Why cant Blizzard leave Activision ?

[Raven]

Activision is its own gaming company with Rob Kostich as president

Blizzard is its own gaming company with Jen Oneal och Mike Ybarra as president.

Rob cant tell Jen and Mike at Blizzard what to do.
Jen and Mike cant tell Rob at Activision what to do.

Activion Blizzard is the holding company not a gaming company that holds the majority of shares in Blizzard and Acitivsion and President for the holding company is Robert Kotick, but both gaming companies is run as its own company.

[rrayy]

You are sort of wrong.. Activision and Vivendi did merge, and they kept the Blizzard name because... Blizzard.
So the new company resulting was named Activision Blizzard. Therefore, in a way, Activision owns Blizzard, just because Blizzard does not exist anymore as an independent company. Hence Michael Morhaime leaving and saying how "selling out" was a mistake. Once they merged, he was no longer the real "owner" of his company.

No they don't because there was no purchase Blizzard and Activision came together under one roof that was called ACtivision-Blizzard. Blizzard absolutely does exist as it's own company as it and Activision are subsidiaries under Activision-Blizzard. period.

[Arakkar]

Blizzard is wholly owned by ABK. In theory a split is possible, but there needs to be a lot of will and capital involved as operations are highly intertwined at this point.

[shise]

No they don't because there was no purchase Blizzard and Activision came together under one roof that was called ACtivision-Blizzard. Blizzard absolutely does exist as it's own company as it and Activision are subsidiaries under Activision-Blizzard. period.

I don´t think it´s that simple. Stock is a good reference.. they go under the same code.

Management positions are set by Activision-Blizzard. If the company would "split", those managers suddenly have to either take a side or check what their contract says (most likely they "belong" to Activision...Blizzard.

VIvendi was owning Blizzard, that is a fact. Then they merged with Activision, Blizzard´s name only remained because of its weight on the industry and then Vivendi saw the door itself out. Leaving ONE company behind, Activision Blizzard.

It is not like a Formula One team... You have Red Bull being a company, then Honda powering them, being another company. This is literally a merge, so no, Blizzard is not independent at all, they are simply a part of Activision now.. not now but for years.

[kranur]

Even if "Blizzard" was to split and become fully independant with no ties to Activision-Blizzard it will have 0 effect. The people who created the good old titles are gone.

It's the same delusion people have when sticking to a dying server after thr majority of guilds have transferred off. It's the people who played there that made the server what it was and not it's name.

[Magical Mudcrab]

You do know that Blizzard is not "owned" by Activision, right? They're not a subsidiary, or "just another studio under the Activision umbrella", etc. They merged.

They are a subsidiary. The merger was between Vivendi, the company that owned Blizzard at the time, and Activision; however, instead of calling the company Activision Vivendi, they opted to go with Activision Blizzard due to name recognition. Both Activision and Blizzard are subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard, and Kotick is CEO of Activision Blizzard, not Activision.

[rrayy]

I don´t think it´s that simple. Stock is a good reference.. they go under the same code.

Management positions are set by Activision-Blizzard. If the company would "split", those managers suddenly have to either take a side or check what their contract says (most likely they "belong" to Activision...Blizzard.

VIvendi was owning Blizzard, that is a fact. Then they merged with Activision, Blizzard´s name only remained because of its weight on the industry and then Vivendi saw the door itself out. Leaving ONE company behind, Activision Blizzard.

It is not like a Formula One team... You have Red Bull being a company, then Honda powering them, being another company. This is literally a merge, so no, Blizzard is not independent at all, they are simply a part of Activision now.. not now but for years.

Again wrong. Activision and Blizzard are two seprate companies that are subsidiaries under ACtvision-Blizzzrd. Actvision has NEVER owned Bliizard nr as Blizzard ever been a part of ACtivision. Period.

[Baine]

The cash shop, Warcraft 3 Reforged and overall game release dates (and resulting problems due to tight deadlines) are all proven Activision's fault.

It's difficult to make a great game with your hands tied behind your back.

I don't see why Blizzard store is problematic.

[lolmmofuture]

I don't see why Blizzard store is problematic.

takes away from the gameplay experience, and it just sucks

[Beefhammer]

takes away from the gameplay experience, and it just sucks

How? Please explain how it takes away from the gameplay experience.

[Baine]

How? Please explain how it takes away from the gameplay experience.

I guess stuff that should be only given in game so the elitist players can flex to dcrubs.

[Beefhammer]

I guess stuff that should be only given in game so the elitist players can flex to dcrubs.

It makes no sense. I could understand if they were selling gear or power to subvert playing portions of the game. But these arguments just reek of let's pile on Blizzard for no other reason just to jump on the bandwagon.

It's like that other thread about the mount you get for checking out HS and one dunce arguing it's malicious manipulation. As if every fucking company in the world doesn't do stuff to get you to buy/play/or try their other services/products.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Blizzard cant leave Activision because even if it manage to legally untangle from Activison it's stock would probably free fall. This would lead to major lawsuits from stockholders for basically not putting thier interests in front. That means for it to ever happen stockholders would need to gain almost immediately and I just don't see how that happens outside of some antitrust suit which again would mean the company had pretty much taken control of the industry so.. yeah. Plus out of the major companies under the Activision family tree Blizzard makes the least money. So they probably gain more than they lose being in the family.

Activision didn't ruin Blizzard. It enabled them. Blizzard is creatively bankrupt. If they were still putting out S tier games but monitization was the only problem you could then point to Activison with ire. But the truth is they can hardly muster a patch for a single game yearly and the quality has decreased. If anything Activison would want them pumping out endless waves of crap. No, Blizzard itself fucked itself.

[Okacz]

How? Please explain how it takes away from the gameplay experience.

MTXes never exist in a vacuum. The game is designed with them in mind.

Say, tokens (essentially purchasing gold) - after they were added to the store, they became another factor in gold distribution. Old balancing analytics that involved gold gains by players became outdated, since another metric showed up - potential for players who would purchase WoW token when they feel they are behind on farm and can't afford stuff in the game. Therefore it's logical to make sure that balance of average gold gain by player and average ingame cost of playing became slightly lower, right? A few of those players will purchase the token in that case, won't they?

Same goes for a ton of different scenarios, not even those involving tokens - even battle pets with special abilities in store change the balance of the game, even desirable mounts do. Does it take away from experience, who knows. But sure as hell does it change it.

[Osmeric]

Blizzard cant leave Activision because even if it manage to legally untangle from Activison it's stock would probably free fall.

What do you mean by "its stock"? There is only one stock, you know, in Activision-Blizzard. Blizzard has no stock of its own. It is not a separately traded corporate entity.

Anyway, the question is about as sensible as "why can't my ass separate from my body?" Blizzard is owned by Activision, in its entirety.

Blizzard could be spun off, but that's something Activision-Blizzard management (and the board of directors of Activision-Blizzard) would decide to do, not something Blizzard would decide to do. The most likely scenario for this happening is to salvage something from the wreckage of a dead Blizzard by monetizing some of its IP by selling it to someone else. Tencent, perhaps, or maybe Gamigo. There would be no reason to keep Blizzard intact in this process.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

What do you mean by "its stock"? There is only one stock, you know, in Activision-Blizzard. Blizzard has no stock of its own. It is not a separately traded corporate entity.

Anyway, the question is about as sensible as "why can't my ass separate from my body?" Blizzard is owned by Activision, in its entirety.

Blizzard could be spun off, but that's something Activision-Blizzard management (and the board of directors of Activision-Blizzard) would decide to do, not something Blizzard would decide to do.

I would imagine they would split and still be public or else they would probably have to return all investment potintal. So yeah...

[sam86]

Activision is its own gaming company with Rob Kostich as president

Blizzard is its own gaming company with Jen Oneal och Mike Ybarra as president.

Rob cant tell Jen and Mike at Blizzard what to do.
Jen and Mike cant tell Rob at Activision what to do.

Activion Blizzard is the holding company not a gaming company that holds the majority of shares in Blizzard and Acitivsion and President for the holding company is Robert Kotick, but both gaming companies is run as its own company.

then why (and how) many leaks and even admits from company on how activision control blizzard and forced them to do many shit, latest of them wc3 reforge?
if activision has 'no say' on blizzard, they say a lot

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What do you mean by "its stock"? There is only one stock, you know, in Activision-Blizzard. Blizzard has no stock of its own. It is not a separately traded corporate entity.

Anyway, the question is about as sensible as "why can't my ass separate from my body?" Blizzard is owned by Activision, in its entirety.

Blizzard could be spun off, but that's something Activision-Blizzard management (and the board of directors of Activision-Blizzard) would decide to do, not something Blizzard would decide to do. The most likely scenario for this happening is to salvage something from the wreckage of a dead Blizzard by monetizing some of its IP by selling it to someone else. Tencent, perhaps, or maybe Gamigo. There would be no reason to keep Blizzard intact in this process.

Bungie successfully ended its activision slavery, they pay the price high (really high), but so far seems worth it
By now however, i don't think blizz even wants to leave activision, who wants to leave? the old guard all left

[starstationprofm]

Activision is its own gaming company with Rob Kostich as president

Blizzard is its own gaming company with Jen Oneal och Mike Ybarra as president.

Rob cant tell Jen and Mike at Blizzard what to do.
Jen and Mike cant tell Rob at Activision what to do.

Activion Blizzard is the holding company not a gaming company that holds the majority of shares in Blizzard and Acitivsion and President for the holding company is Robert Kotick, but both gaming companies is run as its own company.

Louder for the people in the back.

People love to blame Activision for everything Blizzard's done bad.

[tankbug]

Leave activision? If Bobby sees Blizzard fail to deliver as expected going forward, he'll devour the company, keep the franchise and the devs, and spit out everything else. Blizzard's name being dragged down in the mud these days gives him a good excuse.

[Osmeric]

Bungie successfully ended its activision slavery, they pay the price high (really high), but so far seems worth it
By now however, i don't think blizz even wants to leave activision, who wants to leave? the old guard all left

Bungie had a ten year publishing deal with Activision-Blizzard, but was not owned by them.