Activision: What Recession? We Wan to Buy!

[exfileme]

Many investors will admit that a good time to buy is when the prices are lower than low, yet those words of wisdom doesn't seem legitimate during current economical conditions. Apparently, Activision Blizzard's wallet doesn't agree.

Activision: What Recession? We Wan to Buy! : Read more

 

[captaincharisma]

i say maybe try to get Eidos or get the Mortal Kombat license Midway is selling

 

[Harby]

Meh, MK is dead. In general nowadays its all about FPS/MMO/RTS. I SO miss nineties platformers and adventure games.

 

[Blessedman]

Yeah I would love a great old school, modernized side scroller. Even another great Mario64 style game, anything to break this mold of CoD20+/WoW model of gaming.

 

[chris312]

Many investors will admit that a good time to buy is when the prices are lower than low, yet those words of wisdom doesn't seem legitimate during current economical conditions.

That's why you write for a tech site, not an investment site. In addition to several flagrant grammar errors, your premise that purchasing licensing rights is somehow a worse idea during a bear market than during a boom is outright fallacious. It's freaking on sale right now. If you've got the cash and no debt, now is an EXCELLENT time to make such an investment. Please, Kevin, a news article is no place for your personal opinion. Just give us the facts, please.

 

[The Schnoz]

[citation][nom]Harby[/nom]Meh, MK is dead. In general nowadays its all about FPS/MMO/RTS. I SO miss nineties platformers and adventure games.[/citation]

FPS/MMORTS games is pretty much all Activision has at the moment. Perhaps thats why they're so successful, but I think they're looking to expand. I think Street Fighter IV will bring back the fighting game genre. Tekken will also do well. If Mortal Kombat was done right and had proper marketing it could be successful again. I like MK vs. DC, but I think it was a starnge mix and I don't like how they had to tone it down for the DC characters. I think they should go retro like SF IV did. Sports games are also huge and should be looked into. Stealing the Baseball and Football licenses from 2K Games and Electronic fArts could be a big win and would practically crush their competition. For a worldwide audience they could get exclusive rights to FIFA as well. I dont know if they can do this, but if they can afford to buy Rockstar Games from 2k games, or even buy 2k games outright I think that would be a big win and a kick in the nuts to Electronic tarts.

 

[The Schnoz]

PS theyre not typos

 

[sacre]

how bout they finish diablo 3.. damnit.. OH or i'll send them an email and say "Hey, if you're so eager to spend, i need some financial help, i'll put the money to good use..har har?

eh.. speakin of blizzard, pretty snowy here

 

[Pei-chen]

Activision Blizzard is now bigger than GM, GE and Citigroup. Dow Industrial should include Activision Blizzard in its index.

Max Payne 3, StarTrek something, Hitman something, Knight of the Old Republic 3.

 

[tonkatuffmofo]

Get Mechwarrior License back dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mechwarrior 5 is waaaayyy over due.
Dont think mechwarrior is popular anymore, google mechwarrior living legends and check out the amount of people that are flocking to this mod just for some more mech action. Better yet use some of that cash to employ the mod dev's. Gamers making games, thats where theres money to be made.

 

[MoUsE-WiZ]

They should finish Warcraft Adventures: Lord of the Clans. In it's original form.

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]Harby[/nom]Meh, MK is dead. In general nowadays its all about FPS/MMO/RTS. I SO miss nineties platformers and adventure games.[/citation]


Me too , infact i miss the wide variety of genre's that used to get released every year .. space sims , 3rd person adventure games , REAL RPG's (not this MMO crap that fills our store shelves now). part of my missings has been in aprt cos i ahdn't owned a console in aogod while till i reccently got the 360 (wich i bought with halo 3) now im dyign for some money so i can get some game genres you jsut don't see very often on pc (such as fighting/martial arts games or 3rd person adventure) but now i got the 360 most of what i see on teh shelves is FPSer this FPSer that. to find compelling generes that don't involve shotting at stuff , i've had to do a search on amazon.com it's getting rediculous .. seems for the most part the console mnarkets have latched on to the same three old genres as teh pc industry (thee are getting rtses on 360 now even) It.s starting to piss me off, I got a console for console style games if i want a RTS FPSer or MMO i'll play one on PC, for console i want fighting games sports , 3rd person adventure /action, and platformer games ... not the same thing my 850 dollar PC can do 10x better. granted i say i want this on console .. i would also like to see the days of teh 90's return to pc when msot any genre of play could also be found on PC. Point overall is the whiole gaming industry has gotten "green eyed" and only care about what makes money it's gottn to where PC game companeis are droppign any thing that remotely resembles soomethin you'd see on console ... adn well seems the consoles are starting to do it too LOL

 

[demonhorde665]

[citation][nom]Pei-chen[/nom]Activision Blizzard is now bigger than GM, GE and Citigroup. Dow Industrial should include Activision Blizzard in its index.Max Payne 3, StarTrek something, Hitman something, Knight of the Old Republic 3.[/citation]

why are you listing these games ??? thier ip['s atnt even upf or sale and as far as i knwo blizzard nore activision ahs any thign to do with making them with perhaps teh exception fo that star trek one.

max payne is onwed by aspyr(aka 3d reamls)
KoTOR3 is being made by bioware
hitman is owned by eidos

 

[thejerk]

wut?

 

[Regected]

[citation][nom]chris312[/nom]That's why you write for a tech site, not an investment site. In addition to several flagrant grammar errors, your premise that purchasing licensing rights is somehow a worse idea during a bear market than during a boom is outright fallacious. It's freaking on sale right now. If you've got the cash and no debt, now is an EXCELLENT time to make such an investment. Please, Kevin, a news article is no place for your personal opinion. Just give us the facts, please.[/citation]

The point is that new spending on entertainment has nearly stopped. That's no opinion; that is fact. Also, the best time to buy is after the market has hit rock bottom. Do you, in all of your financial wisdom, believe that the market will drop no lower? If so, I have some ocean from property to sell you in Nevada.

 

[aznguy0028]

i think Blizzard itself could turn around this recession with the release of Starcraft II and Diablo 3. not to mention the unannounced new MMO IP they are working on!

but i agree with everyone else, i'd love to see another platformer/2d (with nice updated graphics) sidescroller! Donkey Kong? Castlevania? Little Big Planet 2?!!!

or Vertical/Horizontal shooters a la Raiden, R-Type, or Ikaruga.

 

[jaragon13]

[citation][nom]chris312[/nom]That's why you write for a tech site, not an investment site. In addition to several flagrant grammar errors, your premise that purchasing licensing rights is somehow a worse idea during a bear market than during a boom is outright fallacious. It's freaking on sale right now. If you've got the cash and no debt, now is an EXCELLENT time to make such an investment. Please, Kevin, a news article is no place for your personal opinion. Just give us the facts, please.[/citation]
God I *facepalm*'d when I read what he wrote...Jeez.

 

[trevorvdw]

If what they're doing is working well and they have no debt and 3 billion $ in the bank why would they waste money on buying companies that are doing badly (i.e. make inferior games to Bliz/Activision) and are failing. Seems like a money sink. Just keep doing what you're doing Bliz, let the producers of bad games go bankrupt and fade away.

 

[jerreece]

[citation][nom]The Schnoz[/nom]PS theyre not typos[/citation]

You mean like this one?

[citation]"...yet those words of wisdom doesn't seem legitimate during current economical conditions."[/citation]

I think it should be "don't" and not "doesn't".

[citation][nom]trevorvdw[/nom]If what they're doing is working well and they have no debt and 3 billion $ in the bank why would they waste money on buying companies that are doing badly (i.e. make inferior games to Bliz/Activision) and are failing. Seems like a money sink. Just keep doing what you're doing Bliz, let the producers of bad games go bankrupt and fade away.[/citation]

The advantage to buying up smaller software developers (or ones that are sinking) is to quickly get rid competition. If you don't go out and waste $50 on a failing game title, you may be more likely to buy Activision's latest game instead. So that could also be a part of their strategy.

Of course, as you've suggested, they also take the risk of financially investing themselves into game genres that simply aren't making money.

 

[jerreece]

[citation][nom]Pei-chen[/nom]Activision Blizzard is now bigger than GM, GE and Citigroup. Dow Industrial should include Activision Blizzard in its index.Max Payne 3, StarTrek something, Hitman something, Knight of the Old Republic 3.[/citation]

Dunno if I can see that happening. Many large companies who's stocks are dropping below $10 a share are being removed from the stock exchange all together. Activision is listed in the above article as being just over $10 a share. So it's not like it's a big player on the exchange.

It would be very good though to see Activision excel in other genres. I'd like to see more solid game titles out for PC. To many games lately are coming out for XBOX 360/PS3 only that I'd like to play.