Sources: Vivendi & Activision & Gamespot

2007 has seen some big mergers between studios and developers, but nothing to compare to the union of Vivendi & Activision; the biggest in gaming history. Their 18.9 billion dollar baby, named Activision Blizzard, makes this newly birthed super entity the world’s biggest independent third-party publisher. Although Vivendi plans to control 52% to 68% of Activision Blizzard stock, the deal is described by both sides as a merger and not a take over. Thank you, oh thank you cyber gods! EA is no more the evil Titan of the gaming world; its been replaced by a younger deity at long last!

Read the latest, after the jump!

Really, what can the two companies offer us, the gaming public? Is this just another move to maximize profits (Activision Blizzard will bring in an estimated $3.8 billion in annual revenue for the 2008 fiscal year) while offering little change to gamers? Hell no! First off, Call of Duty, Tony Hawk, F.E.A.R., Diablo, StarCraft, Warcraft, and World of Warcraft will now all be under one roof. Meaning funding, support and advertising for some of the most beloved franchises in gaming will get (we hope) top notch support. And the much beloved Guitar Hero franchise may now have direct access to Vivendi’s Music Group, the world’s largest record label. Which means amazing artists like Bob Marley, Eric Clapton and more could become available.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick: “This is a pivotal event in the continuing transformation of the interactive entertainment industry,” he declared. “By combining leaders in mass-market entertainment and subscription-based online games, Activision Blizzard will be the only publisher with leading market positions across all categories of the rapidly growing interactive entertainment software industry and reach the broadest possible audiences.”

Despite the massive changes that go without saying in a deal like this, some things will remain the same. New logos won’t appear/replace those already on franchise products like WoW and CoD, though a new Activision Blizzard company logo may be appear at some point later on. And the tremendous amount of autonomy Blizzard and Activions many studios currently enjoy will not change. Really it’s just a blend of two top notch companies. Both have massively popular franchises under their individual control. Activision has no MMORPG at the moment and a scant presence in the RTS genre. By merging with Vivendi they bring WoW and Starcraft into the fold. Where is that cash register sound coming from all of a sudden?

I’m dancing on cloud nine right now. No little guys got crushed, so far nobody has lost their jobs, and from what we know so far, the merger is primed and ready to really push, and more importantly support, the gaming industry in a positive way like never before. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go buy a lottery ticket as this must be one of the luckiest days for gamers in a long, long time.

Or the new EA…

Stay tuned for the details in the coming weeks.

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