(http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/12/june/acti.jpg)
Vivendi 'considers sale of Activision Blizzard'
New report claims executives are weighing options for the Call of Duty publisher
Activision Blizzard's parent company Vivendi is considering selling its 61 per cent controlling ownership of the firm, a new report suggests.
Vivendi, a Paris based multimedia conglomerate with interests in music, television and other entertainment, is believed to be considering whether it should sell off its Activision equity in whole or in part.
Either scenario would trigger a significant impact on Activision's business and structure.
Spokespersons for Activision and Vivendi have declined to comment on the unverified report, which was published by Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/vivendi-said-to-discuss-activision-unit-sale-on-june-22.html).
Activision is considered the biggest core games publisher in the west with a market value of about $13 billion.
It's parent company Vivendi, however, has endured a troubling twelve months where its share price has declined by 28 per cent.
Activision revenues stood at $4.76 billion last year, with operating profit at $1.3 billion.
[CVG (http://www.computerandvideogames.com/352680/vivendi-considers-sale-of-activision-blizzard/)]
EA=COD, can you imagine that field day!
You might see a media company make a purchase who knows.
Strange that they would off load a money printing machine, but I think it's a case of sell high while the going's good and move on. I mean look at Activision for example, everything they have touched in the past has eventually gone to dust and COD can only decline from here. Blizzard didn't do as well with Diablo III, Starcraft did okay and WOW is starting to bleed subs or at least will decline rapidly. A split sale would be the most likely outcome since I cannot see one company splashing that sort of cash. This and the UFC license switching to EA were the only things at E3 that made me go ''wtf really!''.
Surprising if it goes ahead since, really, as much as Diablo has been a bumpy starter - it still broke sales records, and once they finally release the Real Money Auction House there'll be some steady income for them there. As much as CoD is going to surely start declining, though really there's a pretty dedicated fan base there - I can see Black Ops 2 being a huge seller this Christmas. Just seems to me that they'd rather sell than come up with something new, but the company still oozes potential.
Yeah exactly, their profits won't get any bigger without investing money in first. BLOPS II will do well but you have the question console gamers buying the same crap over and over, of course they're not gonna invest anything new into it they just throw a faux pas future setting at it and bam it's new. I just don't think they have ideas across the board there's no creative flair, even Diablo III was uninspired. Someone should buy Blizzard and take that side of things and someone else take Activision for Cod.
I mean take WoW for example, big fan base, tons of subs and then they go and release an expansion that flips the gameworld literally, I could have thought of that in my sleep and on top of that a successor doesn't look likely anytime soon. They've been good at one thing and that's milking mediocre games, shame because Blizzard use to be brilliant and Cod 4 set a new benchmark.
It says something about the majority shareholders faith in the company considering Blizzard are working on a new MMO that is supposed to be something "new" - which, really, if that's as successful as WoW was, why the heck would you want out? But, I think Windy is right in that the two companies don't really belong together. To me, a company has to be passionate about what it does for it to work - I guess that doesn't REQUIRE the owners to love gaming, but eh. If Blizzard went its own way, I don't think it'd be a bad thing.
As for innovation in gaming, I'm partially agreeing with what I keep reading regarding next gen consoles - I'd rather they release less games, but raise the bar quality wise. As it stands, there's SO many games that are just not great, though with Xbox that's years worth of accumulation.
True, less frequent but with a higher level. I mean it's not easy to be innovative these days but when you have that much money something gives for sure. Release your game and make your dlc proper expansions and make the game live longer. BF2 lived this way for years, Eve online, FFXI, even WoW. But then the pressures of competition, getting your game to market for the ''holidays'' and marketing costs stifle creation-DA2 unfortunately, although that was more deadline than anything else. It's all money at the end of day, even Minecraft went to the money but I don't blame the developer for doing that, after all you gotta pay the bills.
Here's what tickles me. Took this from Major Nelson's blog, just grabbed the first one I saw which is from last Month (14th or so)
- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition
- Call of Duty: Black Ops
- FIFA 12
- Battlefield 3
- Halo: Reach
- Modern Warfare 2
- NBA 2K12
- Skyrim
- Gears of War 3
- GTA IV
- Forza Motorsport 4
- Max Payne 3
- Trials Evolution
- Mass Effect 3
- NHL12
- Madden NFL 12
- Halo 3
- Red Dead Redemption
- Saints Row: The Third
So on the "most played in Xbox LIVE" list, we've got how many recent releases? How many from this year, even. More effort into games like these, less rushed movie tie ins and awful sequels.
Really, though, publishers will always be looking for something that's trying to be "a bit different" - the trouble is, how many times does that flop? And it becomes some of these terrible games. But, stuff that tries and fails isn't the same as the varied tack that just seems to appear.
Sidenote: 3 Call of Duties. 3. Really? 3?!
In fairness though that's a decently mixed up list, nice to see RDR + SR3 still on there. It's always been that way though, a puzzler will never be as popular as a shooter and anything new is a ''novelty'' and gets blasted on, COD is king. The pc market is obviously very different, the new Sim City will do well there so you won't get an accurate readout because of no one monitors that market. In fairness to Minecraft + Trials Evo I'd probably get them but I have so many things in wait already it's ridiculous at this stage!