Vivendi said Sunday that it planned to acquire a controlling stake in Activision in a deal that creates a rival to Electronic Arts as the world’s largest independent video game publisher. The deal combines Activision and Vivendi Games, companies with different areas of strength in the booming video game business. Activision’s emphasis is on making games for consoles, like the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Microsoft Xbox 360. Its game franchises include the Tony Hawk skateboarding games, the Call of Duty war game series and one of the industry’s current best sellers, Guitar Hero, which allows players to strum along on a plastic guitar to tunes played on television. Vivendi’s strength is in online games, like World of Warcraft, which its Blizzard Entertainment unit has built into a worldwide phenomenon with more than nine million players worldwide. The combination of the two companies, to be known as Activision Blizzard, comes at the end of a record year for video game sales. Recent new game consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have set off the release of new games and sequels to popular franchises, and expanded the audience to older men and women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/technology/03activision.html?_r=2&ex=1354338000&en=832eb28d97387ed5&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119661456627310928.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
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