I don't see this happening. Disney makes movies/tv shows and from what I understand this is the primary content they look for. The only way I see this as a possibility is if they saw huge $$$ potential from the Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo IP's.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
Xia: That's happened anyway - runic & arenanet. Probably why Torchlight 2 is more like a diablo than the atrocious diablo 3, more of the right people from the first 2 worked on Torchlight than d3.
Originally posted by RefMinor Originally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by RefMinorIt's actually kinda funny because all those points have no relevance when money is put on the table.
WoW by itself makes over $1 billion a year, Blizzard would laugh at the offer.I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer. Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA.
A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once). It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall.
No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.
The last thing we need in this genre is less competition. There are very, very good reasons for anti-trust laws and they apply to any kind of business, including gaming.
If I could see Disney making a play for any games developer, in my mind it would be Square-Enix, since they have had such great success teaming up in the Kingdom Hearts series.
Originally posted by RefMinorIt's actually kinda funny because all those points have no relevance when money is put on the table.
WoW by itself makes over $1 billion a year, Blizzard would laugh at the offer.
I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer.
Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA.
A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once). It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall.
No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.
The Vivendi shareholders own blizzard, how is that difficult to understand. They will make their decision based on cold hard cash. Who ever bought Blizzard would take time integrating them into their corporate culture, they would work for the betterment of the group that bought them, if that included gutting them then, again, that decision would be based on profit, not attachment to the Blizzard studio name.
Blizzard, besides WoW(which, by the time they'd sell it, would be dead) has nothing.
Maybe if Titan is as big of a success as Wow...then maybe.
But i think blizzard is down and out after wow personally.
Haha..
Seriously? You do know WoW is from the Warcraft IP.
And do you recall such huge titles as Diablo and Starcraft? Both of which are going to likely be MMO's in the future.
You mention the one we don't know anything about. Brilliant. You think Blizzard is done after WoW fades?
SMH AND /facepalm
To be fair, they are unknowns, the money from Diablo 3 has come in, Titan is an unknown and I am not aware of a new Starcraft game in the works, this would be factored into any purchase price.
Originally posted by RefMinorIt's actually kinda funny because all those points have no relevance when money is put on the table.
WoW by itself makes over $1 billion a year, Blizzard would laugh at the offer.
I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer.
Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA.
A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once). It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall.
No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.
The Vivendi shareholders own blizzard, how is that difficult to understand. They will make their decision based on cold hard cash. Who ever bought Blizzard would take time integrating them into their corporate culture, they would work for the betterment of the group that bought them, if that included gutting them then, again, that decision would be based on profit, not attachment to the Blizzard studio name.
pretty sure they can opt out should it get that far, Blizzard that is, i doubt Vivendi would be so stupid as to disenfranchise their major cash cow, but the point is moot, as your assuming that Vivendi trying to sell Blizzard wouldnt breach several contracts. Lawyers love that kind of thing its how they make a living after all. Besides which, i really doubt Disney has the resources financially or otherwise, to do it.
Originally posted by RefMinor Originally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by RefMinorOriginally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by RefMinorIt's actually kinda funny because all those points have no relevance when money is put on the table.
WoW by itself makes over $1 billion a year, Blizzard would laugh at the offer.I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer.Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA. A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once). It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall. No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.The Vivendi shareholders own blizzard, how is that difficult to understand. They will make their decision based on cold hard cash. Who ever bought Blizzard would take time integrating them into their corporate culture, they would work for the betterment of the group that bought them, if that included gutting them then, again, that decision would be based on profit, not attachment to the Blizzard studio name. Yeah, thats pretty much what NCSoft did to Cryptic.
The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.
The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.
The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
This ^
There is currently no reason for Disney to buy a company like Blizzard atm. They aren't in direct company with Blizzard, and in most cases they operate in very different markets. Absorbing a company like Blizzard would severely increase Disney's expenses, without giving them much in return. Not a smart business decision in all honesty.
ILM was the smarter choice, because star wars is still a popular IP, it did company with Disney on multiple levels (especially in regards to the films / shows / and fx work), and by absorbing them Disney got not only a great IP, but also a great infrastructure, talent pool, and pipeline to use for other projects should they choose to.
Originally posted by syntax42 The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not. The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The why did Disney buy Lucas Film? You know, the event that started this debate?
The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.
The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
True, evidence shows the majority of mergers show a loss of overall value, yet CEOs are incentivised to complete them and they play well to the egos at the top, and so they happen regardless.
I dont think they would want to tbh, they didnt buy marvel and lucas on the streangth of their games, they got them because of their movie success, Marvel is a very strong brand with many possible movies that could come out of it (and will if they remain as succesfull as they have been so far), Lucas not only has one of the most succesfull film franchises ever it has 2 (indianna jones), and then you have to consider all the merch that both marvel and lucas shift
Blizzard isnt even close to the same league tbh unless disney are thinking about making some serious moves into the gaming world, which I doubt considering they have said they will just outsource for gaming when asked about star wars games
Originally posted by syntax42 The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.
The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The why did Disney buy Lucas Film? You know, the event that started this debate?
Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff
Originally posted by deakon Originally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by syntax42The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The why did Disney buy Lucas Film? You know, the event that started this debate?Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff Uh, yes, Im quite aware of that. Read the post I responded to.
Originally posted by syntax42The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The why did Disney buy Lucas Film? You know, the event that started this debate?
Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff
Uh, yes, Im quite aware of that. Read the post I responded to.
You asked why they did it, the answer is that lucas has a lot more avenues of income with very little overhead as most of the money comes from licensing rather than making the stuff themselves, the only real part theyre taking on themselves is the movie making which is already within their area of expertise
Blizzard is currently owned by Vivendi Universal: a global entertainment conglomerate that is an even bigger player in mass media than Disney.
Vivendi Universal and Disney are, quite frankly, too small to buy each other's assets and too big to be bought. What might be possible is a merger between them, which might actually be a smart move given the nature of the mass media industry.
__________________________ "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 deakon Originally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by deakonOriginally posted by XiaokiOriginally posted by syntax42The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
The why did Disney buy Lucas Film? You know, the event that started this debate?Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluffUh, yes, Im quite aware of that. Read the post I responded to.You asked why they did it, the answer is that lucas has a lot more avenues of income with very little overhead as most of the money comes from licensing rather than making the stuff themselves, the only real part theyre taking on themselves is the movie making which is already within their area of expertise Is the post by syntax42 invisible to you or something? Do you have him blocked?
I know what I said and it was in response to another post. Posts do not exist in a vacuum.
Originally posted by Crazy_Stick Blizzard doesn't fit Disney's aquisition profile. When you look at what they go after, it's usually some IP like Lucas Films that they can market on multiple fronts from movies and TV, books, toys, and games. Blizzard has some footprint outside the PC game world but not enough of one to fit Disney's desires.
Most accurate post.
I could see WOW itself becoming more Disney-like, and the developers certainly have tried to steer that way since original release, but...Blizzard itself doesn't offer much of anything, especially for a supergiant like Disney.
Blizzard is currently owned by Vivendi Universal: a global entertainment conglomerate that is an even bigger player in mass media than Disney.
Vivendi Universal and Disney are, quite frankly, too small to buy each other's assets and too big to be bought. What might be possible is a merger between them, which might actually be a smart move given the nature of the mass media industry.
dont know where you get that idea
Vivendi tried to sell Blizzard to Disney this past summer (as I previously posted)
Originally posted by Beatnik59Blizzard is currently owned by Vivendi Universal: a global entertainment conglomerate that is an even bigger player in mass media than Disney. Vivendi Universal and Disney are, quite frankly, too small to buy each other's assets and too big to be bought. What might be possible is a merger between them, which might actually be a smart move given the nature of the mass media industry.
dont know where you get that idea
Vivendi tried to sell Blizzard to Disney this past summer (as I previously posted)
Vivendi talked to Disney to sell Activision Blizzard which is the holding company that owns Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard is a merger of Activision and Vivendi Games(which owned Blizzard) and includes a lot more video game developers than just Activision and Blizzard.
Comments
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
That's happened anyway - runic & arenanet. Probably why Torchlight 2 is more like a diablo than the atrocious diablo 3, more of the right people from the first 2 worked on Torchlight than d3.
I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer.
Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA.
A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once).
It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall.
No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.
The question is what Disney can do for the mmo space with Marvel and Star Wars IPs in their pocket.
Hopefully they will throw some serious dough after making a proper game after SWTOR failed..
And hopefully it will not all be (Disney) theme parks...
____________________________
CASUAL CONFESSIONS - Draccan's blog
____________________________
If I could see Disney making a play for any games developer, in my mind it would be Square-Enix, since they have had such great success teaming up in the Kingdom Hearts series.
The Vivendi shareholders own blizzard, how is that difficult to understand. They will make their decision based on cold hard cash. Who ever bought Blizzard would take time integrating them into their corporate culture, they would work for the betterment of the group that bought them, if that included gutting them then, again, that decision would be based on profit, not attachment to the Blizzard studio name.
Haha..
Seriously? You do know WoW is from the Warcraft IP.
And do you recall such huge titles as Diablo and Starcraft? Both of which are going to likely be MMO's in the future.
You mention the one we don't know anything about. Brilliant. You think Blizzard is done after WoW fades?
SMH AND /facepalm
To be fair, they are unknowns, the money from Diablo 3 has come in, Titan is an unknown and I am not aware of a new Starcraft game in the works, this would be factored into any purchase price.
pretty sure they can opt out should it get that far, Blizzard that is, i doubt Vivendi would be so stupid as to disenfranchise their major cash cow, but the point is moot, as your assuming that Vivendi trying to sell Blizzard wouldnt breach several contracts. Lawyers love that kind of thing its how they make a living after all. Besides which, i really doubt Disney has the resources financially or otherwise, to do it.
I don't think you understand how business works, there is no Blizzard when the money hits the table, there is a diverse group of shareholders who will look at the P&L and balance sheet, and make a cold decision based on their idea of future profits vs the cash on the table. As I said if the money is on the table your points are irrelevant, ALL that matters is the ratio of profit to offer.
Blizzard doesnt have shareholders because they are not a publicly traded company. Blizzard is owned by Activision Blizzard which is owned by Vivendi SA. A company could buy Blizzard and force them to do what they dont want to but that could lead to a staff exodus(which is quite common and has happened at Blizzard more than once). It worked out so well for City of Heroes afterall. No company with the $4 billion to buy Blizzard is dumb enough to piss off Blizzard.
The Vivendi shareholders own blizzard, how is that difficult to understand. They will make their decision based on cold hard cash. Who ever bought Blizzard would take time integrating them into their corporate culture, they would work for the betterment of the group that bought them, if that included gutting them then, again, that decision would be based on profit, not attachment to the Blizzard studio name.
Yeah, thats pretty much what NCSoft did to Cryptic.
Electronic Arts and BioWare.
Electronic Arts and Mythic.
Time Warner and Turbine.
Microsoft and Turbine.
Sony and Verant.
Ea to bullfrog
Microsoft to lionhead
The bigger a company is, the more percentage of its budget is used for maintaining its size. Administrative, legal, HR, and accounting must be able to handle the larger size of the company, and the complexities mergers bring. Could Disney buy Blizzad? Yes. Would it make a more profitable Disney in the long run? Probably not.
The goal of a merger is to buy a company that is underperforming or needs a lot of cash to kick of its next big profitable product. Buying a company just to make yours larger doesn't make a lot of sense and rarely improves profit ratios.
This ^
There is currently no reason for Disney to buy a company like Blizzard atm. They aren't in direct company with Blizzard, and in most cases they operate in very different markets. Absorbing a company like Blizzard would severely increase Disney's expenses, without giving them much in return. Not a smart business decision in all honesty.
ILM was the smarter choice, because star wars is still a popular IP, it did company with Disney on multiple levels (especially in regards to the films / shows / and fx work), and by absorbing them Disney got not only a great IP, but also a great infrastructure, talent pool, and pipeline to use for other projects should they choose to.
True, evidence shows the majority of mergers show a loss of overall value, yet CEOs are incentivised to complete them and they play well to the egos at the top, and so they happen regardless.
I dont think they would want to tbh, they didnt buy marvel and lucas on the streangth of their games, they got them because of their movie success, Marvel is a very strong brand with many possible movies that could come out of it (and will if they remain as succesfull as they have been so far), Lucas not only has one of the most succesfull film franchises ever it has 2 (indianna jones), and then you have to consider all the merch that both marvel and lucas shift
Blizzard isnt even close to the same league tbh unless disney are thinking about making some serious moves into the gaming world, which I doubt considering they have said they will just outsource for gaming when asked about star wars games
Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff
Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff
Uh, yes, Im quite aware of that. Read the post I responded to.
You asked why they did it, the answer is that lucas has a lot more avenues of income with very little overhead as most of the money comes from licensing rather than making the stuff themselves, the only real part theyre taking on themselves is the movie making which is already within their area of expertise
Blizzard is currently owned by Vivendi Universal: a global entertainment conglomerate that is an even bigger player in mass media than Disney.
Vivendi Universal and Disney are, quite frankly, too small to buy each other's assets and too big to be bought. What might be possible is a merger between them, which might actually be a smart move given the nature of the mass media industry.
__________________________
"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
Because lucas and marvel are merchandise kings, there are far more kids with spiderman/star wars bed clothes, lunchboxes, toys etc than there are with warcraft/starcraft/diablo fluff
Uh, yes, Im quite aware of that. Read the post I responded to.
You asked why they did it, the answer is that lucas has a lot more avenues of income with very little overhead as most of the money comes from licensing rather than making the stuff themselves, the only real part theyre taking on themselves is the movie making which is already within their area of expertise
Is the post by syntax42 invisible to you or something? Do you have him blocked?
I know what I said and it was in response to another post. Posts do not exist in a vacuum.
Most accurate post.
I could see WOW itself becoming more Disney-like, and the developers certainly have tried to steer that way since original release, but...Blizzard itself doesn't offer much of anything, especially for a supergiant like Disney.
dont know where you get that idea
Vivendi tried to sell Blizzard to Disney this past summer (as I previously posted)
http://www.vg247.com/2012/07/13/report-vivendi-may-have-sell-activision-shares-on-the-open-market/
EQ2 fan sites
Vivendi talked to Disney to sell Activision Blizzard which is the holding company that owns Blizzard.
Activision Blizzard is a merger of Activision and Vivendi Games(which owned Blizzard) and includes a lot more video game developers than just Activision and Blizzard.