Out of the blue, and on a Sunday to boot, Blizzard Entertainment owner Vivendi Games announced that it will be merging its assets and studios with those of Activision, in a deal worth a staggering $18.9 billion, more than the combined GDP of a whole sub-continent of Third world countries combined!
After the merger, Activision will be known as Activision Blizzard, with Vivendi Games operating as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Former Vivendi Games parent company Vivendi will hold a majority stake of approximately 52% in the new company Activision Blizzard, and Vivendi-designated representatives will also occupy a majority of the new company's board of directors.
Blizzard, well known for the addictive MMO World of Warcraft (PC), which has over 9.3 million subscribers to date, as well as currently in the process of developing and releasing Starcraft 2 and possibly, Diablo 3.
« From our interactions with the Activision team, it is clear we have much in common in terms of our approaches to game development and publishing," Morhaime continued. "Above all, we are looking forward to continue creating great games for Blizzard gamers around the world, and we believe this new partnership will help us to do that even better than before. »
In the publisher scene, undercurrent are strong and tides shift in strange ways. Quite how this will ruffle EA's feathers is yet to be seen
yeah read it yesterday, thoughed it was posted here somewhere
http://www.deadmen.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=21844
whoops, closed