In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Valve Software VP Doug Lombardi revealed that if talks of acquisition came about from industry giants such as Electronic Arts, he would be "happy to have that conversation."Since the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games that resulted in Activision Blizzard, arguably the industry's greatest force in terms of publishing, the gaming world is one that is beginning to revolve around mergers and acquisitions. Electronic Arts, once the undisputed juggernaut of the publishing world, would certainly consider themselves blessed if they were to acquire Valve. In fact, given the relationship between Valve and EA, who will be publishing Left 4 Dead when it releases this November, such talks seem likely.Describing the relationship between Valve and Electronic Arts as "really good," Lombardi praised EA for their understanding of Steam, perhaps Valve's greatest contribution to PC gaming. "EA was very progressive about saying, 'We understand who you guys are. We understand what Steam is. We don't want Steam to go away,'" said Lombardi....

The new Activision Blizzard knows a best selling franchise when it sees one and one of them is the Call of Duty shooter series. During last week's financial conference call with financial analysts, company execs announced the not-surprising-at-all news that a new Call of Duty game would indeed be coming out in 2009.Of course, we are still getting the WWII shooter entry, Call of Duty World at War, this fall from developer Treyarch. Activision Blizzard's execs stated that for the 2009 installment the franchise will work with another developer. While not actually stated in the call it's likely that the developer is Call of Duty's originator Infinity Ward which recently signed a new contract with the publisher....

Just as you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, so too is it impossible to merge two gaming juggernauts without losing a few games -- and studios. News that the recent Activision Blizzard conglomerate will see many Sierra titles become casualties is well known at this point, but should the legendary Sierra studio itself be put out to pasture?Though the idea may seem blasphemous, it may not be such a bad thing. In fact, EDGE magazine writer Kris Graft thinks it would be better to remember the studio for its memorable contributions to the industry (especially many PC gamers' favorite adventure titles) rather than be thought of as a shadow of its former self.Such fond memories also seem preferable to Al Lowe, venerable designer of the Leisure Suit Larry series. Lowe feels that the once great development house let Sierra become nothing more than a logo on box fronts. "It was 'Sierra' in name only. They allowed the brand to wither into meaninglessness," lamented Lowe.The article is a great read and recommended for all Sierra enthusiasts, as well as PC gamers as a collective. From this writer's own perspective, I agree with Lowe. Sierra has long been one of my favorite studios, and I'd rather remember it for some of my favorite gaming memories (King's Quest and Gabriel Knight, I'm lookin' at you!) than a broken, feeble brand that no longer remembers what its name once represented....

During Activision Blizzard's conference call with investors today following the release of Activision's final stand alone financial results (you can listen into the repeat of the conference on the publisher's web site), Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Morhaime stated that the release date of their next commercial expansion pack for their hit MMO World of Warcraft would be released sometime in the last quarter of 2008 (October-December). The expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, recently entered a new phase of beta testing.In other Blizzard news, Morhaime said that their other two announced projects, Diablo III and Starcraft II, were both "heavily in development" but as usual he would not talk about release dates. He also said that they are staffing up for working on their next unannounced MMO project but would not comment further on that project....

The newly merged game publisher of Activision Blizzard announced the final financial numbers for the Activision side of the family today. The publisher's number for the quarter that ended June 30 were $654.2 million, a 32 percent increase from $495.5 million a year ago. The company had a profit of $59.0 million for the quarter, up from a profit of $27.8 million.Those numbers were Activision's largest for a non-holiday quarter thanks to releases like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero On Tour and Kung Fu Panda. The company will from now on release their financial numbers as Activision Blizzard (The other have of the merged company, Vivendi Games, has already given their last financial results)....

Earlier this week we reported that the newly merged Activision Blizzard would not be taking most of the upcoming games from Vivendi's Sierra Entertainment label, including the upcoming Ghostbusters game title which was hyped as coming out this fall and shown in playable form at the San Diego Comic-Con last weekend. Now Variety reports that this move has pushed the game's release date from fall to sometime in 2009.However this new date might work to the game's advantage. According to the article, the movie's 25th anniversary also happens to be in 2009 and Ghostbusters' owners Sony Pictures might want to wait until then to release the game to tie in to any marketing they might generate for that anniversary. So far there's no word on who might pick up the game for publishing which is being developed by Terminal Reality....

Earlier this week Activision Blizzard announced that they would not be taking on a number of games from the now likely-to-be-former Sierra Entertainment brand. We have already heard that Massive Entertainment isn't worried about their future World in Conflict plans. Joystiq has also heard via an unnamed Sierra rep that the Ghostbusters game is "absolutely not cancelled" although it's likely to switch publishers.And what of Brutal Legend, the long awaited next game from Tim Schafer's Double Fine team? A post on the developer's web site gives a clue inside a picture showing a bug. Putting a cursor over the bug's body brings up a message saying simply, "Brutal Legend is fine." Again look for the game to move to another publisher in the near future....

Yesterday the word came down that World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, the next game in the RTS game series, would not be one that would be picked up by the new Activision Blizzard merger. Furthermore the game's developer, Massive Entertainment, might be sold off. Today on the Massgate.com web site, the developer's community manager posted up a small update on the site's message boards.While admitting that "things are a bit up in the air" at the moment at Massive, the message added that " . . . that doesn't worry us too much. Most of us have been around for a long time in this business, and we've been through this sort of thing before. Usually, we come out stronger and in a better position, and that's exactly what we intend to do again. We are confident that we will soon be able to come back with some good, solid news about WIC and the "other stuff" we're working on." World in Conflict: Soviet Assault was previously scheduled for a fall 2008 release....

It's been expected ever since the merger was first announced but now it's official: The new Activision Blizzard (made up of the former Activision and Vivendi Games) has finally given some details on just what they plan to do with all of the game projects under Vivendi Games' Sierra Entertainment brand. Basically the company's Activision Publishing brand is keeping only a few franchises on Sierra's list; Crash Bandicoot, Ice Age and Spyro and the upcoming Radical Entertainment open world action game Prototype. One other former Sierra game that Activision will publisher has not yet been revealed.This means that a ton of previously announced games under Sierra Entertainment won't likely be published by the new Activision Blizzard including World in Conflict: Soviet Assault, WET, the Ghostbusters game (shown in playable form at San Diego Comic Con just this past weekend) and Brutal Legend. It's currently unknown if the games will be cancelled or sold to other publishersThe press release also says that the status of two of Vivendi Games' internal development studios, Swordfish and Massive, are being evaluated including the possibly of them being sold off. Two more Vivendi development studios, High Moon and Radical, will have some kind of staff adjustments although it's not clear exactly what that means yet. Two more former Vivendi brands, Sierra Online (which published downloadable games for the PC) and Vivendi Games Mobile, could also be put up for sale. We will likely get more info on this situation in the weeks ahead....

Are you ready for yet another financial results news story? Well, we have one for you. This time its for Vivendi as the parent company of Vivendi Games announced its fiscal result for both the first half of 2008 as well as the last quarter that ended on June 30 This is the last time that Vivendi Games will likely be mentioned in a financial press release due to the just completed merger with Activision to form Activision Blizzard.For the last quarter, Vivendi Games generated €223 million, of which €185 million came from the Blizzard Entertainment division. Revenues were up 17.9 percent overall compared to the same period a year ago. For the first half of 2008, Blizzard generated €378 million in revenue as subscriptions for their World of Warcraft MMO continue to climb, reaching 10.9 million by the end of June. Vivendi now owns 54 percent of the newly merged Activision Blizzard....

Earlier reports suggested that, due to Activision and Vivendi's merger into industry behemoth Activision Blizzard, some staff redundancies would result in more than a few lost jobs. New reports reveal that staff layoffs are coming, and Vivendi's UK branch will bear the brunt of the burden.GamesIndustry.biz reports that "the majority of the Vivendi team, which oversees the Sierra games label among other things, will face job losses." Some senior team members will be invited to re-apply for new roles within the company. How generous.Furthermore, a number of upcoming Sierra titles have been under close scrutiny since the Activision Blizzard merger and may not see eventual release dates. Specific details such as which titles might be permanently vaulted have not been revealed....

MCV magazine recently spoke with Activision Blizzard CFO Thomas Tippl on the recent merger between Activision and Vivendi that resulted in the largest gaming conglomerate in existence.Due to the high number of popular franchises developed by Activision and Blizzard individually, MCV was curious as to which titles might be considered high priority in terms of the new juggernaut's future plans. Not surprisingly, Tippl was quick to herald Guitar Hero, which he stated has "sold more than any video game in the history of the industry," and the continued focus on Call of Duty.On Blizzard's side of the equation is the ever-popular World of WarCraft, which now boasts more than 11 million worldwide subscribers, making it the leading subscription-based MMO. Coupled with last year's StarCraft II announcement and the more recent unveiling of Diablo III, Tippl didn't have to work hard to convince MCV (or anyone else in the gaming world) that Blizzard's line-up will be as strong as ever through the next several years.Specifics regarding stock shares were also discussed. When asked if Vivendi's 52 per cent holding classified the merger as more of an acquisition of Activision than a partnership, Tippl discussed the company's recently announced self-tender, " which will last for 20 business days. During that period of time, shareholders who want to sell up can do so at a price of $27.50."The full interview is available at MCVUK.com....

Activision Blizzard has announced its intention to purchase 146,500,000 shares of its own stock at a price of $27.50 per share, reports GamesIndustry.biz. The offer to self-tender the share shares, which translate to approximately 22 per cent of the company, will expire at 5:00 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday, August 13, barring any extensions.According to GamesIndustry.biz, "Activision Blizzard agreed to commence the tender offer within five business days after closing the deal on July 9."...

As is often the case when a studio prepares to embark in new creative and business directions, representatives from Activision Blizzard report that staff and project cuts are anticipated.Develop reports that Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick spoke to Variety about the newly-merged industry giant's future plans. "We have a very good view into which products are going to have the prospects for profits that we look for," said Kotick. "Which ones have the margin potential that is important to us, which can be sequeled, which have worldwide distribution potential... If projects or business units don't [meet] our requirements for return to our shareholders and our profitability and operating margin targets consistent with our historical performance, they won't likely be retained.""We are in large part using the Activision organization as a backbone," said Activision Blizzard COO Bruce Hack, formerly head of Vivendi. "We will strengthen that backbone with employees and processes from Vivendi Games. At the same time, there will be a number of people at Vivendi Games who are going to be terminated."Hack was frank in admitting that "there are some very good assets that may not meet the hurdle," and if the newly-formed conglomerate doesn't consider up to par, such projects will most likely be "divested or closed down."All staff will be notified as to the status of their employment with Activision Blizzard within 30 days, according to Develop....

Activision Blizzard's Activision Publishing division had just announced their plans to release an ambitious new game line-up in the near future. While their line-up includes games that have already been announced they also revealed a brand new title; Singularity (working name), a brand new first person action game from their Raven Software development studio.No other info on the game was announced but it is the first original game that Raven has created since the Soldier of Fortune series. Raven has concentrated on making games based on id Software properties (Quake IV and the upcoming Wolfenstein) the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series of titles and most recently the X-Men and Marvel Universe action-RPG series. Ironically it appears that Raven won't be developing the upcoming Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2; that will be handled by Vicarious Visions. Activision also announced plans to release games based on the upcoming movies X-Men Origins Wolverine and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.[Via press release]...