Vivendi to Sell Activision?

Diablo 3 = money pin for the next 5 years at least.

COD Elite : 1.5 Million subscribers and growing. 7 Million registered. Has more subscribers than SW:TOR and many other major MMO's.

COD:BLOPS2 : Will generate at least 11-13 million in sales , fastest COD ever in pre-orders and likely the best selling COD yet (til next year..).

Mists of Pandaria : Will sell at least 8-10 million copies , will become another money pin for WoW expansions or at least a year. Blizzard will continue to generate expansion packs at a faster rate to please the subscriber base. WoW is a near endless trove of money for Activision.

$13 Billion is a low ball offer , I seriously doubt Vivendi will sell Activision for that. If anything the new COD and new WoW expansion will inflate that number if a sale is to be generated.
 
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As long as they restructure Bobby Kotick's position, then all is well
 
They would get more than $13 billion if they sold it to another company. Their stock is worth $13 billion. They would probably ask somewhere in the 15-20 billion range. Anyway the interesting thing about this is that is Vivendi is seriously considering it I wonder how bad their other divisions are doing that they need this quick influx of cash.
 
Best guess: If this happens, who do we see buying them? EA? Ubisoft? Someone big like that?
 
Q-BZ said:
Best guess: If this happens, who do we see buying them? EA? Ubisoft? Someone big like that?
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If either of them bought it , it would be a sad day for gamers. Last thing we need is a giant like EA or Ubifail getting a hold of those franchises..

It would honestly suck.
 
Q-BZ said:
Best guess: If this happens, who do we see buying them? EA? Ubisoft? Someone big like that?
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That would be a huge competetive move. But I don't see it happening. I think another world conglomerate like Vivendi will end up buying out, if it happens.
 
Blizzard are trying for (at least) one game/expansion release a year, because they would be nothing but WoW monthlies and payments otherwise which would put them closer to this line, but Activision is two IPs bringing money and of those one is worn out even in the eyes of the suits, and the other is a risky continued investment especially with how THQ went down.

Vivendi merged Blizzard with Activision when they bought them, but will pull them back out in case of a sale. Vivendi are definitely not finding much value in being the 61% owner of Activision when they can only bring in 15% of the total Vivendi group revenue. Let's not forget what went down in court, and the secret but ACTV-earning-nullifying sum that they paid to settle out of court.

Best case scenario:
Nobody loses a job but the people behind Activision going to court - Kotick included.
 
Fuck this means pretty Activision may actually have to take a risk!? :(
 
MrLonghair said:
Vivendi merged Blizzard with Activision when they bought them, but will pull them back out in case of a sale.

Best case scenario:
Nobody loses a job but the people behind Activision going to court - Kotick included.
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Those two things would make me really happy. : )

Piscian18 said:
Fuck this means pretty Activision may actually have to take a risk!?
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Scary stuff!
 
Godmachine said:
If either of them bought it , it would be a sad day for gamers. Last thing we need is a giant like EA or Ubifail getting a hold of those franchises..

It would honestly suck.
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Yeah they might start doing yearly rehashes of the same game, consolise things, remove dedicated servers, shovel DLC of recycled map packs...

...oh wait :p
 
Tudz said:
Yeah they might start doing yearly rehashes of the same game, consolise things, remove dedicated servers, shovel DLC of recycled map packs...

...oh wait :p
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But think of this , it would only get worse. Just because its crap now doesn't mean there isn't any room for further fail ;) This is EA and Ubisoft we're talking about don't forget. They know "fail" really fucking well.
 
Godmachine said:
But think of this , it would only get worse. Just because its crap now doesn't mean there isn't any room for further fail ;) This is EA and Ubisoft we're talking about don't forget. They know "fail" really fucking well.
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I really could see one of them making a move if the intent to sale really happens and the price stays in "lowballing" range.

I think we'd better brace ourselves. ;)
 
Godmachine said:
If either of them bought it , it would be a sad day for gamers. Last thing we need is a giant like EA or Ubifail getting a hold of those franchises..

It would honestly suck.
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Why because these franchises are dear to your heart?
Screw CoD, Screw WoW.

D3, i'm still 50/50 on it. I stopped playing after about a week. :(
 
Roliath said:
D3, i'm still 50/50 on it. I stopped playing after about a week. :(
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I stopped about a week ago. Not because I'm bored but because it's not really fun in single-player. It's another game to add to Borderlands, RE5, and Dungeon Defenders that I simply won't play without someone else.
 
i hope not, god i hope not cause if they do some one in china will buy it

thats 100% for sure, they buy up everything now adays :/
 
Derangel said:
I stopped about a week ago. Not because I'm bored but because it's not really fun in single-player. It's another game to add to Borderlands, RE5, and Dungeon Defenders that I simply won't play without someone else.
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Hell, I racked up north of 60 hours in Borderlands solo. Give it another whirl some time. :)
 
Q-BZ said:
Hell, I racked up north of 60 hours in Borderlands solo. Give it another whirl some time. :)
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It didn't grab me as much solo. However I have nearly 100 hours into the game 90 of it is co-op.
 
Godmachine said:
If either of them bought it , it would be a sad day for gamers. Last thing we need is a giant like EA or Ubifail getting a hold of those franchises..

It would honestly suck.
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I'm not sure if your serious or seriously brainwashed, cause all those games are fucking terrible.
 
Blizzard still has a major wildcard up their sleeves in Titan. I have no idea what it will be but if anyone can invigorate the mmo genre it's Blizzard. My guess is some sort of f2p mmofps, at least that's what I'm hoping it'll be.
 
Johnked6 - Check out www.planetside2.com . It may be just what you're looking for. Won Best of E3 just now and is soon headed to Beta. I played the original way back when, near a decade ago and it was way ahead of its time; one of the only FPSes that has ever really captivated me.

That said, if Blizzard can get out from under Activision's paws and strike out on their own, hopefully putting some of their greed and player-unfriendly policies behind them that are obvious Activision spawn, I say go for it. From their facebook BS, to the Real-ID coup that was only thwarted because players threatened to quite en masse if our real names were posted on every forum and community site etc.... Activision has been a plague on Blizzard since it got its grubby mits on the company.
 
Xaeos said:
Johnked6 - Check out www.planetside2.com . It may be just what you're looking for. Won Best of E3 just now and is soon headed to Beta. I played the original way back when, near a decade ago and it was way ahead of its time; one of the only FPSes that has ever really captivated me.

That said, if Blizzard can get out from under Activision's paws and strike out on their own, hopefully putting some of their greed and player-unfriendly policies behind them that are obvious Activision spawn, I say go for it. From their facebook BS, to the Real-ID coup that was only thwarted because players threatened to quite en masse if our real names were posted on every forum and community site etc.... Activision has been a plague on Blizzard since it got its grubby mits on the company.
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Obviously Activision's spawn? Have you been paying any attention to what Blizzard has been doing for the past uhh...Decade or so? Blizzard runs autonomously and they have been owned by one big company or another for a very long time. As for "greed" Blizzard beat the $60 price tag by over a decade with WC3 and D2. Nothing they have done recently seems at all out of place for them. Blizzard will never strike out "on their own" they've been owned by some company or another since 94 a whole three years after they were formed. They've been part of Vivendi since 98.
 
Vivendi have been less "hands on" than Activision by far. Those pricing issues are the only things that I've seen them do prior to Activision control I'd really object to - I never had to worry about my privacy, Facebook sales and data mining, Real ID community full-name posts, $10 pets and $25 mounts that do not go to charity, $100+ special editions, Real Money auction house with HORRIBLE policies and "double dip" fees of 15%-30% total etc... There have been marked changes in monetization, privacy, and respect for the userbase since Activision's ownership.
 
Xaeos said:
Vivendi have been less "hands on" than Activision by far. Those pricing issues are the only things that I've seen them do prior to Activision control I'd really object to - I never had to worry about my privacy, Facebook sales and data mining, Real ID community full-name posts, $10 pets and $25 mounts that do not go to charity, $100+ special editions, Real Money auction house with HORRIBLE policies and "double dip" fees of 15%-30% total etc... There have been marked changes in monetization, privacy, and respect for the userbase since Activision's ownership.
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Weren't there expensive CEs for D2 and WC3 as well? Blizzard's demands from any company that has owned them has been autonomous operations. That's why they publish their own titles. If Activision was truly doing what you claim do you really think they would have waited how many years for Diablo 3? Or that they would be taking their time with the RMAH? Microtransations in WoW and the RMAH feel a lot more like Blizzard reacting to the market than anything else. WoW has lost a serious amount of subscribers over the past couple years and it's been proven over and over again that MMO players don't mind buying stuff. Logical leap to saying "hey let's sell some shit". With the RMAH again it's another logical step: Since the early days of Diablo 2 people were buying and selling items with real money. Blizzard would be stupid not to get involved.

DRM? I'm not a huge fan of it but it's a 3rd logical step for them. Blizzard has wanted control over their titles for a long time. Why do you think they refuse to sale their titles on other digital services? They would lose that control. Anyway think about it if you want to control what players do, want to control the eSports crowd (SC2), and control how players trade items (D3) using that DRM makes sense. LAN play would allow people to bypass this control so it's axed and Blizzard knows that their fans will buy anything they put out so it doesn't matter.

Before WoW is done I bet you we will see a lot more microtransactions. There will never be another MMO like it and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz made WoW Pay2Win or Free2Play (I'm voting for the first personally).
 
Johnked6 said:
Blizzard still has a major wildcard up their sleeves in Titan. I have no idea what it will be but if anyone can invigorate the mmo genre it's Blizzard. My guess is some sort of f2p mmofps, at least that's what I'm hoping it'll be.
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I'm willing to bet it won't have over 2 million subs. Blizzard are no longer innovators of the MMO genre, and the proof is in the 2 latest expansions. The only reason why they manage to hold the subs they do is because people have some sort of stupid bond to their toons, or don't leave because of some dumb social aspect.

If Titan also ends up being a shooter type MMO that carries a sub it probably won't break a million subs simply because of games such as PS2 that will be completely F2P.

With all that said I would like to see Bobby Kotick fired simply because I hate his fucking face.
 
Derangel said:
Before WoW is done I bet you we will see a lot more microtransactions. There will never be another MMO like it and honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Blizz made WoW Pay2Win or Free2Play (I'm voting for the first personally).
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what's the difference between Pay2Win and Free2Play? :p
 
Liqq said:
I'm willing to bet it won't have over 2 million subs. Blizzard are no longer innovators of the MMO genre, and the proof is in the 2 latest expansions. The only reason why they manage to hold the subs they do is because people have some sort of stupid bond to their toons, or don't leave because of some dumb social aspect.

If Titan also ends up being a shooter type MMO that carries a sub it probably won't break a million subs simply because of games such as PS2 that will be completely F2P.

With all that said I would like to see Bobby Kotick fired simply because I hate his fucking face.
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I doubt we'll ever see another monthly MMO reach anywhere near those numbers. WoW was a once in a lifetime event.
 
Derangel said:
I doubt we'll ever see another monthly MMO reach anywhere near those numbers. WoW was a once in a lifetime event.
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Lets hope developers and publishers realise this after failed WoW clone after failed WoW clone and they can finally get the MMO idea out of their head or at least innovate it slightly more.
 
Tudz said:
Lets hope developers and publishers realise this after failed WoW clone after failed WoW clone and they can finally get the MMO idea out of their head or at least innovate it slightly more.
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It would be nice if the failure of the $300+ TOR gives other studios a kick in the ass. I would love to play a MMO but they need to offer something other than the WoW leveling treadmill. TOR had so much potential but they went after WoW too much. Tera's gameplay seems alright and I had fun playing a bit of it but I don't know it couldn't hook me plus I refuse to pay $15 a month for it.
 
lol I'd LOVE to see EA buy them, fire Bobby and then let West/Zampella run the CoD franchise again.

That would be awesome.
 
Free to play will rack in a shit load of money because there will be a boat load of dlc. They will nickle and dime people to death, watch it happen. If EA buys it then its going to go to Hell in a hay wagon.
 
Derangel said:
It would be nice if the failure of the $300+ TOR gives other studios a kick in the ass. I would love to play a MMO but they need to offer something other than the WoW leveling treadmill. TOR had so much potential but they went after WoW too much. Tera's gameplay seems alright and I had fun playing a bit of it but I don't know it couldn't hook me plus I refuse to pay $15 a month for it.
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TOR was doomed. It was a single player MMO (contradiction I know) if there ever was one. The single or "solo" quests involving your character and the story unfolding were cool but the team aspect or massive multiplayer aspect was really just completely an afterthought.

PVP is a joke , Raids were entirely too easy and still are not up to par of what was promised. The game has so many servers that its often a ghost town everywhere you go , even in the large in game hubs for trade and travel. Based on what I saw at E3 , TOR is offering features it should have offered Day 1 , server transfers being a big one.

TOR even had one of the hardest parts of any MMO game's creation , incredibly strong lore. And they still fucked it up.

And after a while the story that kept you involved and interested quickly got boring and repetitive. Bioware seemed to ignore all the knowledge they could have gained by studying WoW. Even if we don't like how WoW is run , its a formula that is very successful. If TOR only mirrored those features that are now paramount to any WoW player , they could have drawn in a much larger audience with greater success. Instead its ANOTHER Star Wars MMO down the toilet.
 
Liqq said:
I'm willing to bet it won't have over 2 million subs. Blizzard are no longer innovators of the MMO genre, and the proof is in the 2 latest expansions. The only reason why they manage to hold the subs they do is because people have some sort of stupid bond to their toons, or don't leave because of some dumb social aspect.

If Titan also ends up being a shooter type MMO that carries a sub it probably won't break a million subs simply because of games such as PS2 that will be completely F2P.

With all that said I would like to see Bobby Kotick fired simply because I hate his fucking face.
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Blizzard was NEVER an innovator in mmo's, EVERY single aspect of WoW was in other mmo's, from the core design stripped right from EQ (Class focus, theme park style world) to the arean's and things (many elements from Daoc).
 
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