Written By Dragonfly 115 days ago
News Category: Articles
Relevant Consoles: : Nintendo DS : PC : PlayStation 2 : PlayStation 3 : Wii : Xbox 360

As part of a new series of articles, the "Breakfast Topic" will take important issues relevant to the gaming industry today and give you a particular subject to chew over early each morning.

Today's topic: The Activision Blizzard merger.

Almost a year ago, it was announced that two of the biggest developers / publishers in the industry today Activision and Blizzard Entertainment, would be merging into one company, a company whose size would even outclass Electronic Arts.

Fast forward 235 days, and the merger have finally been completed, with the new company going under the moniker of Activision Blizzard.

But all is not well, as gamers who have been paying attention to today's news may have noticed. The Sierra band of Activision has essentially been disbanded in the wake of the merger, leaving a number of high profile title dead in the water, although it has since been confirmed that these games won't be disbanded entirely, but sold off to interested parties

Still, it is more than worrying to see an entire development wing of Activision essentially wiped out because of the merger, a developer working on a number of highly anticipated games (such as Ghostbusters and Brutal Legend) whilst generic cookie cutter sellers like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot are kept safe under the corporate wing.

Many hope this merger would lead to good things, but this move has already cast a dark shadow over the merger, and does not paint a positive future for the company. But then, you never need positivity to be profitable.

Ironically, Activision Blizzard's closest competitor, Electronic Arts, has come on leaps and bounds over the years, moving out of their yearly sequelitis comfort zone and making genuine moves to reinvent and reinvigorate the gaming landscape, and with the likes of Burnout Paradise, Dead Space, Spore, and other major titles, they are looking to be quite successful in doing so.

How do you feel about the merger, and its possible future impact on the industry?

Tags : activision : activision blizzard : Blizzard Entertainment : Breakfast Topic : Brutal Legend : Crash Bandicoot : Eletronic Arts : ghostbusters : Ghostbusters: The Video Game : merger : nintendo ds : pc : playstation 2 : PlayStation 3 : playstation portable : Spyro : Wii : World in Conflict : Xbox 360

Comments

By: Magus On: 01:23 Jul 30th, 2008 Offline	So what will happen to Ghostbusters? I read about the anonymous source, but I think it's an insanely stupid move by Activision to make gamers even more anxious about such anticipated games. Ghostbusters has been in development hell for ages, it's going back again?