14 DAY TRIAL // We live in troubled times – the current financial crisis is becoming more and more aggravated each day and no company is safe from the terrible effects of this severe condition. But out of the industries that were affected by the crisis, one has proven itself to be quite safe for investors, the gaming one. Although some stocks have lost a few points, the companies are still going strong, with one of the best examples being Blizzard, part of the Activision Blizzard corporation.
The company is responsible for the hugely popular World of Warcraft MMORPG – Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game – or other very successful franchises like Starcraft or Diablo. With WoW having 11 million monthly subscribers gladly paying to play on the official servers, Blizzard definitely won’t be very affected by the financial crisis.
Speaking with MTV Multiplayer, Rob Pardo, one of the Blizzard executive officers expressed his opinion on the current situation and why he thought that the gaming industry wouldn’t be very affected by the crisis. He went on to say that it was one of the most accessible types of media out there and that the customers had realized that it was the most cost-effective one too.
"Historically for us, the game industry hasn’t been affected by recessions like a lot of other businesses. I think the reason for that is [that] games really offer some of the best entertainment value on the market. People might not want to go out to the movies and spend $100 for a couple of hours and then go to a restaurant. You can go home and pay $15 a month for 100 hours of entertainment if you’re staying at home more — and I think that’s one of the reasons why you don’t see games really go in the same recession as the rest of the economy a lot of times."
He really does have a solid argument in favor of the gaming industry – in terms of investment and profitability, it is the best one out there. And if you look at the massive number of Blizzard fans around the world, things will only improve as it launches very anticipated titles like Starcraft II or Diablo III.