Activision and Blizzard Owner Vivendi Games Merge, Create Activision Blizzard

In a surprising and wholly unexpected Sunday announcement, Blizzard Entertainment owner Vivendi Games announced that it will be merging...

Chris Faylor

December 2, 2007 9:26 AM

135

Chris Faylor

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

Filed Under

From The Chatty

Refresh Go To Thread

Stage

 reply
December 2, 2007 9:28 AM

What? Why?
- mbknielsen
  
   reply
  December 2, 2007 9:32 AM
  
  World of Guitar Hero, that's why!
  - [deleted] 1575822246
    
     reply
    December 2, 2007 9:51 AM
    
    [deleted]
    - the archvile
      
       reply
      December 2, 2007 9:53 AM
      
      sad part is, I'd be vaguely interested in playing it, so long as it doesn't get shoveled off to Activision Blizzard Value.
      - kungfusquirrel
        
         reply
        December 2, 2007 9:57 AM
        
        I lol'd that post, but this does bring up a serious question in how Vivendi's majority stake will influence existing Activision studios/subsidiaries, if at all.
    - Deathlove
      
       reply
      December 2, 2007 10:13 AM
      
      I would play the shit out of facing Diablo by playing Devil Went Down to Georgia.
- jonin
  
   reply
  December 2, 2007 9:45 AM
  
  This puzzles me too, why would blizzard need to merge with anyone? They print their own money.
  - [deleted] 1784011840
    
     reply
    December 2, 2007 10:06 AM
    
    [deleted]
  - johnhead
    
     reply
    December 2, 2007 10:07 AM
    
    Vivendi is more than Blizzard. But the fact that the Blizzard name is moving forward, and not the Vivdendi name ... that shows the power of the Blizzard name and game library. Having a major corporation lose their name and identity to one of their studios is really unprecedented. That would be like Microsoft changing their corp name to XBox. Or Google being renamed YouTube. Wowsah. Can't wait to hear what the WSJ and CNBC say about this tomorrow morning.
    - the archvile
      
       reply
      December 2, 2007 10:24 AM
      
      Vivendi is a French water company. Their name was mud in the gaming world anyway with the way they treated the developers they publish (well, aside from Blizzard). They were probably one of the most prominent reasons why Valve worked to develop Steam: to get the fuck away from Vivendi.
      - johnhead
        
         reply
        December 2, 2007 11:30 AM
        
        I agree with why they are doing it .. just saying it is unprecedented at that level. I expect another reason is this name, and the 'drama' about it, will attract news stories. Maybe even stock sales. Interesting times we live in.