Activision came in, blizz execs (and possibly old guard) got rich.
Well deserved btw, if the people behind d2, d3 and first couple expansions of wow dont deserve a golden handshake, who in the gaming industry does.
Could they potentially pool all the money they made doing the merger, and buy back blizzard? maybe, but would it be worth it?
Mike and co have left Blizzard to start a new game studio, supposedly based on their old values. That's alot cheaper than refunding a billion dollar merge deal with activision, and despite the drop in player retention, blizzard as a company (stocks) is way more expensive today, than when they merged. Increasing the cost of a potential buyback today.
There's no logical way they buy back the blizzard IP's before actiblizz has run them into the ground. (Probably wont be too many years yet.)
But if they leave then who can the community blame?
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Co-dependency is a hell of a drug.Why cant Blizzard leave Activision ?
Because in the real world, outside of MMO-C and social media outrage, shit don't work like that.
Blame bad developments and culture on Blizzard, because they're the ones in the end doing the work and making the decisions around the games they put out under their own company.
The cash shop was obviously on the cards before Activision came anywhere near Blizzard. We already had RMT mounts in Vanilla from the TCG and TBC introduced MTX like server transfers and name-changes. When the cash shop proper came in Blizzard and Activision were still controlled by Vivendi SA, the people who had owned Blizz since before WoW was released.
This sound like a buyout to me:
Split from Vivendi and growth (2013–2014)
On July 25, 2013, Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from owner Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September.[33] At the conclusion of the deal, Vivendi was no longer Activision Blizzard's parent company,[34] and Activision Blizzard became an independent company as a majority of the shares became owned by the public. Bobby Kotick and Brian Kelly retained a 24.4% stake in the company overall. In addition, Kotick remained the president and CEO, with Brian Kelly taking over as chairman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activision_Blizzard#Split_from_Vivendi_and_growth_(2013%E2%80%932014)AlsoOn 25 July 2013, Vivendi asset Activision Blizzard announced the purchase of 429 million shares from Vivendi for $5.83 billion, dropping the shareholder from a 63% stake to 11.8% by the end of the deal in September, ending Vivendi's majority ownership of Activision Blizzard.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivendi
Recently, however, Vivendi has been struggling to reduce its debt, reported to be in the region of $17bn. The conglomerate is also in talks to sell off its shares in African phone operator Maroc Telecom to Etisalat for $5.5bn.
https://www.theguardian.com/technolo...splits-vivendi
Last edited by Amorac; 2021-08-03 at 04:01 PM.
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For the same reason Donalds can't leave Mc.
Same reason England can't leave Europe.
One is a fundamental part of the other and their departure will not be taken with anything but hostility.
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The founders of Blizzard had sold the company many, many years before Activision came around. I think they did it to get the funds to release the original Orcs and Humans Warcraft RTS. Contrary to popular legend Activision didn't swoop in on a plucky little group of developers who had been producing games purely for the love of the art and made them start worrying about money and profits. At the time Activision-Blizzard came into being Blizzard was owned by a ridiculously big mega-global corporation, and it's this corporation that ended up with the controlling interest in both companies.
Blizzard is blizz in name only. Bobby Kotick has already assumed direct control.
Secondly, be careful what you wish for... because there's whispers in some financial circles that ATVI will try to sell off Blizz to Tencent, and if that happens, you'll be nostalgic of the days of ATVI compared to what Tencent would do to WoW, Diablo, and starcraft... mtx city
...because Activision owns Blizzard.
I believe Activision owns the seats at Blizzard. So, unless Activision releases (sells) those board seats, Blizzard is pretty much its bitch.
Hence Mike recreating selling to them as "the worse mistake they made".
I think it's the phrasing, while technically correct saying "Activision-Blizzard bought out Vivendi" makes it sound like A-B became owners of Vivendi. "Acti-Blizz bought themselves out from Vivendi" is clearer.
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When did Mike say that?