14 DAY TRIAL // There hasn't been media frenzy regarding the news that Activision and Blizzard have finally merged. A big reason might be that we have known of the move for quite a while, since the final part of 2007. Another might have to do with the fact that the merger was announced right before E3, as the press was more concerned with checking out new games.
MCV interviewed Thomas Tippl, who is the Chief Financial Officer at the new company, and he didn't waste any time in praising the position of the firm he represents. He says that Activision Blizzard "have by far the strongest intellectual property portfolio in the entire industry. Look at games like Guitar Hero, which last year sold more than any video game in the history of the industry, or Call Of Duty, which last year was the number one game in units. World Of Warcraft has 11 million subscribers and is by far the market-leader in subscription-based online games". The strength of the intellectual property means that the company has already well established revenue streams that it can count on as it seeks to develop new games for different segments of the market.
Tippl mentioned the fact that the sports games market is one of the segments where Activision Blizzard cannot hope to compete with Electronic Arts, which has a virtual monopoly through its EA Sports division. Trying to compete with Take Two ended in having wasted millions of dollars, with little tangible results.
But Activision Blizzard is ready to fight in a sector where it has a chance to win. It has recently acquired Bizarre Creations in a bid to get hold of some people able to develop racing games that can "take on Need For Speed".
Tippl also commented on the fact that Blizzard would maintain a big area of autonomy in the new company, mainly because of the strength of the titles they develop like Starcraft II, Wrath of the Lich King and Diablo 3. The bad news is that Sierra might get the end short of the stick after the merger, mainly because their titles have never been big successes. It could even be that, in 2009, no games bearing the Sierra logo would be in stores.