Why cant Blizzard leave Activision ?

[Osmeric]

then why the f8ck did activision force them as documented on many creativity decisions if they only have 'publish deal'?

Two business entities can have a contract with each other without either owning the other, and such contracts can have terms dictating all sorts of things.

[Ashleyxoxo]

Oh you sweet summer child.

[Beefhammer]

then why the f8ck did activision force them as documented on many creativity decisions if they only have 'publish deal'?

Such as? Can you link said documentation?

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So who does own Blizzard? In general, people mean "Activision-Blizzard" when they say "Activision" (because the top management of A-B, particularly Kotick, came over from Activision in the deal that created A-B.) Pointing out that the box named "Activision" in the A-B org charge is not above the "Blizzard" box is pedantic.

No they don't. It's pretty apparent people do not understand that Activision and Blizzard are two seperate companies under the same holding company.

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i dont get how ppl come to that conclusion that Blizzard WANTS to leave.

ppls, you have to realize 2 things:

1)
the modern Blizzard has no longer, since many many years, anything in common with that „old great Blizzard“. most ppl of the old days are gone. mentality changed, leadership changed, philosophy changed. you are solely obsessed by a name (Blizzard). its the only thing that not changed. and all other things at Blizzard have nothing in common with the old company. why they should leave ATVI ? what would this change ?

2)
you praise Blizzard (a stupid name) like they would be the great Savior, if they just could (when not being enslaved by ATVI). thats nonsense. the ppl you hate, sit at Blizz HQ. its their leadership, their game design, their direction, the game goes. THEY suck. ofc Bobby declares the routes and goals. but do you think, if no Bobby and ATVI share holders exist, they forget all their greed and ignorance and be shiny again? lol. the ppl at (modern) Blizzard are what they are. even Mike Morhaime, when still there, got a greedy bastard. the times of „we just wanna do great games“ are loooong over. regardless if the old or new ppl. you can watch the cosby suite, when you wanna know how your once beloved heroes has changed.

what the hell do ppl think? that Blizz magically transfers into the good old gaming company, they once were, by being freed out of ATVIs enslavement??? wake up! Blizzard is another company, with another ppls. Solely the name stayed the same. some ppls reality imagination here is hillarious.

Old Blizzard was never independent. They couldn't survive without somone elses money.

[Osmeric]

No they don't. It's pretty apparent people do not understand that Activision and Blizzard are two seperate companies under the same holding company.

When people talk about Activision owning Blizzard, what they're implying by that is "Blizzard is owned by these others who have control over what Blizzard does", not "the specific box on the org chart named 'Activision' owns Blizzard". The gotcha comment about the latter just ignores the point that Kotick and friends at the top have Blizzard's jewels in a vice and can squeeze at will.

With that, you might ask why the players were calling it Activision. It's because the top management of Activision-Blizzard, when that combination was created, came from Activision, not from Blizzard. In that sense ATVI really still was the (old) Activision.

[sam86]

Such as? Can you link said documentation?

wc3 reforge, easiest and latest example, literally here on mmo last month

[pinkz]

Im not sure how that works,but since they merged long time ago,why they cant just split ? i really cant stand bobby kotick,nor his name nor his face and company leadership.

Vivendi Corp was the parent company of activision already and had acquired blizzard when they bought sierra gamimg. it was Vivendi Corp that merged them, then spun them off in Dec 2007 as ATVI on stock markets. Vivendi Corp was still though a major stock holder, i was watching CNBC on earnings reports end of MOP or start of WQD when they mentioned the rise in AVTI stock and that it was also affecting the parent company Vivendi Corp stock

so it's not like blizzard owned themselves and got merged

[Stickiler]

When people talk about Activision owning Blizzard, what they're implying by that is "Blizzard is owned by these others who have control over what Blizzard does", not "the specific box on the org chart named 'Activision' owns Blizzard". The gotcha comment about the latter just ignores the point that Kotick and friends at the top have Blizzard's jewels in a vice and can squeeze at will.

The thing is, this has literally always been the case for Blizzard Entertainment. If you've ever seen Blizzard on a box/game release, it's been owned by someone, because they renamed themselves from Chaos Studios to Blizzard Entertainment shortly after they first got bought. It's absolutely bonkers to be like "durr Blizzard was better before they got bought" because Blizzard has literally always been owned by another company.

[Beefhammer]

wc3 reforge, easiest and latest example, literally here on mmo last month

Blizzard made those creative decisions because ABK gave them a deadline to finish. ABK didn't force any creative decisions.

[Osmeric]

The thing is, this has literally always been the case for Blizzard Entertainment. If you've ever seen Blizzard on a box/game release, it's been owned by someone, because they renamed themselves from Chaos Studios to Blizzard Entertainment shortly after they first got bought. It's absolutely bonkers to be like "durr Blizzard was better before they got bought" because Blizzard has literally always been owned by another company.

Yes, but presumably the person at the top does matter. Kotick was not the same as whoever the hell was running Vivendi, or those running the earlier owners.

[sam86]

Blizzard made those creative decisions because ABK gave them a deadline to finish. ABK didn't force any creative decisions.

so activision, which can't force sh8t on blizz, made blizz do those bad decisions because they actually can force decision on them
no they can, they didn't care how blizz f8ck them game, but they cared that they fuck it regardless

[Beefhammer]

so activision, which can't force sh8t on blizz, made blizz do those bad decisions because they actually can force decision on them
no they can, they didn't care how blizz f8ck them game, but they cared that they fuck it regardless

The comment my response was to implied ABK was directly making design decisions for Blizzard. Imposing launch dates for games isn't directly making design decisions. As much as I would rather have a game come out when it's ready, Blizzard has been a meme in that regard typically taking way longer than industry average to release games that are still buggy or seem unfinished. They've needed a kick in the pants in this regard for over 20 years.

[Bloomer]

Im not sure how that works,but since they merged long time ago,why they cant just split ? i really cant stand bobby kotick,nor his name nor his face and company leadership.

Never gonna happen. Blizzard is not capable of pulling a demerger.
Literally the only hope of a demerger is if (and that's a big if) Activision initiate it.

[deenman]

its cute how people think its not the developers themselves that have ruined the game,and not some random dudes from a different company that have ZERO to do wwith actual content being made

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there is no blizzard anymore.

blizzard were people who cared about product quality and fans and they actually enjoyed their own games.
those people left activision-blizzard.

and enjoyed the ocasional cubicle crawling

[vilememory]

[Osmeric]

Never gonna happen. Blizzard is not capable of pulling a demerger.
Literally the only hope of a demerger is if (and that's a big if) Activision initiate it.

I think if ATVI goes that route it would sell off parts (and transfer to other ATVI units any pieces it wants to retain.) Given the turmoil at the top there's less of a case for keeping Blizzard together as a coherent entity. Who would want to preserve that corporate culture?

[sam86]

The comment my response was to implied ABK was directly making design decisions for Blizzard. Imposing launch dates for games isn't directly making design decisions. As much as I would rather have a game come out when it's ready, Blizzard has been a meme in that regard typically taking way longer than industry average to release games that are still buggy or seem unfinished. They've needed a kick in the pants in this regard for over 20 years.

i think after trying force date on them, i prefer old meme TM than current one
I had not just high hope, but MASSIVE hope for wc3 reforge, i pre-order it, but then canceled that after it started to look most promises won't happen

Never gonna happen. Blizzard is not capable of pulling a demerger.
Literally the only hope of a demerger is if (and that's a big if) Activision initiate it.

Also the most important point: the old guard team all left blizzard in first place, whose left of blizz pre-merge now to care about split and return blizz to its old status?

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its cute how people think its not the developers themselves that have ruined the game,and not some random dudes from a different company that have ZERO to do wwith actual content being made

again, just most recent, wc3 reforge is fucked due to activision decisions, if it was up to blizz only, we would get at least their promises like improved cutscenes
we don't 'think', we know, it is fact now confirmed

[Beefhammer]

i think after trying force date on them, i prefer old meme TM than current one
I had not just high hope, but MASSIVE hope for wc3 reforge, i pre-order it, but then canceled that after it started to look most promises won't happen

Also the most important point: the old guard team all left blizzard in first place, whose left of blizz pre-merge now to care about split and return blizz to its old status?

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again, just most recent, wc3 reforge is fucked due to activision decisions, if it was up to blizz only, we would get at least their promises like improved cutscenes
we don't 'think', we know, it is fact now confirmed

I get that, but their old games weren't perfect and bug free. Ever Bkizzard PC release was riddled with bugs. So the old we will release it when it's read attitude was just an excuse to not have any sense of urgency to release a game. I'm not saying the should have crunched hard, which they still did, but they just had no sense if any organization to efficiently release games.

[sam86]

I get that, but their old games weren't perfect and bug free. Ever Bkizzard PC release was riddled with bugs. So the old we will release it when it's read attitude was just an excuse to not have any sense of urgency to release a game. I'm not saying the should have crunched hard, which they still did, but they just had no sense if any organization to efficiently release games.

there is noway u can make a game 100% bug free
they were delaying to implement features and promises, not to fix bugs, at least minor ones, major ones that kill games of course need fix but not every minor one

[Beefhammer]

there is noway u can make a game 100% bug free
they were delaying to implement features and promises, not to fix bugs, at least minor ones, major ones that kill games of course need fix but not every minor one

Oh I understand that. The point is, people act as if the older Blizzard games had less bugs. D2 had 19 patches to fix major and minor bugs in the first 12 months. Their old games were just as buggy as their newer games.

From a business perspective, you don't want to piss off the guys supplying your capital. I'm sure Vivendi was glad to get rid of Blizzard. Many studios have put out better and bigger products in less time than Blizzard has in similar time frames. I know there is a fine line to walk since art isn't necessarily something that can be streamlined. But seriously, Blizzard has needed a fire lit under them for a very long time.