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Blizzard and Activision merge in $18 billion deal
gamernode.com — In a move that'll shake the gaming market, BBC News revealed that Activision and Blizzard Entertainment will merge and form "the world's most profitable games business." The newly merged company will be called Activision Blizzard and the deal is worth to be $18.8 billion.As part of the merge, Blizzard will invest $2 billion into Activisio...
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- ArthasMenethil, on 12/02/2007, -2/+16Blizzard also plans to announce a new World of Warcraft raid boss: the Guitar Hero.
- Lyght, on 12/02/2007, -0/+6Don't forget Tony Hawk.
- DeRiza, on 12/02/2007, -2/+6Hmm... Who will be ruined more by their merge: BioWare or Blizzard? My money's on BioWare (sadly).
- praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -0/+1Answer: The Consumer.
- ahnonamis, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4I'm not really sure what Blizzard wants out of this. Not like they don't have enough money of their own from WoW.
- xZongx, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2The console market. It's never been their strong point, and that's what Activision brings.
- DisposableRob, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2Blizzard doesn't want anything. It's Vivendi that is capitalizing on the Blizzard name.
- tdous, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1Sure. I mean, why would they want get even more money?
..... oh wait...
- LogitechG15, on 12/02/2007, -3/+10Blizzard Dude: Hey! We make millions of dollars every month!
Other Blizzard Dude: Yeah....but we don't really spend it.
Blizzard Dude: Lets buy Activision?
Other Blizzard Dude: Good idea, 18 billion sound good? - LogitechG15, on 12/02/2007, -1/+10Here is the official posting from Blizzard themselves.
http://blizzard.com/press/071202.shtml - thenumber8, on 12/02/2007, -3/+5StarCraft 2
- Mohdoo, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2Has already been announced..What are you talking about? www.starcraft2.com lol.
- zachshmack, on 12/02/2007, -1/+3This is already on the front page.
- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -1/+2This story was added an hour before the other.
- zachshmack, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1Don't care. Learn to game digg better.
- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -1/+2This story was added an hour before the other.
- TotalHalibut, on 12/02/2007, -2/+6Not only is this a dupe story, but BOTH stories are on the front page.
- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -1/+4This one was added to digg over an hour before the other one.
- Mjuboy, on 12/02/2007, -1/+2Unfortunately, the other one hit the frontpage first so everyone would assume that this one is the dupe.
- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -1/+4This one was added to digg over an hour before the other one.
- Mjuboy, on 12/02/2007, -6/+3Duplicate story.
Buried.
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Activision_and_Vivendi ...- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -2/+5This story was posted over an hour before the joystiq one. Joystiq's the dupe, not this one.
- MarrowMan, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2WoW
- DeadlyCouncil, on 12/02/2007, -1/+1WHAT?!
- Mohrba769, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1wow thats a huge step. i cant wait to see the stuff they will be making, good things to come
- mustang460, on 12/02/2007, -3/+3this is currently six stories down on the main page buried as dupe
- Mazy1, on 12/02/2007, -1/+2This story was added an hour before the other one.
- LethalGeek, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2Someone bring me up to date, is Activision back to being good again? I know back in the NES era they rocked, then somewhere along they line they had a decline into the suck. They back to being sweet again or could they poison Blizzard?
- Icupnimpn2, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1As far as consoles go, Activision was at its best in the Atari days, with games like Pitfall, Kaboom!, and River Raid, not to mention an oodle of sports titles. They were really not that fantastic on the NES, with mostly license games like Ghostbusters I & II. The SNES didn't fare much better, but their Mechwarrior game was pretty fun. Activision saw a sort of 2nd renaissance in the Playstation era, with the success of Neversoft's Tony Hawk and Spider-Man games. Currently, Activision still has an incredible output of licensed dregs, but also has done well with some Marvel Comics games like Ultimate Alliance and also the Call of Duty series.
- Idura, on 12/02/2007, -0/+4Guitar hero 4: lords of destruction
Boxer's starcraft Underground
Call of Peons 5- DontEatTheFish, on 12/02/2007, -0/+3new guitar hero characters: Illidan and Arthas(with a frostmourne guitar)
- Blizzardman, on 12/02/2007, -1/+2:(
- citruspastels, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2not looking good for ea!
- rjraimo, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1If anything you could say this might be the wake up call EA needs after their string of sub-par games. With a lack of competition they have grown complacent. This might be the boost to get good games out of both houses. In the end I see it as a win for gamers.
- bmarc, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1Charlie Oscar *CASTING FROSTBOLT*
- DarkDx, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2Don't ***** screw up starcraft, please, you don't want 145 asians come into your HQs and do a super ninja massacre, don't you?
- Funger, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2Reminds me of G4techtv. I wonder how long it will take until they just call it Blizzard again.
- ICasualty, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1It just means we will see warcraft characters in Tony Hawk Pro Skater and THPS characters in the next major patch of WoW. With Tony Hawk being the new end game raid boss.
- JapaneseEconomy, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2This is good news, it means Vivendi will have loosened grips on the company and not be able to do as much damage and drag Blizzards franchises into the gutter. Vivendi had already recently made plans in a shareholder conference where they announced Blizzard would be making 4 or 5 new MMO games in the next 10 years in the already overcrowded genre, which is pure idiocy. Maybe Blizzard Activision should do this again and merge with Valve to lower Vivendi's ownership to below 50%.
- iammustangman, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2holy *****
this is the biggest gaming industry news i've ever seen
the software controls the market (imho of course), and these are two software giants
i'm just thankful EA isn't acquiring either of them, cuz that would blow. turning into two factions within gaming? blizzivision vs EA mega conglomerate? - hasahugedig, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1In related news, new MMORPGFPS game. World of Duty (WoD)
- johnhummel, on 12/02/2007, -0/+3As long as Blizzard is the one in control, this could be a good thing. They've always been about quality, and with the IP from Activision, they could certainly bring new life into some games.
At least, we won't have to fear BMX XXX coming from Blizzard... - mlvassallo, on 12/02/2007, -0/+2This has been coming for some time. Right after Blizzard restructured its offices and moved a lot of their devisions to Austin, Texas there was talk of the merger. I hope what it means is a commitment to console gaming from Blizzard.
- Planets, on 12/02/2007, -3/+1Can anyone *please* confirm this as a joke?
- zachshmack, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1Guys, Mazy1 wants everyone to know that this story was submitted first. Because it really matters.
- RADRaze2KX, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1All I know is that Activision better not add mechs to my Diablo III
- huggablejunk, on 12/02/2007, -2/+3NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- drewcarey, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1This is awesome. Activision and Blizzard, the two best game companies in the business, are now a super-duper machine of death and destruction. I expect nothing but amazingness from this merger...
- Planets, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1http://blizzard.com/press/activision-faq.shtml
Read the FAQ. Blizzard isn't changing its name. "Blizzard Activision" will be a new, separate company. - llamasamurai, on 12/02/2007, -0/+1Blacktivision?
- crossers, on 07/15/2008, -0/+0waw two best game companies in one project! Great! I think it will be something boooom!
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