I fear that Blizzard seems to be going down hill

As a number 1 fan of all Blizz games, I am fearing that Blizzard is going downhill.

I began to take notice of a change when Vivendi screwed up and lost Blizzard North's employees . WoW is their most recent success but focus seems to have very slightly shifted to profit than players.

What's worse, the upcoming merger with another profit-oriented Activision seems to be the beginning of the end of Blizzard's unchallenged reign over the gaming industry.

I just hope that I will be wrong.

 

Re: Blizzard as a company seems to be going down hill

Can you qualify any of this? We can't properly agree or disagree unless we have something to talk about. I'll try to make some guesses at what you're getting at.

As far as I can tell, their dedication to style, fun, and quality is as high as ever. Yes, lots of very talented people have jumped ship, but this kind of thing will happen when you have so many talented people in one place; sometimes people just want to do their own thing.

It bothers me that you believe Blizzard is merging with Activision. It is a strong symptom that you do not understand what is going on. Blizzard is part of Vivendi's game division Viviendi Games. Vivendi, a massive media company, is buying out over 50% of Activision with the intention of merging its own games division into Activision. It intends to use the Blizzard name in the new game division, as well as the similarly recognizable Activision name, making it Activision-Blizzard, which will be publicly tradable. Blizzard itself, the game developer, will not be affected by the creation of Activision-Blizzard, the publisher.

As to being concerned about profit more than players, who says you can't do both? Blizzard makes a profit because it is so good to its customers, the players. Blizzard makes good games, people buy good games, Blizzard makes money with which they use to make more good games. That's how it's supposed to work. What do you think a game company is going to do with its profits but make more games?

 

Re: Blizzard as a company seems to be going down hill

Don't get me wrong. Blizzard is still my favorite game-maker. But once something is publicly tradeable, it can never go back again.

You can always say management will be the same as before but it's simply not true. It wasn't true when Vivendi became owner and it won't be true when stockholders become owners. The top management positions of the newly merged company has already been announced and the two definitely aren't separate.

I doubt Blizz will go loose its edge as top game designer. But if my favorite company looses it's position as THE number 1 company in gaming history (my opinion) then i'd kill myself.

 

I don't actually know a lot about this, but I am pretty sure that, once something is publicly tradable, it can go back again. Someone just has to hold a majority of the shares and they can pull it out of the market or spin-off the critical components as a private company.

Those positions refer to management within the Activision-Blizzard- they're not changing any management within Blizzard, as a quick look at the positions will tell you.

There is no need to get attached to a brand. If Blizzard stops being #1 in your eyes, the logical thing to do would be to simply switch your esteem to the company that is #1. Why are you getting emotionally attached to a company anyway?

 

[spam]he possibly lost his virginity to Blizzard[/spam]

A simple sentence; Within everything comes change, and with change comes new beginnings, with new beginnings comes improvement and success at a higher level which in turn produces a great game when given the right time and guidence.

 

why you said that??

i don't think so!!!

 

oh please...
this is so nothing that you should even be worrying about.
I know everyone doenst like change, but change is good.

Blizz wont stay in the WC, Diablo and SC universes forever. They got other fun games on their drawing bord, so lets just be happy for them and their succes and focus on something else!!

 

Lol. This topic makes me smile.

A publicly traded company can go back to being private through a shareholder buyout. Shareholders simply have to agree to a buyout of their dividends.

Blizzard is unaffected as far as I can tell.

 

10-neon, you are right a public company can privatize itself or privatize a section or subsidiary of the company if it so chooses. Not a very simple thing to do, and unless Blizzard is a big money loser or dominates the budget and doesn't create a very strong return on capital, then that could be possible. More then likely that will not happen with Blizzard. As long as they still make alot of ridiculously high quality games then I don't really care, and neither should anyone else. Giant corporations does not equal "bad".

Joneeagle, thats not correct. The dividends have nothing to do with proxy voting power. However a majority of shareholders would have to vote to support privatizing a section or a major part of the company. Normally this would disband the current form of the company so their is usually significant players who would oppose that. Often times internal management wages a take-over, usually using their own worth or resources from an LBO. Thats the most common circumstance with privitization. For example a bunch of super successful ex-Blizzard employees could wage a tender-offer hostile take-over of the company, offering to buy a massive volume of public stock a premium above its current market price. Then they could privatize it. Thats just one example, those situations are never as simple as it sounds in writing. BTW, my major in college was Corporate Finance, so I know alot about this stuff. Any questions? ;p

 

That's the same as buying out shareholder dividends, lol.

They would need a large margin to declare it a privitized company and then buy out the other shareholders at a premium rate.

There's no economic incentive for them to do so, however.

 

Its not technically buying out their dividends because the corporation won't necessarily pay dividends. Its really buying out the stock. Dividends are an amount paid to shareholders, and is optional when it is a value paid from a stock. Dividends on Bonds are mandatory. C. Finance terms are extremely specific. ;p

However they could do that if they knew future properties would more then likely be of an even higher value for their earnings, in which case they would privatize the company in order to pay out higher dividends, which in a sense would make the very very rich, if it proved to work well, and if a larger corporate shell wouldn't prove to be advantageous.

 

Don't worry Activision is a good company and Vivendi will be in charge still anyway.

If EA bought them then it would be the end of the world

 

"EA orchestrates hostile takeover of Activision-Blizzard, renames hottest new property Starcraft II to NewbCraft II The Revenge of the Aliens."

8)

 

Oh my Lord Prodigal...if anything relatively close to this actually ends up happening, I will have to lose my faith in all human beings.