@cookiesareafriend: Yeah, just like Flagship Studios!

Also...the article doesnt say that Blizzard will be making GH for asia. It says they'll use Blizzards reputation to market/sell the product in asia.

teamr

@Pornosaur:

I don't think the Team Lead of the most profitable videogame ever made would abandon his own game and company unless he/she was positive that better results could be achieved elsewhere...

cookiesareafriend

It was also ex-blizz that made Hellgate no? We see how well that turned out.

Pornosaur

@gaijira: Who needs proof? When someone types it then it is so, so sayeth the internet.

Pornosaur

@gaijira: They left because they realized they were worth more than they were being paid after WOW reached 1 million subscribers in just a few months.

[www.red5studios.com]

Red 5 studios was formed by ex blizzard employees after WoW launched.

"Key leaders and team members from Blizzard Entertainment's® World of Warcraft® game founded the Red 5, including the former team lead, the art director for the project, and the co-founder of Blizzard® Korea. They brought with many other former World of Warcraft and Blizzard team members, including artists, programmers, and designers."

When your team leads leave to form a new studio, you'd imagine they'd take the best co-workers with them that they could, or else they probably wouldn't have taken the risk to begin with.

I would imagine even more staff will defect as a result of the merger, being asked to make a guitar hero for Asian audiences?

Sure, that sounds exactly like what talented Blizzard employees want to be doing with their time, given their history

cookiesareafriend

Also, side note (and this is something that everyone seems to overlook): VU is the majority shareholder in the newly merged company. It's called Activision Blizzard, sure. Activision is clearly taking the lead, at least publicly. But VU owns the company, essentially...

VU's talked about getting out of the games business for years, so hopefully this is their way of "getting out" while still reaping the monetary rewards. My sincere hope is that they let Activision run everything.

Reverend_MoJo

@kidko:

For everyone who was under the VU/Sierra umbrella, being out from under that is a benefit, even if it comes at the cost of their job. Trust me. I worked at a company that was published exclusively by VU, and VU was terrible.

The good thing about working w/ VU: they looooved to throw money around. VU cuts bigger checks than everybody else, typically. Outside of that, it's terrible. Look at VU's track record. They push more crap on the market than anyone else.

The only reason they were profitable (and I mean this quite literally) is that they somehow managed to acquire and not lose Blizzard, and WoW single-handedly made up for their losses on every other title they published.

Reverend_MoJo

Holy crap.

How is this bad news in any way?
What's so weird about Guitar Hero being marketed by Blizzard in Asia? It's just using a brand name, and it's not like it's going to make Blizzard any worse off. It's not like the entire Diablo 3 team is going to be breaking off to promote GH3 in Korea.

People here are really overreacting to this. Either way, this is a good marketing strategy. It's really good news for all parties involved.

Providence

Blizzard has released nothing but exceptional quality since the early 90s. Their games get played for decades unlike most of the games these days that you're bored with in a few days or months if you're lucky. Their ideals, as @kingmanic pointed out ensure that. They cancelled Ghost when it was nearly finished because it wasnt fun/good enough. Designers and developers come and go butas long as the management/business people maintain the same culture and ideals and unrelating spastic OCD for quality they will be fine.

They merged because their parent wanted to merge, but Vivendi has majority share and seats on the board, and Blizzard is their biggest asset. Therefore Blizzard will have dictated that they are left the hell alone. I think the only change we'll see is activision using Blizzard's internally developed game engines and and blizzard relieving some of its publishing and promotion work onto other people.

Crankyhobo

It would be awesome if someone (Leigh-roy!) at Kotaku took a good look at the brands that were under Vivendi who are getting screwed over by the merger.

kidko

I still want that Bard class in WoW [www.worldofwarcraft.com]

Struct09

i quit the whole WOW thing cold turkey after 2.5 years...but I must say. They know what they're doing. Blizzard doesn't half a$$ anything.

But yes. Guitar Hero ties ins...weird?

I think they mean more of the technology...and maybe the connections and contacts with that area. Not blizzard making shiz there.

djbrandon

All Blizzard does is churn out sequels, which is the same thing Activision does. The difference is Blizzard makes good sequels that don't come out every year, and it helps that they have a money printing machine too.

It seems that Activision could take some lessons from Blizzard.

Syrus28

@kingmanic: Oh, like Blizzard's customers aren't 99% nerd ragers! ;D

Kidding, great points. Every developer and publisher out there could learn a lot from Bliz, even if they are in totally different markets.

gaijira

@wild homes works for the IRS, journalises games!: It would be less "game" ideas and more "management" ideas they are referring to. A company that consistently prints money regardless of design team personalities is a company you want to be like, not change the management of. Activision could benifit from adopting Blizzard management and Q&A while blizzard just needs to be well financed.

@cookiesareafriend: Design teams that leave Blizzard haven't made anything as good since they left. Which suggests Blizzards success is more then talented designers. I think tougher Q&A and sound business philosophies keep their ship upright. So much staff have pass through blizzard with all of their memorable work done at blizzard and not after. Blizzards seems to do these things
1 push quality over quantity
2 push polish over new features
3 release when it's ready
4 support your existing customer base
5 support your products
6 be willing to scrap bad products
7 listen to our customers, not the screaming nerd ragers

kingmanic

@gaijira: I, too, would like to have that link as well.

Jest

Yeah, why distract them with new ideas when you haven't come up with any anyway?

Mal-Content

@cookiesareafriend: "Most of the team that worked on World of Warcraft left Blizzard before the merger anyway" Um, who of the hundreds who worked on WoW are you talking about? Care to link any news story about this mass exodus? All the top WoW designers and producers are still at Blizzard, why would they leave?

gaijira

@ChivalRuss: Blizzard already has enough guitar playing elves. They have 1. The level 70 ETC guitarist appears in WoW cities sometimes.

I don't fully understand the reason for both these companies to merge. If anything its gonna slow down Blizzards already... lengthy... productions. There isn't really a reason as far as I can tell TO merge. Blizzard makes MORE then enough money and Activision has enough games produced to make not as much money. From WoW alone blizzard makes 6[29.99 = 2 months.](10,000,000[players] x 29.99[2 month time card]).

TheBoxNinja

Forget Guitar Hero, hopefully this merger will mean Ghost will see the light of day.

Flawless101

World of Guitar Hero would only exist to kill thousands of Korean kids.

Yert

That's too bad, I'd love to see a shake up over there at Blizzard.

Patient

Maybe I can play as an orc in the GH: World Tour?

gomerkyle9

It would be awesome to kill a bunch of killer Tony Hawks in a hidden level of Diablo III, though.

GrrSnort

"...to distract them with new ideas."

Activision, the company that never met a sequel it didn't like, distract Blizzard with new ideas? Activision wouldn't recognise a new idea if it chomped on their balls.

wild homes loves you but chooses darkness!

I think some of you are overreacting.. blizzard is going to be fine and activision isn't going to mess up how awesome they are.

sc00t420

"If you consider that Guitar Hero is not in Asia yet and that the only way to create a business there is figuring out ways to work in internet cafes, etc., we hope to benefit from their expertise."

You've got to be fucking kidding me.

Arttemis

"...It's not like we need to go there and fix something..."

Yeah, you're right, the WOW-money-printing machine is working flawlessly.

SegevRaz

Sporting the Blizzard name will give you some instant credibility in Asia/NA/Europe/the moon. But used enough, all that will happen is that the Blizzard name will become watered down.

Sounds like a quick way for the Activision folks to cash in on some of the Blizzard name's image.

Mooglecharm

"It would be a big mistake for us to distract them with new ideas."

Ouch...

Most of the team that worked on World of Warcraft left Blizzard before the merger anyway...

This is just another Rare.

cookiesareafriend

I really don't want Blizzard involved in Guitar Hero at all.

chuffhoncho

Thank god that Activision were big enough idiots to split those geniuses apart.

The janitor at Blizzard is wiser than the Top Activision Exec.

Arsenicberyllium

"Faily independant"?

So, just the new Guitar-Playing Elf class, and then they'll leave them alone.

ChivalRuss

Color me surprised... that it even had to be stated. I just assumed.

Reverend_MoJo

I've been saying that for months. It's a no brainer, you do NOT release RB/GH in Asia. First of all, you have to be a minimalist with the limited living space. Second, One way 99.9% of the people from the East relieve their stress is liquor, all kinds of food, and bad singing.

Create an authentic Karaoke game and find a way to entice the gamers to sing one more song. Create a partnership for the tri-music market that freely flows from China, Japan, and Korea.

This is why you see FOB 2nd or 3rd generations plunking down thousands for a Home Karaoke system in America and the many young'ens who does not have a valid outlet of spending such money but would love to have a conventional system, xbox/ps, to play them on.

Its all a failure though, besides japan; console is extremely weak in the East compared to the density of gamers in the States.

PsycheE

@teamr:

I wasn't aware that Blizzard North had anything to do with making World of Warcraft.

cookiesareafriend

@innociv:

for starcraft, because they love starcraft there.

cookiesareafriend

Jesus christ people.

They aren't talking about having Blizzard work on Guitar Hero.

They're talking about CONSULTING Blizzard on what would be the best way to make their game sucessful in Asia, as Blizzard has done great in doing so with their games.
Blizzard have done presentations in Asia. They know what to do there.

Read, please.

innociv

@TheBoxNinja:
Your revenue calculations can't be correct. Even at the cheaper six-month subscription card (effectively $12.99/month), it yields US$1.55 billion, but according to Vivendi's annual report, Blizzard only made US$1.08 billion in 2007. Even if you take their subscriber base of 8 million at the onset of 2007, it would still yield US$1.25 billion. Not to mention the purchases of the WoW game and long-tail sales from their other games. It is likely that their subscriptions aren't all active and paying or that they charge a lower rate for different countries. I'm not sure as I don't play WoW or live in a foreign country, but I would think it's a combination of both.

jgw

@jgw: Are you sure that wasn't 1.08billion AFTER expenses though?

Last I heard Blizzard makes about 50% profit on the subscriptions after all expenses are paid.

innociv

@cookiesareafriend: Yes, and WoW also.
WoW is doing well in Asia.

Experience is experience.

I don't know of any major Activision showings at any South Korean, Chinese, or Japanese conventions, or even any minor ones.

innociv

If they want to work in internet cafes, they should hit up Valve.

...Valve and Blizzard...

Yes. YES. YES!! *cackling laughter*

Also, Leigh, I have to say, you nearly made me go into cardiac arrest with this sentence: "However, Tippl did mention to MCV one new use the company has in mind for Blizzard:"

Never was a "More » " button clicked with more urgency than it was then.

man in gauze is king ramses II, silly.

thank the heavens, there just might be a god, let alone one that loves us..., sure dozer, sure...

dozerking

@PsycheE: That's why he said this: "the only way to create a business there is figuring out ways to work in internet cafes."

Marl13

Yeah, so basically they mean how are they going to make money off supplying tons of guitars for people at Game Cafe's in South Korea for people to play it and blah blah. What if it's a flop, all that moeny wastedon guitars. How are they going to sell something to all those cafes that costs more than your average game sice it has the periphrial.

I'm 99.9% certain what he was saying has nothing to do with Blizzard doing any sort of development at all on Guitar Hero.

Oh and didn't Vivendi used to publish HL2? Then EA got them. Would of been an even huger merger. :P

innociv

Ah yes, now Blizzard can continue to do the minimalist of effort, get praised massively for it, and make sure any and every other competitor in the field gets flat out ignored, despite any and all possible superiority, or similarity, simply due to some sort of insane ingrained blind admiration for Blizzard above and beyond all else.

otimus

@otimus: It's all true, because you said so! No need for facts or anything to get in the way(it's not like you have any, that could back you up anyway).

mizeriq

For those who are claiming that Blizzard people are jumping ship for other companies because they're not happy, or because their creativity is being squashed...that's just silly.

I know RedFive was brought up. Have you spoken to the people who work at RedFive who are ex-Blizzard employees? They will tell you that working for Blizzard was one of the best jobs they ever had.

This is the way the creative industries flow people. Employees come and go. Form new companies...work on new projects and IPs. Sometimes a paycheck is not all that is important. People are always looking to try new things. If there is one thing I've learned from working in this industry its that creative people are more willing to try new things, go to new places, and take more risks then your usual corporate desk monkeys.

So yes...you'll see people leave even strong companies to try something new. That's just the sort of person that this industry attracts. Not every design team that moves on from a company is a sign of weakness in that company.

PixelPenumbra

Can't pull it up now due to the great work firewall. However I remember seeing numbers at some point that about 5 million of those 10 million WoW subscribers are in Asia and that they pay an average of between 3 and 4 dollars a month (it is an hourly rate over there). That is why when you say 15*12*10,000,000 you get a number much larger than Blizzards yearly income.

Niroth

World of Guitarcraft?

Locke562

I'll drop dead the day there's not one complaint about something posted, whiiine more please.

Matttt17

@otimus: 'minimalist of effort'? I see it as they know what works, and like to create true sequels. Not every game has to have a completely design makeover like Fallout 3 (not that I'm bashing it right now) I fail to see how one of the only developers who consistently delivers games that people still play a decade down the line shouldn't deserve admiration. Care to explain how it's "insane ingrained blind admiration"? Virtually all their games are testament to their deserving respect

Starpip

I'm so glad Activision isn't going to ruin Blizzard. I was so worried.

JMHaggard

BARD CLASS FTW!!!!!

Oh yes. Bring on that April Fools joke. I'll come back to WOW for the bard.

gblock

@innociv:
According to Vivendi's annual report, Blizzard's revenue contribution (top line, not bottom, meaning how much they take in) was 814mm Euros, about US $1.08bn. Their EBITDA margin was 42%, meaning about 42% of their revenue, after expenses, was cash flow for Vivendi. It's possible that the WoW division runs at 50% operating margin (EBITDA less D&A), and that the dip below is due to their other less-profitable divisions.

I was simply pointing out it's not correct to take 10 million players x 12 months x $13/$14/$15 per month per player to arrive at their revenue number. Thanks to Niroth for satisfying my curiosity.

jgw