Tag: Call of Duty

Activison Blizzard Up For Sale? For $13.2 Billion


Can someone loan me $13 billion? According to Bloomberg, executives from Vivendi SA will meet later this month to determine if the company will sell off its majority 61% share in Activision Blizzard. The report came from anonymous sources, noting that the meeting is secret and the details of what is discussed may or may not be shared with the public.

With Activision’s sales of $4.6 billion, and the launches of Diablo III and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria this year, I can see why Vivendi may not be interested in the company anymore. After all, there are only so many places to store the massive amounts of dough that Blizzard alone brings in on a yearly basis, let alone including Activision with the Call of Duty franchise.

Of course, I jest. Bloomberg notes that this would be another move to distance Vivendi from the spend-happy disaster that was CEO Jean-Marie Messier, who was booted out of the company in 2002 after a $77 billion spending spree that left the company nearly bankrupt. As for what Vivendi would do with the $13 billion that their share of Activision is worth, well I believe this picture provides one alternative:

(Source: Bloomberg)

Call of Duty MMO, Cataclysm, To Asia We Go!


Massive Action Tactics Online Of Duty Free To Play

I know what you’re thinking: “Omali, this sounds like yet another free to play lobby based substandard shooter with a cash shop attached where players can pay to win,” to which I must ask that you set aside your stereotypes for five minutes and realize that you are likely 100% correct on that prediction. In Activision/Blizzard’s latest quarterly report, the company reveals plans for yet another Call of Duty developer, Beachhead Studios, to work on a Call of Duty game for the Asian markets. While the traditional Call of Duty never sold too well in Asia, thanks to the abundance of piracy, having mandatory multiplayer and self-hosted servers (not to mention the game being free) will give Activision a tighter control on those who want to play their game.

The financial report doesn’t give any information as to when we can expect the Call of Duty MMO, or if there are any plans to expand the title to the Western hemisphere. In the same financial report, Blizzard highlighted their plans for 2011, including:

Grow World of Warcraft with new content; work towards StarCraft II and Cataclysm launch in China

It is worth noting that Wrath of the Lich King was delayed two years before release in China, due to the restrictions placed on games and Blizzard’s well publicized publisher fiasco, so a 2011 launch for Cataclysm may be on the less realistic side. Still, it would be nice for the Chinese players to remain somewhere close to their Western counterparts.

There Would Be A Call of Duty MMO Tomorrow


Page 1 of Google "Bobby Kotick"...

Back in January I talked about how Infinity Ward was rumored to be working on a Call of Duty MMO, which of course would likely be worked on by a different company under Activision at this point given Infinity Ward’s current less-than-functional status. Call of Duty itself, as I have said on a few occasions, has achieved near-MMO status. Starting with Modern Warfare and moving forward, the Call of Duty series has been pumping in the MMO-features, allowing players to level up, gain achievements, earn experience, unlock new weapons and customizations for their weapons, earn badges. Technically all Call of Duty is missing is having the servers run by Activision, and perhaps a subscription fee.

I also noted that, were Call of Duty to take the WW2 Online route and go for the large persistent world, that the company would likely take the World War 2 MMO genre and dominate it, given the quality of Modern Warfare and World at War. That being said, I did express concern that a Call of Duty MMO with a subscription that operates solely on instances, ala Crimecraft, would likely hit the ground running directly into a brick wall, as players quickly drop the title and return to the free alternative, or even WW2 Online.

If you believed Robert Kotick of Activision was salivating at the thought of slapping a subscription fee on Call of Duty, then you’ll be needing a replacement bucket. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Kotick stated:

“I would have Call of Duty be an online subscription service tomorrow”

Does the audience want a Call of Duty pro-subscription? Kotick believes so.

“I think our audiences are clamoring for it. If you look at what they’re playing on Xbox Live today, we’ve had 1.7 billion hours of multiplayer play on Live. I think we could do a lot more to really satisfy the interests of the customers.”

When asked if Activision would pursue a Call of Duty subscription model, Kotick responded “hopefully.”

Is it too early to call Godwin’s law on future comments?

A Call of Duty MMO?


You've Been Promoted To Off-hand Rumor

I’ve played every Call of Duty game since Call of Duty 1, and I have to say the most recent iterations (Modern Warfare 1/2 and World at War) take a lot of elements from MMORPGs. You have a persistent character who levels up as you kill enemies and complete objectives. You rank up, offering you new challenges to complete and new weapons and items to use, and you can customize your gear to optimum efficiency. There is also an end-game.

In fact, the only things missing are loot (if you don’t count unlocked items), a persistent world operated on main servers. If Call of Duty were to be labeled as an MMO, it would be more akin to Huxley, Crimecraft, or even Guild Wars, where the action takes place on a private instance, even though Call of Duty doesn’t have the public “hubs” for players to hang out, and there is no trading whatsoever.

But the LA Times recently posted about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’s successful sales, and left this nugget at the end:

One person close to the company said it also was considering adapting Call of Duty as a massively multi-player online world.

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