Will Dreamhaven buy out blizzard from Activision?

[Neuroticaine]

Whats the chance that Michael Morhaime, seeing error of his ways, starts his own publisher with a plan of buying out Blizzard back from Activision and making it great again?

Probably about the same chance of me buying out Microsoft.

[Hinastorm]

Is this one of those things where people still think Blizzard from X year was their best friend and they believe mean old Activision came along and corrupted that friend? And that if they could just get the old band back together, that super duper friend they believe they used to have would come dancing back into their lives?

Yeah, it won't be happening.

What is your theory about why Blizzard is putting profit over game quality then? As opposed to old blizzard who put game quality first, and let the profit come from the fact that they were a cut above.

Of course they just delayed SL, which was a great move.

[cozzri]

Perhaps lost Vikings and Rock N Roll Racing didn't bring in enough cash to keep the company going.

Which is a good point because publishers had producers by the balls during that time period; controlling manufacture and distribution.

The climate is very much different now with tons of startups able to self publish and direct download distribution. There is really no motivation to sell unless you need help meeting demand from rapid growth or want to cash out. Plus crowdfunding can eliminate your need for investors.

[Doffen]

Is this one of those things where people still think Blizzard from X year was their best friend and they believe mean old Activision came along and corrupted that friend? And that if they could just get the old band back together, that super duper friend they believe they used to have would come dancing back into their lives?

Yeah, it won't be happening.

Pretty much

[Pogacsa]

Zero chance. Instead next year a video will appear on kickstarter/indiegogo/whatever with him smiling and saying:"Hi! I'm Michael Morhaime. You may remember me from titles like ... " Maybe a few concepct art drawings. Then a shitload of people will think "FINALLY! The real Blizzard is back!" and give them money. Lots of money.

[Azerate]

Dreamhaven will probably churn out a couple mediocre titles that a couple of people will buy "out of spite" for Blizzard and never even launch them. If you're expecting that company to become some messiah of video games then you're gonna get disappointed.

[Laerrus]

Waste of time and money. They should just team up with Bonfire Studios (Rob Pardo's) and make a new AAA MMO.

[Die]

I would question Dreamhaven's leadership if they did go public. They specifically stated that they wanted to take the focus off the short term.

That's really not a flaw of Blizzard at all. Blizzard was getting boat-raced by GGG in terms of putting out new content vis-a-vis Diablo 3 vs Path of Exile. Its a big reason why PoE toppled D3. Major Overwatch updates have been terribly slow. If anything, they need to pump out content faster.

[Graeham]

That's really not a flaw of Blizzard at all. Blizzard was getting boat-raced by GGG in terms of putting out new content vis-a-vis Diablo 3 vs Path of Exile. Its a big reason why PoE toppled D3. Major Overwatch updates have been terribly slow. If anything, they need to pump out content faster.

I think a large part of the problem with Blizzard is that they stretched themselves thin and effectively abandoned some of their more successful games in favour of new projects that...didn't quite play out as planned. Overwatch is an excellent example. It was originally some other project, I belief, that was salvaged and sold as something different. Though as you say, it has slowed down significantly in terms of development.

I know Overwatch 2 is a thing, though that in itself is an odd decision when the original game could just...be revamped and expanded.

[Nnyco]

Give them ten years before actually releasing a game to make money first.

[Mister K]

How many times did we see "ex-Blizzard employees start X company" a few. They also need a younger versions of themselfs hired to keep the blood fresh. Hopefully they will.

[Beuargh]

There's no point to it. Blizzard is only a name, the company isn't what it used to be and most employers who were working from the beginning have already left. Mike is better off building up his own company and make quality games.

obvious point would be to put his hand back on the warcraft franchise. not gonna happen anytime soon tho....

[Rennadrel]

There's no point to it. Blizzard is only a name, the company isn't what it used to be and most employers who were working from the beginning have already left. Mike is better off building up his own company and make quality games.

There is a point to it. To acquire Blizzard's intellectual properties. Those IPs have more value than the company itself.

[Deventh]

Whats the chance that Michael Morhaime, seeing error of his ways, starts his own publisher with a plan of buying out Blizzard back from Activision and making it great again?

Are you coming from 2007? Blizzard and Activision merged. Mike will have to buyout Activision as well and there is no way in hell he will ever, ever get the funds to do that.

The more probable thing is for Activision to buy Dreamhaven.

[dacoolist]

Dreamhaven couldn't buy out blizzard from activision if it wanted to. The only way it would be possible is a hostile take over of activision which dreamhaven isn't even near having the money for that to happen

Activision is making up 49% of all money, King making up 28% and Blizzard making 23%

( https://www.investopedia.com/how-act...-money-4799286 )

Activision is worth 80.62BILLION currently so I again highly doubt Dreamhaven will EVER be able to afford a takeover

[Die]

Overwatch is an excellent example. It was originally some other project, I belief, that was salvaged and sold as something different.

The team that made Overwatch originally had no idea what they were going to make. They split up into 3 teams to brainstorm a game and represent to the group. I forget what the first one was. The second one was a Starcraft MMO. They really liked how the SC MMO was coming along and were absolutely confident this was going to be their next game. But they stuck with their plan and checked out the 3 brainstorm which was Overwatch. They were blown away by OW so much they switched to it. Even Bobby Kotick was said to have taken a look at the characters of OW and said "this is what we should make."

We would have had a Starcraft MMO in 2016, probably the first expansion in 2018, and we'd be waiting on the second expansion coming out this year.

[Traveler Voltin]

The team that made Overwatch originally had no idea what they were going to make. They split up into 3 teams to brainstorm a game and represent to the group. I forget what the first one was. The second one was a Starcraft MMO. They really liked how the SC MMO was coming along and were absolutely confident this was going to be their next game. But they stuck with their plan and checked out the 3 brainstorm which was Overwatch. They were blown away by OW so much they switched to it. Even Bobby Kotick was said to have taken a look at the characters of OW and said "this is what we should make."

We would have had a Starcraft MMO in 2016, probably the first expansion in 2018, and we'd be waiting on the second expansion coming out this year.

Overwatch was created from the remains of Project Titan

[Die]

Overwatch was created from the remains of Project Titan

That is also true. But after Titan was cancelled, they did the "split into 3 teams" thing.

[Nihilist74]

I don't think Activision is going to let go of a cash cow like blizzard very easy.

[Mojo03]

I don’t think they ever will.

I don't think they want the weight of those franchises and the expectations that come with them.

They want to do smaller, different things without ridiculous expectations from what I gathered.

Big franchises seem to ruin studio environments and turn them into things more corporatized. I think they’re trying their best to avoid that, which is why I can’t see them ever doing that.