Assessing the Activision Blizzard merger

This merger between two very well known companies is merely a strategic good move in the struggle to beat the current largest video game company Electronic Arts (EA). Neither Activsion or Blizzard have what it takes on their own to take up that fight, but now some time in 2008 when they merge together they will most likely already be bigger than EA. I must admit I was a bit surprised while reading this because this is a merge between two already big and acknowledged companies which makes this very unlike the normal merger where one small company merge into a big one. A lot of the games I play come from one of these two which gives me a strong relationship with them both and I could actually see this merger benefiting the gamers.

There is no doubt that any gamer or even person in generally that has missed games like World of Warcraft or Guitar Hero must have been living in a cave the last years. World of Warcraft is the most popular game in the world at the moment and has over 10 million subscribers. And the Guitar Hero series has been skyrocketing the last years with people rocking out with plastic guitars in their living room. There is no doubt that people don't care that the rock experience have been stripped down to its underpants as long as the crowd and the music is still there. I am sure both World of Warcraft and the Guitar Hero series will generate income for Activision Blizzard in many years ahead giving the company money to develop new good games.

With a income that will consist of more digits than my phone number there is no doubt they will have enough money to aim high. They will be the leading company in the business and with that comes great responsibility in pumping out new and original games as well as keeping old series alive. I know for a fact that Blizzard is already working on a new MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that is not World of Warcraft and that will be interesting. Beside that I just generally reckon there will be a lot of quality games to come from this company.

A thing Activision can bring to Blizzard is the expertise of console games. While Blizzard has mainly focused on releasing games for computer I am almost sure that a lot of Blizzard titles might be brought to the consoles with Activisions help. I heard speculations of such things as World of Warcraft eventually being released on consoles, but those are just rumors so I wouldn't get my hopes up. But with Activsion in the picture it is definitely possible. It will for sure help Blizzard reach out to a whole new market, which they have only partially tried before.

The merger between Activsion and Blizzard can end up as one of the best things that have hit the gaming industry in a long time. It has the potential to be a very strong company with way better economics than any other in the gaming business. Even EA can't compete with the income of these two companies combined. We gamers might be in for some interesting years. These two companies will definitely go well together as they both have different strengths and weaknesses. In the short run the effect of the merger might not be so visible, but in the long run we might see some very positive effects.