Activision Blizzard Sees Success with World of Warcraft Classic Sales

Activision Blizzard Sees Success with World of Warcraft Classic Sales

Large video game publishers have significant value in their historic franchises.  Unfortunately, they have often struggled to take full advantage of those evergreen classics.  Activision Blizzard was no exception.  However, the recent release of World of Warcraft Classic shows that they may be coming around. World of Warcraft Classic released on August 26th.  The main attraction of this product is that it is a version of the game from when it first launched 15 years ago .....

Losing Bungie Raises Big Concerns about the Destiny of Activision

In the past few months, a big topic for DFC Intelligence analysts has been investor concern over the fate of big game publishers Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard.  This issue really came to a head with the announcement that Bungie, developer of the Destiny franchise, was making a break from its publisher Activision.  What exactly does this announcement say about the future of a company like Activision Blizzard?  To be cute, in other words, what is the destiny of Activision? D.....
Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard Focus on Games As A Service

Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard Focus on Games As A Service

The new DFC report, The Business of Video Games, looks at the gap between games as a service and traditional pay-to-play games.  As we discussed last week, these are two very different segments of the industry.  This week we are looking at how two traditional pay-to-play game companies, Electronic Arts and.....

Activision Blizzard Spends Big On King

NOV. 3, 2015 • Activision Blizzard is spending $5.9 billion ($18 per share) to acquire all outstanding shares of Dublin, Ireland-based Candy Crush Saga creator King Digital Entertainment. Of the total, $3.6 billion is cash that Activision Blizzard has parked outside the United States. The remainder is made up by a loan fronted by Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs Bank. The a.....

Early Activision Blizzard Destiny Game Stats

OCT. 14, 2014 • After one month in release Bungie, Inc. has released some player data from its online FPS, Destiny game. The average number of people playing the game each day is 3.2 million, with an average daily playing time of three hours. Bungie says there are more people playing Destiny than the number who played Halo 3 and Halo: Reach (combined) over the same period of time. Users are also l.....

Activision Buys Freedom From Vivendi

JULY 26, 2013 • With €13.2 billion ($17.5 billion) in debt on its books Vivendi SA has been contemplating ways to pull money out of its 61% stake in publisher Activision Blizzard. In a huge $8.17 billion deal orchestrated by Activision Blizzard chief executive Bobby Kotick, the publisher will buy out Vivendi’s controlling stake. The agreement is structured around a 429 million share purchase by Activision Blizzard for $5.83 billion, and an additional 172.....