So I’m sure this announcement is finally settling down, right? But there’s something about massive conglomerates that irks people so here are follow-up details about the merge.
First on Blizzard’s side of the fence, Mike Morhaime, CEO and president of Blizzard, reassured everyone that the merge is the perfect time to unleash Blizzard’s potential but it doesn’t mean they’re abandoning its PC gaming roots.
"I think this is an opportunity to unlock the value that is hidden inside Blizzard… We currently don’t have any plans right now on the console-side. Blizzard’s focus is on the PC-side. At some point in the future, if it made sense to talk to the Activision side of the business about that, we would certainly do so. But at this point, there are no plans to release any Blizzard franchises on console."
As for the future of World of Warcraft, it’s obvious that Blizzard will continue developing new content and expanding its subscriber base. While Morhaime didn’t announce any future plans for the online game, he did say that Blizzard is looking to expand World of Warcraft to Russia, Eastern Europe and India.
On Activision’s side of the fence, according to Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, the merge was a result to combat the video game market, which Kotick described as "fragmented" and Activision was in a "position to capitalize on all online and offline opportunities."
In addition, Activision went on to confirm a series of upcoming sequels that are in-development, including Guitar Hero IV, Call of Duty 5, the next Project Gotham Racing title and the next Tony Hawk game. One detail that may irk gamers is that annual installments of Call of Duty and Guitar Hero games are being planned.
Lastly, FiringSquad has a detail from the follow-up conference call saying when the merger is complete sometime in 2008, Activision Blizzard will have over 6,000 employees worldwide with about half involved in game development.
