Arivall’s and Departures

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I know I'm way late on this. Cut me some slack.]

Activision and Blizzard? I think it would be safe to categorize this under “straight out of left-field” - it’s not often that the gaming community has news that is actually new, considering the amount of leaks and rumors that spread before any sort of official announcement is ever made, especially those of this magnitude.

While many details of this arrangement are still somewhat unclear, what is known is that Vivendi will have a 52% ownership stake in the new company and that current Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will take the Chairman position, but to denounce of any crying foul, this is indeed a merger and not a takeover in any way, shape, or form.

A point worth mentioning is that the moniker of Activision Blizzard is somewhat of a misnomer because for all intents and purposes this merger is actually just a coming together of the two powerhouses that are Activision, developers of Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, Call of Duty series and Vivendi, which includes Blizzard (thus Activision Blizzard) that has been largely successful with the unbelievably lucrative, World of Warcraft that reels in approximately $135 million dollars on a monthly basis on subscription costs alone.

According to the NPD figures thus far, in 2007 it displays Activision as being the #1 publisher for consoles and handheld systems for eleven months straight. This success bolstered the company to a market share of 16.8% , up 7.9% from roughly the same time last year.

“By combining Vivendi’s games business with Activision, we are creating a worldwide leader in a high-growth industry,” said Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi. Activision and Vivendi expect the merging to be valued at a total of $18.9 billion. This in turn makes Activision Blizzard a direct competitor with the likes of the leading third-party publisher and up until now, all but unstoppable, Electronic Arts, publishers of The Sims, Crysis, Madden, and Rock Band.

It’s also worth noting that this coming together also brings the possibility of unique inter-relationships such as the Vivendi-owned Universal Music Group music with Activision’s Guitar Hero. The press release also denotes “an exciting pipeline of yet-to-be announced titles” from Vivendi subsidiary Blizzard.

This is yet another demonstration of the consolidation within the video game industry and it’s as inevitable as the sun rising tomorrow, that there will be a fair bit of mergers and companies buying other companies throughout the coming years.

I’m so stupid. After about 78 hours of /played time on my Draenei Hunter and hitting level 42, I realized that the grinding was starting to drag, the grin I would get while leisurely taking out mobs 2-4 levels higher than me was gone, and the excitement of pulling out my mount for quick travel quickly turned to regret for having dropped a grand total 90 gold for it.

Arivall, the Draenei Hunter hath been forsaken.

Realizing I was in utter need of something new, I went off to the character creation screen and after a good 15 minutes of pondering I opted to go for a Warlock as the whole pet aspect still piqued my interest. Only thing left was to decide on a race, my first choice would’ve been a Blood Elf, MALE Blood Elf, no mangina here. But, that was out of the question as the bulk of my already established guild mates/friends are on the alliance. So I looked at a Gnome for a little while, but just couldn’t cope with the shortness. So I went with a Male (still no vag, here) Human, that, shockingly, didn’t look like it came from the same lineage as Fabio.

3 hours in, I have my Voidwalker and I’m actually kinda enjoying Westfall. Let’s just hope that I don’t get bored of this one. If I do, look on the bright side, mounts are free!

Update: Okay, so I lied. Again. The male human was starting to annoy me, so I recreated him into a her. At least I figured it out before level 14, huh?

This is Playing Catch-Up. due to life, (damn you, life!) it would seem as though I’m not updating as often as I’d like. Most of the blame should be directed to school, sports, friends, female aggro and obviously, the games, so this may become the most abundant form of posting. What is ‘this’, you ask? It’s an uninspiring idea that I came up with that I dubbed ‘Playing Catch-Up’ because this was a last minute decision and wit wasn’t my strong suit at that point in time. Playing Catch-Up is where I ‘catch-up’ with the weeks ongoing in the gaming community, unless there happens to be some divine will that gives me the time to write a proper blog deserves its own entry.

Gerstmann Lynch: I can’t remember what made the internet (read: NeoGAF) explode as much as this story that has been beaten to death — and rightfully so. In case you’ve been living under a rock, I’ll run you through the alleged story thus far:

Jeff Gerstmann works at GameSpot for 11 years
Eidos buys site-wide ad campaign for Kane and Lynch
Gerstmann gives Kane and Lynch 6.0
Gerstmann is fired because of his ‘tone’ Video review gets pulled and re-edited, text review gets re-edited
Internet explodes, CNET/GameSpot is pummeled by forum kids and Ziff editors show support for fellow reviewers
GameSpot posts official statement and a Q&A!?

That’s the gist of it. The specific reasons for his termination haven’t been revealed and don’t hold your breath on it either, due to legal reasons and/or severance packages. I hate to think of it this way, but there is some good to this catastrophe. It’s been a launching pad for things that need to be talked about, like the line between editorial and marketing between gaming sites/magazines and what happens when that line is crossed (see: 150 previous words). GFW Radio’s 12/5 podcast had an amazing conversation about that very line and the pressures that come with it, N’Gai Croal wrote a great article that very same day about enthusiast press and the nature of endemic advertising, and arguably most important GameSpot released a seemingly genuine HotSpot about Jeff and his departure. My biggest question is wondering whether or not GameSpot ever regain their respect within the gaming community? Only time will tell.

As for Jeff, he’ll be fine. My prediction is that he’ll either join IGN or 1UP or he’ll get his own gig going. My money is on the latter.

Reviewer’s Creed: During the aftermath of the previous subject, 1UP’s Review’s Editor Andrew Pfister made a blog post on the 6^th, that contains something that he calls the ‘Reviewer’s Credo’ I prefer to call it a reviewer’s creed in light of another recently ranted about game that also has a creed.

As a reviewer myself, I believe that I and any reviewer should abide by it regardless of what is being reviewed. Unfortunately there will be good reviewers and bad reviewers everywhere. I’ve promised to myself and any potential audience that I may have, that I will stick to it to the letter, as long as I am reviewing involved in the reviewing process.

A Reviewer’s Credo

We believe in the power of language, the perpetual pursuit of improvement, and the difference of opinions.

We are fair in our criticism, and we do not soften our words or change our evaluations in fear.

We respect working relationships and outside perspectives, but our process cannot be influenced, and our opinions are not for sale.

We are reliant upon our own ethical integrity as much as we are the integrity of our colleagues and employers.

We are steadfast in what we believe, but we are not infallible.

We are in the sole service of our readers, and our actions are governed by truth.

This is what we believe.

Xbox Fall Winter Update: Microsoft dropped Fall update on the 4^th, after about a solid 45 minutes with the update, it’s left a solid impression on me, not doing anything wildly new, well besides the addition of support for the DivX/XviD codec’s and the addition of being able to download Xbox Originals. Most of what the update does is streamline and speed up the dashboard as a whole. If you have time, here’s the change log in its entirety.

Stray Thoughts: Rock Band is damn hard to find, locally at least.

Fuck that one Brazilian dude, much love Milky, his SFIV blog post, and the 1UP Network in its entirety for all their hard work.

Spikes VGA’s weren’t as laughable as years previous, but that’s not saying much.

This entry was a little on the short side, my bad, son.

I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

I’m up entirely too late and if my mom reads this blog post and looks at the time stamp.

Sorry, Mom.

Sorry for cursing too.

As a shameless ploy for me not being around, (sorry guys, been busy with life and such). In my absence I bring you a song being played by some random guy on YouTube, the song is from Mega Man 2, Wily’s Castle 1. I tried to find the minibosses version of it, but no avail. Mind you: this is my favorite (game) song. Ever. I’ll try and update soon.

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