Vivendi Games(Blizzard, Sierra) to merge with Activision

[Golden Darkness]

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071202005054&newsLang=en

While we may not see games like Call of WarCraft or Crash Bandicoot's Pro Skater, due to Vivendi's parent also owning the Universal Music Group, pretty much one of the largest music labels, Guitar Hero will pretty much have first dibs on UMG's library of songs.

[Draft]

Good for Guitar Hero.., but I forsee angry WoW users soon

[MattThomasM2B]

Blizzard brand suicide.

[GWOtaku]

Angry WoW users? The WoW users posting on Blizzard's boards would get angry if an employee told them the sky was blue.

I won't be crying doom, not until and unless there's a pretty clear reason to be. I see no reason this would change their development or screw over Starcraft II.

[Juu-kuchi]

Activivendi... Sounds interesting. We'll see where this goes.

[Vyse]

Apparently, WoW will still be WoW, and Blizzard will still be Blizzard. (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/02/blizzard-wants-you-to-know-that-the-merger-wont-affect-their-ga/)

Here's a list of all the divisions/studios of each company. (Bold indicates a brand/division):
Vivendi Games
-Blizzard Entertainment (Warcraft, Starcraft, World of Warcraft, Diablo)
-Blizzard Console (formerly Swingin' Ape Studios; Metal Arms and Starcraft: Ghost)
-Sierra Entertainment (pioneer of adventure games, currently Vivendi's main publishing arm)
-High Moon Studios (Sierra in-house studio; created Darkwatch, working on the Bourne Identity game)
-Radical Entertainment (Sierra in-house studio; created gaming adaptations to The Simpsons, Incredible Hulk, and Scarface, as well as the Crash Bandicoot series since Tag Team Racing)
-Swordfish Studios (Sierra in-house; made rugby and cricket games and are using Unreal Engine 3 to create an unnamed game)
-Massive Entertainment (another Sierra in-house; made World in Conflict)
-Sierra Online (The casual games division; responsible for the company's Xbox Live Arcade titles and FreeStyle Street Basketball)
-Vivendi Games Mobile (cellphone gaming division)

Activision
-Beenox (made a bunch of ports to the Mac and PC; created the Bee Movie game for the 360, PS2, and PC; working on the James Bond game for the PC according to Wikipedia)
-Bizarre Creations (Created Project Gotham Racing and Geometry Wars)
-Infinity Ward (Call of Duty)
-Luxoflux (Vigilante 8 and True Crime)
-Neversoft (Tony Hawk series and Guitar Hero 3)
-Raven Software (X-Men Legends/Marvel Ultimate Alliance)
-RedOctane (Rhythm game and accessory maker; Guitar Hero franchise)
-Shaba Games (Wakeboarding Unleashed)
-Toys For Bob (Downhill Jam)
-Treyarch (multi-purpose developer behind the Spider-Man movie games and Call of Duty 3; currently doing the new James Bond game on the consoles)
-Vicarious Visions (specializes in handheld ports)
-Z-Axis (created the Dave Mirra BMX series, Aggressive Inline, and BMX XXX)
-Activision Value (the budget title division; World Series of Poker and Cabela hunting games)

The 800-lb gorilla is now larger, and has a Wiki page. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard)

[ShadowGUN]

Whoa. First EA buys Bioware and Pademic and now Vivendi games merges with Activision. Are there any independent studios left or have all been consume by others way bigger companies?

[Anyone00]

I wonder if this means Grom Hellscream and Arthas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwEiNsHApmo) will be in Guitar Hero 4?

[Joe]

Considering I have a very low opinion of Vivendi, I can only see the outcome of this merger as being positive.

[tucsoncoyote]

Well Get ready for Crash Bandicoot's Tag Team Lawnmower Racing... I have a feeling that one will be fun as we see Crash and the rest of his gang out there tooling around the track on Lawnmowers...

And as for 'are there any independent companies left out there'? I highly doubt it..

:coyote:

[Anyone00]

I wonder what an Zerg infested Crash Bandicoot would look like.

"For the Swarm!":evil:

[Vyse]

Whoa. First EA buys Bioware and Pademic and now Vivendi games merges with Activision. Are there any independent studios left or have all been consume by others way bigger companies?
Valve, Epic Games, id Software, Foundation 9 (Shiny, Backbone, The Collective, etc), Factor 5, Bungie (somewhat), Insomniac, Crytek. They're all independent.

[ShadowGUN]

Valve, Epic Games, id Software, Foundation 9 (Shiny, Backbone, The Collective, etc), Factor 5, Bungie (somewhat), Insomniac, Crytek. They're all independent.

Wait isn't Insomniac part of Sony since I never seen any of their games on a Nintendo or Microsoft console.

Also Activision Blizzard conference call. (http://www.joystiq.com/2007/12/03/notes-from-the-activision-blizzard-conference/) Oh and Guitar Hero IV and Call of Duty 5 (http://kotaku.com/gaming/omg-sequels/merger-fact-sheet-reveals-guitar-hero-iv-call-of-duty-5-329114.php)confirm.

[SNS]

It's a second party but not a first party (Sony doesn't own them like they own Naughty Dog).

[krazymed]

Only way I see this deal surviving is if Vivendi owns Activision at the end. If Activision has control, then Vivendi's games are toast. Activision will want to put Blizzard's games on consoles (since they are doing that with everything else). Not to mention that the track record with them owning properties has not been great. (Call of Duty 3, Guitar Hero 3, the Spider-Man series after the PS1 games)

[danreyes1]

Considering I don't particularly care for (nor dislike) either company this doesn't really effect me. This does, however, make the new company larger than EA, which I don't like, so that's a good outcome I guess.

[mookie75]

Only way I see this deal surviving is if Vivendi owns Activision at the end. If Activision has control, then Vivendi's games are toast. Activision will want to put Blizzard's games on consoles (since they are doing that with everything else). Not to mention that the track record with them owning properties has not been great. (Call of Duty 3, Guitar Hero 3, the Spider-Man series after the PS1 games)

Hey, Spider-Man 2 was a damn fine game. I wasted many an hour getting the regular and "mega" times on all of those blue challenge markers and I'm proud (and ashamed) to say that I got them all. :p

Anyway, my congratulations go out to Vivendi Games. Regardless of how their partnership goes with Activision, at the very least they can count on having all of Blizzard's future games -- and all the mindless zombie gamers that follow them -- filling their coffers for the foreseeable future.

[Chris Wood]

So, how does this affect the odds of a new Space Quest game?