I've seen companies burn incorporation numbers. The reason Blizz made Vivendi was so the lawyers couldn't touch their golden goose. WoW is still the only thing that can kill WoW.
If this does "kill" WoW, it would simply reiterate the trend in high-profile game closures: politics, not lack of profitability, kills games.
__________________________ "Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it." --Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints." --Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls." --Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Originally posted by Betaguy Is this the real reason behind Blizzard adding Microtransaction shop to WoW and is that why Titan was really put on hold?
Yes. The date that A/B would have to start paying dividends to Vivendi was written into the A/B buy out contract. This came as no surprise to the heads of A/B. A/B has ~4.6B - 3B(Vivendi dividend) - 1.7B(Tax bill) + ~1.2B (yearly net income) = ~1B in their accounts. The real question, does Vivendi come after that next. I expect they will.
One more math lesson:
A/B makes 5.01B
cost of doing business 1.82B
Gross profits 3.19B
Net profits 1.19B
A/B aren't going anywhere soon. If the Net Profits go away, they will cut the cost of doing business. And there goes development.
Pardon any spelling errors
Konfess your cyns and some maybe forgiven Boy: Why can't I talk to Him? Mom: We don't talk to Priests. As if it could exist, without being payed for. F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing. Even telemarketers wouldn't think that. It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Originally posted by Betaguy Is this the real reason behind Blizzard adding Microtransaction shop to WoW and is that why Titan was really put on hold?
Microtransactions have been in WOW for several years already, all they have done is move it in game and add a new type of item. As to Titan it was never really announced, we knew very little about it and what we did know needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, how can you put on hold, cancelled or redo a game that never existed?
"All the newspapers and websites are abuzz with news of Vivendi and its plans to extract an insane amount of money from Activision Blizzard. The sum will turn out to be more than A/B actually has and will throw the gaming company into debt."...
I say this for all other members on this site.
WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x(1/0)
Sad days are ahead, bloody french ruining a perfectly healthy company...
The strong point of being owned by Vivendi is that they never interfered with Activision/Blizard buiseness.
But now, well, this might be the end, i somehow hope someone wants to buy this part of their company, I would guess either Microsoft or Apple would be very very much interested in this company. Adding all these great games to the Xbox one, or finally making OSX the gaming platform it could have been..
But then going single platform, might not be a wise decision for Activision/blizards revenue and maybe just as lethal for them as being part of Vivendi
If someone wants to buy them, they need a whole large pile of money, and chances are Vivendi, pulling the money out of the company anyway, before selling the shell
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
3 billion in reserve, now we know where the lack of investment in wow went, revolting. Maybe a company that loves Wow and is less greedy will buy it- could be a blessing in disguise for wow fans.
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Well, worst case scenario, Titan will go the way of Starcraft Ghost and WoW will get big Cash shop instead of new (or good) expansions. So, basically, nothing that we haven't seen coming from a mile away.
Originally posted by MMOExposed How will this effect Titan? thats the question. Reminds me of what happen to War40k!
Titan is effectively dead. Didn't you read that Blizz is going back to the drawing board. Even if they keep the codename, it will be a very different game. It may not even be a MMO.
Well Vivendi might get $5.5 billion from the sale of Maroc Telecom , just found this article and that board meeting seems to be today and not yesterday some confusion there.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing. "SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13 The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
I'm sure within the company this is not news. And I'm guessing they've been salting away cash for some time against the day the agreement expired. But taking a huge chunk of cash plus the huge tax bite means nearly all of the stash is wiped out. What happens after that is more interesting.
Well Vivendi might get $5.5 billion from the sale of Maroc Telecom , just found this article and that board meeting seems to be today and not yesterday some confusion there.
Maybe someone will buy the offer, but honestly the company is drowning in debt. Interested parties would be better off to sit back and watch the carnage, then pick up the pieces after parent company files for bankruptcy.
Okay all you negative nancy's, how about we get a positive spin on this bad boy. In a perfect world scenario we'll end up seeing this headline, "Billionaire with passion for gaming buys Vivendi out of A/B in agreement to work with Blizzard on changing the direction of their games". And boom, there we have it, WoW's not dead, it's being revived by some random billionaire that spends all his time playing the game and actually understands whats wrong with it, and see's the mechanics that need to be fixed.
Disclosure- This is never going to happen, so lets put the poor game out of its misery and let it die.
Comments
lmao. +1 at this
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
Yes. The date that A/B would have to start paying dividends to Vivendi was written into the A/B buy out contract. This came as no surprise to the heads of A/B. A/B has ~4.6B - 3B(Vivendi dividend) - 1.7B(Tax bill) + ~1.2B (yearly net income) = ~1B in their accounts. The real question, does Vivendi come after that next. I expect they will.
One more math lesson:
A/B makes 5.01B
cost of doing business 1.82B
Gross profits 3.19B
Net profits 1.19B
A/B aren't going anywhere soon. If the Net Profits go away, they will cut the cost of doing business. And there goes development.
Boy: Why can't I talk to Him?
Mom: We don't talk to Priests.
As if it could exist, without being payed for.
F2P means you get what you paid for. Pay nothing, get nothing.
Even telemarketers wouldn't think that.
It costs money to play. Therefore P2W.
Microtransactions have been in WOW for several years already, all they have done is move it in game and add a new type of item. As to Titan it was never really announced, we knew very little about it and what we did know needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, how can you put on hold, cancelled or redo a game that never existed?
First thought when reading the topic tittle....oh noes what game is it now.......
Yet OP actually provided something intresting which a wasn't aware of. Thanks OP
I say this for all other members on this site.
WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!x(1/0)
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Philosophy of MMO Game Design
Sad days are ahead, bloody french ruining a perfectly healthy company...
The strong point of being owned by Vivendi is that they never interfered with Activision/Blizard buiseness.
But now, well, this might be the end, i somehow hope someone wants to buy this part of their company, I would guess either Microsoft or Apple would be very very much interested in this company. Adding all these great games to the Xbox one, or finally making OSX the gaming platform it could have been..
But then going single platform, might not be a wise decision for Activision/blizards revenue and maybe just as lethal for them as being part of Vivendi
If someone wants to buy them, they need a whole large pile of money, and chances are Vivendi, pulling the money out of the company anyway, before selling the shell
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
rpg/mmorg history: Dun Darach>Bloodwych>Bards Tale 1-3>Eye of the beholder > Might and Magic 2,3,5 > FFVII> Baldur's Gate 1, 2 > Planescape Torment >Morrowind > WOW > oblivion > LOTR > Guild Wars (1900hrs elementalist) Vanguard. > GW2(1000 elementalist), Wildstar
Now playing GW2, AOW 3, ESO, LOTR, Elite D
Well, worst case scenario, Titan will go the way of Starcraft Ghost and WoW will get big Cash shop instead of new (or good) expansions. So, basically, nothing that we haven't seen coming from a mile away.
Titan is effectively dead. Didn't you read that Blizz is going back to the drawing board. Even if they keep the codename, it will be a very different game. It may not even be a MMO.
Well Vivendi might get $5.5 billion from the sale of Maroc Telecom , just found this article and that board meeting seems to be today and not yesterday some confusion there.
http://www.ventures-africa.com/2013/07/etisalat-poised-for-vivendi-stake-in-maroc-telecom/
Cheers,
BadOrb.
PSO 4 years , EQOA 4 months , PSU 7 years , SWTOR launch ongoing , PSO2 SEA launch ongoing , Destiny 360 launch ongoing.
"SWG was not fun. Let it go buddy." quote from iiNoSkillzii 10/18/13
The original propoganda pixie dust villain :[]
I'm sure within the company this is not news. And I'm guessing they've been salting away cash for some time against the day the agreement expired. But taking a huge chunk of cash plus the huge tax bite means nearly all of the stash is wiped out. What happens after that is more interesting.
Maybe someone will buy the offer, but honestly the company is drowning in debt. Interested parties would be better off to sit back and watch the carnage, then pick up the pieces after parent company files for bankruptcy.
Okay all you negative nancy's, how about we get a positive spin on this bad boy. In a perfect world scenario we'll end up seeing this headline, "Billionaire with passion for gaming buys Vivendi out of A/B in agreement to work with Blizzard on changing the direction of their games". And boom, there we have it, WoW's not dead, it's being revived by some random billionaire that spends all his time playing the game and actually understands whats wrong with it, and see's the mechanics that need to be fixed.
Disclosure- This is never going to happen, so lets put the poor game out of its misery and let it die.
Bad News for the haters out there but The WoW killing seems to of been averted.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130725006767/en/Activision-Blizzard-Announces-Transformative-Purchase-Shares-Vivendi