and Ireland offices. Take your pick of in-game support, offline technical and customer support, localization and quality assurance, community relations and website development. Players will benefit from the same quality of 24/7 native-language support like the other localizations. For further information please see the Blizzard UK employment page. For those in Russia already playing WoW, Blizzard will release language packs to make the transition much more smoothly when the time comes.

Which country has the best official World of Warcraft site? If I could actually read and completely load the WoW Korean website I could give you my input. What I can see does look flashy.

[via, WoW Insider]

World of Warcraft to invade Russia originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Businessweek chimes in on Activision Blizzard

Krystalle Voecks — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business Models, MMO Industry

Now that the dust is settling from the Activision/Vivendi merger announced over the weekend, the numbers fans are starting to chime in on the epic moneymaking potential of this merger. Sure, we knew Blizzard was making a great deal of money from World of Warcraft -- anyone with half a clue who paid the recurring $15 a month bill for the last three years knew that. But to many it came as a shock that in regards to 2007, WoW is expected to produce $520 million of pure unadulterated profit -- yes, that's after paying the bills. We suspect that even Donald Trump must be drooling at those numbers right about now.

If you're curious about just how this merger changes the financial landscape, Matt Vella from Businessweek has done a fairly good job with an overview of the potential impact. His story covers some familiar ground, but also compares EA against the proposed Activision Blizzard corporate monster. The only thing we'd have to take issue with is the claim that Sony (SOE) and NCsoft are "scrambling to get a piece" of the MMO market. The last time we checked, SOE have had their hands in the MMO pie for almost as long as there's been an MMO market. There's also the point that NCsoft has highly successful titles in the Eastern MMO market with Lineage/Lineage II -- and where's the love for CoX, GW, TR, etc? Do they want a larger piece or the market? Sure. But with name recognition in the industry already, they're well ahead of many others just jumping into the game. Nonetheless, it's an interesting read if you are curious how the business end of all this gameplaying is expected to shape up.

[Thanks, Matt]

Businessweek chimes in on Activision Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively more on the Blizzard merger

Michael Zenke — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business Models, Culture, Economy, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry, News Items

Yesterday's news of the merger between Blizzard Entertainment and Activision caught pretty much everyone by surprise. That doesn't mean that there's nothing more to talk about, of course. Analysts and journalists have been working double-time to clarify the situation, and just 24 hours later there's an avalanche of information to work through. We'll try to help.

Let's start with the big picture. The best breakdown of the key points of this merger I found was over at GameSetWatch. The biggest key, I think, is the huge impact of World of Warcraft on the financials of parent company Vivendi: There's a reason why Blizzard have been and are left well alone - the clout that comes with this mindblowing statistic: "Blizzard Entertainment [which has "over 9.3 million subscribers" to World Of Warcraft] has projected calendar 2007 revenues of $1.1 billion, operating margins of over 40% and approximately $520 million of operating profit."

Another point stressed there, and reiterated in Blizzard's FAQ on the merger, is that Blizzard is going to maintain its independence. You won't have to worry about any crazy changes to World of Warcraft as a result of this deal. Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime sat down with 1up to talk things through, and he even went so far as to say that the company is still fairly cold on console gaming. Don't expect a slip in quality from solely Blizzard-branded products.

Continue reading Massively more on the Blizzard merger

Massively more on the Blizzard merger originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Blizzard rolled into Activision Blizzard mega-publisher [Updated]

Chris Chester — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:20:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business Models, Events (Real-World), MMO Industry

In a HUGE news story that we were quite unprepared to have fall into our laps on a lazy Sunday morning, it's been announced that Activision and Vivendi Games have signed a major agreement to the tune of $18.8 billion, that will see the two mega-publishing houses rolled into a company to be known as Activision Blizzard, which will collectively have the biggest and most expansive portfolio of game titles of any company to date - even surpassing rival Electronic Arts in sheer size and scope.

According to the terms of the agreement, Vivendi Games will be merged into Activision as a wholly owned subsidiary, and Vivendi Games stock will be turned into Activision common stock. We're not financial analysts nor are we fluent in legalese, so its difficult for us to interpret the exact terms of the deal, but Vivendi will come out of the merger as a 68% owner of the newly formed company. There's no indication yet if the merger will have any bearing on Blizzard's current or future development plans, though it seems likely that there is going to be a change as the management at the highest levels of the company will have a different face to it.

For some quotes from the parties involved, and our reaction, follow us after the jump.

Continue reading Blizzard rolled into Activision Blizzard mega-publisher [Updated]

Blizzard rolled into Activision Blizzard mega-publisher [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Warcraft still growing -- 9.3 million served

Samuel Axon — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:13:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, MMO Industry, News Items

Gamasutra reports that Vivendi, the parent company of Blizzard, has seen its Q3 2007 sales go up 19% over the last quarter. Vivendi credits this growth partially to the Chinese release of The Burning Crusade expansion for World of Warcraft, which occurred in Q3. The company revealed that World of Warcraft now has 9.3 million subscribers -- 300,000 more than the the number reported last quarter.

That means that WoW has grown by the size of one and a half EVE Onlines or two whole City of Heroeses in just a few months. Or put another way, the population of World of Warcraft is now greater than the population of Sweden. We think it's safe to say that World of Warcraft will be the dominant title in the industry for a while longer.

World of Warcraft still growing -- 9.3 million served originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments