Anderson 1 Rob Anderson Prof. R.

Muhlbock INDS 1033-40 November 26, 2010

Activision Blizzard: The Other Big Fish

The Video game industry has evolved into a demographically diverse industry surpassing the interests of younger kids. The average age of a gamer is 34 years old in 2010 (2010 ESA Essential Facts). Activision Blizzard or formally known as Activision since 2007, founded in 1979 by Vivendi SA Conglomerate located in Paris France. Electronic Arts (EA) has traditionally been seen as the largest video game company in world with the release of 783 games total to date (Electronic Arts). In fair competition Activision has released 210 games (Activision Games) since they started, but still have managed to generate higher net revenue last year than EA. Activision plans to continue dominating the mature (M) market by continuing the Call of Duty series. Activations in-depth Hero line up will help create a sustainable competitive advantage over EAs Rock Band series. History shows that Activision can continuously bring out bring high volume ground breaking games to the marketplace. Activision predicts it will have a greater market share than its competitors for years to come (Web Archive PDF) due to frequent M & As positioning them ahead of EA and their smaller competitors. A closer look into Activision reveals where they stand today and were they will take control of video game and online gaming industries in years to come. After closing recent merge with online video giant Blizzard Entertainment, they immediately will became global leaders in

Anderson 2 dynamic, high margin subscription-based online games business with opportunity to migrate Activision franchises online (Web Archive PDF). 2009 was a great year for the Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft team winning Guinness World Record for most popular MMORPG game after hit the 12 million subscriber plateau. (2009 Awards Joystiq.com) Honourable mentions also went out for selling 9.5 million copies of PC & Mac best selling game Starcraft. Activision now has the knowledge they need to bring the rest of the fleet online and make it impossible for EA to stop them. EA would need to invest a lot of money if they ever expect to release an online first player shooter multi-console game to over throw Call of Dutys growing success and popularity.

Violence in video games equals big bucks these days and Activision has capitalized on just that. The latest instalment of Call of Duty Black Ops shattered Activisions previous 5 day sales record of $550 million bringing in $650 million this time around. (2010 News Factor) Those who also partnered with Activision also managed to break records, Microsofts Xbox Live recorded 2.9 million unique users played on the first day. (2010 Yahoo News)
"Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set fiveday launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment, The number of people playing online and the number of hours they are playing demonstrates how online gaming has become a mainstream form of entertainment." said Robert Kotick CEO of Activision Blizzard.

(2010 Yahoo News) EA also tried to penetrate the console music industry with release of Rock Band that still lacks the competitive edge Activision has had year after year with their Guitar Hero series.

Anderson 3 In 2005 Activision stole the show by releasing the first interactive guitar console game just before Christmas on November 5 2005. (Wikipedia) Since the first release countless new and collector additions have been brought to the marketplace for almost all platforms, including mobile devices (iPods/iPhones). In 2009 Guitar Hero was recognized as the best selling rhythm game series (2009 Awards Joystiq.com). Shortly after Activision released DJ Hero which helped to continually place them in the number 1 spot for this category. Activision has deeper roots than just COD, GH, WOW, and Starcraft the Tony Hawk Pro Skater franchise brought on a whole new kind of gaming before the new millennium.

Activision and Neversoft teamed up and revolutionized how we played video games on the console with the first release of Tony Hawk Pro Skater for PS. The Tony Hawk series has released 16 games since all which huge success across multiple platforms over the last decade. Video game addiction also helped bring this franchise to new levels, most early adopters of the game regardless of talent played for hours on end. The Tony Hawk franchise was quick to release a female skater to help open up to the female market. (1999 IGN)

Activision continues to build games for all ages and genres, such depth will allow them to dominate the industry. Being able to influence kids at a young age to like your brand or games will help establish your brand with a new generation of customers. 25% of the gaming industry players are under the age of 18 (2010 ESA Essential Facts) which is a market they plan to target more in the future. EA is traditionally known for their Sports games but will they be able to hold onto their big price tag licences long enough before someone the other big fish comes along?

Anderson 4 Activision has paid their dues so far to the gaming industry and bought out whoever else they could, to claim the number spot. In fair competition Activision has released 210 games (Activision Games) since they started, but still have managed to generate higher net revenue of $4.28 Billion (Activision Blizzard Investor) last year than EA which generate $4.21 (VJ247) . Activision plans to continue dominating the mature (M) market by continuing the Call of Duty series. Activations in-depth Hero line up will help create a sustainable competitive advantage over EAs Rock Band series. History shows that Activision can continuously bring out bring high volume ground breaking games to the marketplace. Activision predicts it will have a greater market share than its competitors for years to come (Web Archive PDF) due to frequent M & As positioning them ahead of EA and their smaller competitors. Activision is a bigger and better video game company than EA.

Work Cited ACTIVISION :: GAMES Activision Games < http://www.activision.com/index.html#games|en_US>

Investor survey on gaming <http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=437653> Yahoo Activision/EA stats <http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Research-on-Activision-iw-1006149487.html?x=0&.v=1> Top 25 companies 2010 <http://www.softwaretop100.org/top-25-gaming-companies-2010> Stats from esa 2010 <http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_Essential_Facts_2010.PDF> 210 games

Anderson 5 <http://www.activision.com/index.html#games|en_US> Black ops < http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20101118/bs_nf/76147> List of Activision games < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Activision_games>

Joystiq Awards < http://wow.joystiq.com/2009/06/08/mike-morhaime-and-paul-sams-accept-guinness-worldrecord-awards/>

News Factory < http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20101118/bs_nf/76147>