Blizzard + Activision = Death for EA? *cheer!*

     I know it’s all over the news the past couple of days, but the fact that Blizzard and Activision, two of the largest game studios are out there, can only be a good thing.  Add in the fact that Blizzard is ponying up 1 billion more than Activision, giving them an ownership stake in the new merger, is an even better thing.  And the best thing?  The next largest game developer in their sights: Electronic Arts.  If there ever was a gaming trifecta, it’d be pretty close to this… 2 good game studios combining to take down one of the biggest and worst game studios out there.  Someone get Hollywood, this’ll make a hell of a movie.

All joking aside, this is a really good move for both studios.  Activision was known for making some pretty good titles such as Call of Duty 4, the Tony Hawk Series,  Guitar Hero, etc.  Blizzard… well, they make games. good games.  Polish is everything for them.  So you take these two companies, and mix their brightest together, and the end results I have a feeling will be very well worth it.

Now factor in that the next largest piece in the gaming puzzle is EA, a company that: cannot make high quality games without outsourcing them – See Crytek and Crysis, Flagship Studios and Hellgate London (all the negative shit aside, it’s a pretty game that plays relatively smoothly), they had to go out and buy Mythic Studios to get their grubby paws on Warhammer Online.  All the titles they produce in house are either shit to begin with, such as the Madden franchise (Do we NEED a new fucking Madden every year, at 60 bucks a whack? give me a break.) or start out good, only to end up being fucked over by EA.  For anyone who’s played Battlefield 2 or Battlefield 2142, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  Every patch EA decides to tinker with things, only to end up wrecking the game.  I’m not saying EA is the only company that’s guilty of this; SOE and SWG, I’m looking in your direction with NGE… but they’re the only company that has a history of doing it consistently in every game.

And, EA does not do the whole customer service thing well.  My rant on Hellgate London is a prime example, although EA was only supposed to be publishing that game, but even that involves some community relations when things go wrong, and EA has shown time and time again that they’re about as useful to community management as a drunk hooker in a room full of teetotalers.  Blizzard is not perfect on this front by any stretch of the imagination; a short look in the WoW forums makes proof of that.  But on the whole, the improvements they make show they do listen to their playerbase in some capacity, and will consider their comments in deciding the future direction of the game.

Bottom line, if EA was the 800 pound gorilla in the room, then Blizzard and Activision just became the 2 ton rhinocerous with a bad case of ass-whooping to lay down on someone…. too bad EA’s the only other person in the room.  Let’s all shed a tear for them… or just shed a tear of joy that we may never be forced  to see Madden 2010.

~ by trollonfire on December 6, 2007.