Bobby Kotick from Activision took the stage at the D: All Things Digital conference and talked about a range of issues, including Guitar Hero: World Tour and the upcoming Vivendi - Activision merger.

On the merger issue, he said that the main drive behind the business move is the fact that Activision can get very quickly into the MMO territory while using the assets that Blizzard can bring to the table.

Kotick declared that "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. So the merger was really our mechanism to get access to Blizzard's talent, Blizzard's capability, their infrastructure, from the multiplayer matchup standpoint, from a multiplayer gaming standpoint, but also in areas we would never have had an opportunity to participate".

It's a very sincere statement and one that could potentially spell trouble for other assets that are within Vivendi Games, assets that will be under Activision supervision once the merger goes through. Let's hope that games like Prototype don't get delayed or even canceled because of Activision's focus on MMO development.

In presenting Guitar Hero: World Tour, Kotick had to deal with the sarcasm of the conference host Kara Swisher. As Kotick introduced the game as being "the first time you'll have multiple instruments - drums, mic, a bass, different guitar", she quipped that "That's called Rock Band, I think"; the Activision CEO replied that "We're calling it Guitar Hero: World Tour".

He also said that, while new instruments are the main characteristic of the Guitar Hero, World Tour is also bringing in a feature that lets players record their own tracks and then upload them on the Internet, trying to bring a social element to the game.