Vivendi May Be About To Squeeze Activision Blizzard For Billions

Ace O'Hagen

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May 28, 2013
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I have a question: if corporations are people, is what Vivendi doing grand theft or negligent homicide?
 

Zukabazuka

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Mar 7, 2012
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I'm quite sure kotick monthly payment over all these years could solve the problem easily. Hell they could cut his payment by 90% and the company would survive the problem.

Would be hilarious if Bobby Kotick actually left during this time.
 

Cpu46

Gloria ex machina
Sep 21, 2009
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fix-the-spade said:
Dr.Awkward said:
hmmm... I'm wondering if Vivendi's goal is to get all this cash, buy themselves off of Activision Blizzard, and strike out on their own?
No, they're trying to load up Actiblizz with their other companies' debts, because nobody will lend those other failing companies capital to invest.

They're hoping that Activision Blizzard will continue the upward trend the two companies have had in the last decade, they are literally betting the company on it. Despite evidence the last couple of years that both Activision and Blizzard are plateauing out and may start going back down soon, they're still the best Vivendi has got and thanks to the previous contract they have little in the way of existing debt. If Actiblizz goes south Vivendi can declare it bankrupt, effectively wiping the debt and giving them some hugely profitable IPs/studios to sell at gigantic prices.

The very last thing Vivendi wants is to lose control of Actiblizz, even in exchange for $5billion as Vivendi will burn through that in no time at all with the way it's other companies are bleeding money. Actiblizz makes profit, Vivendi need that no matter how much the other shareholders offer for a buyout.

It's a weird situation where Kotick is the 'good' guy, then again Actiblizz getting saddled with an impossible situation then taken apart would be delicious irony given the way Activision have behaved with their studios under Kotick's rule.
Sad part is that even if Actiblizz goes down it is not very likely that Kotick will suffer at all. He doesn't seem the type to pull a Iwata and take a 50% pay cut to help his company out.

I have the image of a ship on fire with the captain in a lifeboat loaded with loot shouting "keep sailing boys" at the remaining crew stuck in my brain. Not sure if it was a political cartoon I have seen before or something I came up with myself but it certainly seems to fit this entire situation.
 

chozo_hybrid

What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets.
Jul 15, 2009
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I like Starcraft II, so I hope this doesn't stop me from being able to play it, should something go wrong. Legacy of the Void is something I'm really looking forward to.
 

Gromril

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Doomsdaylee said:
Well, let's set fire to the acti-bliz ship now. They destroyed two great franchises (WoW and Spyro), time for them to go down with the franchises.

Good riddance to them.

Unless they can actually pull their collective head out of their ass, shoot the guy who made Skylanders, and get back to making WoW playable.
You do know skylanders makes a buttload of money right?
 

1337mokro

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Dec 24, 2008
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Why is this still legal?

A subsidiary borrowing money so it can funnel it to the parent company. Thus putting itself into bankruptcy and basically stiffing the debtors?! Why is there no law stopping this?

Oh yeah all the politicians are paid off already. I'm sorry it slipped my mind and I thought for a second actual democracies existed.
 

Strazdas

Robots will replace your job
May 28, 2011
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Didnt we already have an article about this?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125723-Vivendi-May-Siphon-Funds-From-Activision-Blizzard

King Kazma said:
I'd like to know who buys stocks without having them pay a dividend. If you're investing for the long term, thats what you want. But I don't know when this deal was made, nor how long the terms were on no dividends without independents approval.
its more of a buy now, wait a few years, sell for double deal. except the problem is, in multiple aucions they failed to sell acti-blizzard. noone wanted to buy.


direkiller said:
They wont die, at worst they get sold off and someone else picks up the wowfair checks.
except that multiple attmpts to sell thme off failed - noone wanted to buy them. if they sink they sink to the bottom, there is no escape raftso n board.

Cpacha: more coffe.
damn you, i dont drink coffe!

Ace O said:
I have a question: if corporations are people, is what Vivendi doing grand theft or negligent homicide?
extortion. legal extortion.



SILENTrampancy said:
I actually see something great that can happen here.

If Vivendi guts Activision, then two of the biggest franchises in gaming history will completely tank, a boatload of skill workers will need new work and consumer loyalty will cease to exist for said franchises.

This means that, while it would be horrible for those losing their jobs, it would create a creative eden for new IPs and franchises to take root.

CoD and WoW have had a fair stranglehold on their genres, with nothing able to compete on an equal level. This could prove to be the opportunity for Indie devs to take a sizable chunk of the market away from AAA publishers and IPs.

It could also go horrible wrong and put said IPs in the hands of the likes of EA or Ubisoft, and this would be a force multiplier for the issues already present in the gaming industry.

I still want Activision to burn.
i agreee. as much as i dont want the folks loosing thier jobs, i think wow falling apart woudl be healthy for a MMO genre, especially as we woudl get rid of mosnt of "fail wow clones" at least.
Even if the new IP is in the hands if EA. its still new IP and not beating a mountain sized dead horse. Well WOW is a forced multiplayer to begin with, so that isnt really that big of an issue is it?
 

AuronFtw

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Nov 29, 2010
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Doomsdaylee said:
Well, let's set fire to the acti-bliz ship now. They destroyed two great franchises (WoW and Spyro),...
gaff gaff gaff
... and get back to making WoW playable.
Erm... you do know that WoW right now is objectively the best it's ever been? I hate to rain on the parade of nostalgia-blinded people who swear that "it was better back in the day," but what specifically got worse? The far superior raid content, including stallions of great design including Ulduar, Blackwing Descent, and Throne of Four Winds that nothing in vanilla or BC could even get close to touching (according to the world's best raiding guilds, even)? The vastly more convenient changes to everything from earlier/cheaper mount acquisition making leveling less of a pain in the dick to removal of pointless skill tier training to hearthstone cooldown reduction? The class viability being ~three times as good as it ever was in BC? The incredible amount of quality solo content, including improved questing in new zones (tracked by coherent story arcs and not total quest numbers) and a solo-boss-fighting arena? The entire monk class being waaaaaaaay more balanced than DKs were on release? I mean really, what got "worse?"

Nothing did. You just got tired of the gear treadmill. It's natural. The raids are still as high quality as they've ever been. The PvP is still as bad and poorly balanced as it's always been, and the PvPers are still as hilariously ignorant of that as they've ever been. The questing/leveling is far less grindy than it's been, particularly with things like BoA gear and recruit-a-friend triple exp, but the actual questing *content* is the same it's ever been. The biggest changes have been flat improvements across the board - making quality of life easier or fixing just stupidly broken mechanics (explosive shot ticks not being additive was finally fixed sometime after pandaland release).

Yeah it's easy to look at subs going down and jumping on the irrational and delusional bandwagon that say the game is getting "worse," but when discussions of specifics come up people usually can't name anything that's actually objectively worse. Most things are simply improved; a few things are just *way* better than they've ever been (for example, the talent trees actually being choices between equally viable talents instead of just a math problem to be solved like the old illusion-of-choice talent trees). It's just... the game is 8 years old now. Every expansion has been following the same formula set out in BC - level grind, dungeon grind, heroics grind, raid grind. Even if the quality is high, which it is (in some cases improving, in other areas holding steady) it will still get old when you've been doing it for years.

At this point, anyone who's wanted to play WoW has played WoW. They don't have a magical pool of potential players to tap into to keep their game alive. Because they're following the same formulas for every content addition, they'll only appeal to the group of people who never gets tired of repetition. This isn't to say that their game is "worse," it's just stagnating. They aren't innovating like they used to, they aren't changing up their game plan. They're sticking to what they know and making it really, really polished, but because they aren't adding anything new they're losing subs. Whenever an expac comes out, their subs skyrocket again (by 1+ million, usually) and then after 2-3 months quickly drop back down once people have "completed" it. If blizzard wants to grab the market by the balls again, they have to do something new.

That said, they still pretty much have the MMO market by the balls - none of them can compete in overall quality of gameplay, even solid contenders like Rift aren't seriously threatening Blizzard's hold on the market, and most games are just like Guild Wars 2, massive flops once people realize how shallow the games are.
 

RicoADF

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Jun 2, 2009
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Ah the great videogame crush of 2013/2014 seems to be starting well, as Kosh says:

First THQ, then Atari now Actiblizz are looking at the abyss. While it's never easy this has to happen, the crash has been well overdue with EA and Activision's tyrannic rule having to end sooner or later. At least this will allow the devs to join the next generation of publishers like Deep Silver, Stardock and Bohemia Interactive Studios. This isn't the end, but rather an evolution that's long overdue just like when Microprose etc went under allowing EA etc to grow and take over.
 

direkiller

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Dec 4, 2008
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Strazdas said:
direkiller said:
They wont die, at worst they get sold off and someone else picks up the wowfair checks.
except that multiple attmpts to sell thme off failed - noone wanted to buy them. if they sink they sink to the bottom, there is no escape raftso n board.

Cpacha: more coffe.
damn you, i dont drink coffe!
Yes no one wants to buy blizzard when it's at full price, they cost too much.
but a chapter 11 bankruptcy auction, they would be picked up so fast I doubt there would even be a delay in service to battle-net.
 

Dendio

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Mar 24, 2010
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So this must be the reason blizzard is making plans for an in game cash shop ( including 15$ transmog hats)
 

Atmos Duality

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The Blizzard I knew died in 2005. WoW can suck my left nut for all I fucking care, and they've spent the better part of the last decade assraping every franchise of theirs that I loved. So it's no loss to me if they go under as a result of this.

As for Vivendi and Activision: Viviendi still has the blood of Sierra Entertainment on their hands; before pawing the corpse off to Activision. Activision is run by ruthless businessmen who don't really give a fuck about games and seem to exist solely as a mouthpiece that encourages other companies to bring themselves down to their level.

So fuck 'em. Fuck all of them. Let them all burn.