Activision Didn't Think Blizzard Was Worth $7 Million in 1995

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
20,364
0
0
Activision Didn't Think Blizzard Was Worth $7 Million in 1995



In the distant mists of 1995, Bobby Kotick thought a company was crazy when it acquired the small development studio Blizzard for $7 million. In 2007, he paid $7 billion. Whoops.

When it comes to pure financial solvency, there are very few developers in the business that have as much guaranteed revenue as popular PC game maker Blizzard. Infinity Ward has the ridiculously popular WoW [http://www.amazon.com/Call-Duty-Modern-Warfare-Xbox-360/dp/B00269QLI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1278694263&sr=1-1].

In 2007, Activision merged with Blizzard parent Vivendi Games to form Activision-Blizzard, a merger worth a whopping $18 billion. In the course of that merger, Activision ended up paying $7 billion for the World of Warcraft studio, a fact which prompted Activision CEO Bobby Kotick to relate an anecdote about how things could have gone differently between the studios to Game Informer [http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/01/18/news-Kotick_3A00_-Activision-Could-Have-Bought-Blizzard-For-_2400_7-Million.aspx].

In 1995, said Kotick, he had been having a meal with Davidson & Associates [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davidson_&_Associates] during which it came up that the firm had purchased fledgling developer Blizzard for $7 million. The businessman in Kotick was, frankly, baffled: "That year Activision probably had 60 million in revenues. They said they paid seven million dollars for Blizzard. I'm like 'Are you out of your minds? They're like a contract developer! They have Warcraft but what else do they have? You paid SEVEN million! That's insane!'"

Twelve years later, Kotick's company would pay a thousand times that for the PC developer. "I was talking to [Blizzard founder] Mike Morhaime the other day and I said, 'You know, I could have bought you for seven million and instead it was seven billion.' He said, 'Yeah, could you imagine if I had just held out for the seven billion instead of the seven million?'"

I can imagine the situation would be frustrating in a rather ha-ha-funny-in-hindsight way for both Kotick and Morhaime, though for decidedly different reasons. But it's something very interesting to consider - how would the gaming landscape have changed if Activision had been the one to acquire Blizzard in 1995 for that (relative) chump change?

Permalink
 

Paragon Fury

The Loud Shadow
Jan 23, 2009
5,161
0
0
We might actually have Starcraft 2 by now?


With LAN.


But no mods.




And we'd have Space CoD by now.
 

whyarecarrots

New member
Nov 19, 2008
417
0
0
Is it bad that I'm just enjoying the thought of Activision and Bobby Kotick getting something so monumentally wrong?
 

Jaranja

New member
Jul 16, 2009
3,275
0
0
Well, he didn't have any idea of what was going to happen. It is pretty funny, nonetheless.
 

Swaki

New member
Apr 15, 2009
2,013
0
0
always nice to hear one of those "rejected the Beatles" story's.
 

LoopyDood

New member
Dec 13, 2008
410
0
0
Blizzard would have never grown to the size it is today if Activision acquired it in 1995. Well, Blizzard's fanbase wouldn't have.
 

Jared

The British Paladin
Jul 14, 2009
5,630
0
0
Just goes to prove, with time, money...and a game which everyone seems to fall in love with...any company can go from nothing to a household name!
 

fix-the-spade

New member
Feb 25, 2008
8,639
0
0
Easy, we'd be on Shanghai 15 and Blizzard would be known worldwide as creatively bankrupt hack developers, Starcraft never gets made, why would an adventure and sports game developer make an RTS? It's not what we pay them for. WoW never gets made, it's too big a risk and the competition (FF11, SWG) is too well established and not profitable enough to justify the cost...

It's only their massive success that gives them relative freedom from Activision, if that hadn't been there they'd have been crushed and talent stripped within five years.
 

Rainboq

Elite Member
Nov 19, 2009
16,620
0
41
Onyx Oblivion said:
What would Blizzard have been worth if they didn't create World of Warcraft?
A bunch of devs. trying to rip off anything they can find
 

Doug

New member
Apr 23, 2008
5,205
0
0
Paragon Fury said:
We might actually have Starcraft 2 by now?


With LAN.


But no mods.


And we'd have Space CoD by now.
No LAN, no mods, and the PC multiplayer would be ganked, in favour of the console port's method. Also, WoW would have likely failed due to Activison deciding it wasn't worth updating the code or what not.
 

loremazd

New member
Dec 20, 2008
573
0
0
Though I suppose I should point out that Blizzard probably wouldn't have been able to support it's insanely long development time if it weren't for the original starcraft. Without that hit no publisher in their right mind would let them take so much time.
 

Ocelot GT

New member
Oct 29, 2009
1,001
0
0
If Activision DID buy Blizzard back then, they would have rushed and ruined WoW, SCII and then given up half their projects, and then enter into a legal battle with anyone who finished them.
 

Disaster Button

Elite Member
Feb 18, 2009
5,237
0
41
Of course Blizzard being absorbed into the conglomeration that is Activision back then could have ruined them thus nothing would have happened.
 

malestrithe

New member
Aug 18, 2008
1,818
0
0
To be honest, in 1995, they weren't worth 7,000,000. Remember such classics as Lord of the Rings: Vol. 1, Battle Chess 1 and 2, Blackthorne, Dvorak on Typing, Rock and Roll Racing, and the Lost Vikings? In 1995, they made Justice League Task Force, arguably the worst fighter ever made. Warcraft 1 barely came out and Warcraft 2 was also getting released. In 1995, none of the franchises that made Blizzard fanboys were made. No Diablo, No Starcraft, no Warcraft 3. There was certainly no WoW, something that no one could have predicted.

Now it might be nice to kick people for not having forsight, but it is not fair. You cannot predict the future. All you can do is make assertions based on the recent past.