TalonBot
08-31-2009, 03:12 PM
http://www.blogcdn.com/www.wow.com/media/2009/08/activision_blizzardlogo.jpgBarron's has a long article up (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125150805017468583.html?page=1) about Blizzard's corporate overlords at Activision-Blizzard (http://www.wow.com/2008/07/08/vivendi-is-dead-long-live-activision-blizzard/), and as is usual with most pieces of Activision news, people will probably see in it what they want to see. Those who think Bobby Kotick is just a money-grubbing exploiter (http://www.joystiq.com/2008/11/06/activision-blizzard-ceo-kotick-vivendi-franchises-lacked-poten/) will find more fuel for their firey fanboy rage: apparently he's a follower of Las Vegas casino entrepreneur Steve Wynn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wynn_(entrepreneur)), and is modeling some of Activision-Blizzard's business plan off of that guy, Shareholders, however, will probably be thrilled. In terms of a purely financial sense, Activision-Blizzard is apparently one of the shinest futures around, with Kotick bragging that videogames will eclipse film and TV in terms of moneymaking in just a few years.
From our perspective, as longtime fans and players of Blizzard's games, the most interesting thing I see here is that Barron's makes no distinction at all between Activision and Blizzard any more -- the Activision-Blizzard company, according to the article, is equally responsible for both the Starcraft and Transformers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=10054001) franchises. Obviously, as gamers, we see a huge distinction between those two: one is a classic, storied, much-loved videogame series, and the other is a cash-in on a license that's panned everywhere but the box office. But for the financial guys, they're just both properties of Activision-Blizzard. That's not to say that our Blizzard is entirely lost (http://www.wow.com/2009/04/12/activision-blizzard-is-not-blizzard/) (anyone who was at BlizzCon last week knows that's not true), but it is a sign that the merger is no longer news. From an outsider perspective, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft are just two cash cows from the same company.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion (http://www.wow.com/category/analysis-opinion/), Blizzard (http://www.wow.com/category/blizzard/), News items (http://www.wow.com/category/news-items/), Economy (http://www.wow.com/category/economy/), NPCs (http://www.wow.com/category/npcs/)
Activision-Blizzard and their financial future (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/) originally appeared on WoW.com (http://www.wow.com) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125150805017468583.html?page=1) | Permalink (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/) | Email this (http://www.wow.com/forward/19146083/) | Comments (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/#comments)
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From our perspective, as longtime fans and players of Blizzard's games, the most interesting thing I see here is that Barron's makes no distinction at all between Activision and Blizzard any more -- the Activision-Blizzard company, according to the article, is equally responsible for both the Starcraft and Transformers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid=10054001) franchises. Obviously, as gamers, we see a huge distinction between those two: one is a classic, storied, much-loved videogame series, and the other is a cash-in on a license that's panned everywhere but the box office. But for the financial guys, they're just both properties of Activision-Blizzard. That's not to say that our Blizzard is entirely lost (http://www.wow.com/2009/04/12/activision-blizzard-is-not-blizzard/) (anyone who was at BlizzCon last week knows that's not true), but it is a sign that the merger is no longer news. From an outsider perspective, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft are just two cash cows from the same company.Filed under: Analysis / Opinion (http://www.wow.com/category/analysis-opinion/), Blizzard (http://www.wow.com/category/blizzard/), News items (http://www.wow.com/category/news-items/), Economy (http://www.wow.com/category/economy/), NPCs (http://www.wow.com/category/npcs/)
Activision-Blizzard and their financial future (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/) originally appeared on WoW.com (http://www.wow.com) on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds (http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/).
Read (http://online.barrons.com/article/SB125150805017468583.html?page=1) | Permalink (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/) | Email this (http://www.wow.com/forward/19146083/) | Comments (http://www.wow.com/2009/08/31/activision-blizzard-and-their-financial-future/#comments)
More... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WowInsider/~3/YzoeiMDxDGs/)