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PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

NBC Merger Leaves VU Games, Blizzard, Sierra In Cold 35

Posted by simoniker from the no-change-is-bad-change dept.
Thanks to Reuters for their report that Vivendi Universal Games has still not found a buyer, with indication that, despite much confusion, "The video game unit is not a part of the newly-created NBC Universal, and Vivendi has signaled its intention to hold on to the division." VU Games is also the parent company of both Sierra and Blizzard, but although "...industry insiders have questioned why Vivendi would want to retain ownership considering its divestiture of other entertainment assets", VU Games will stay as it is for now, since "...sources in the banking and games-publishing industries have said the sale bogged down over price, with Vivendi asking on the order of $800 million."
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NBC Merger Leaves VU Games, Blizzard, Sierra In Cold More

NBC Merger Leaves VU Games, Blizzard, Sierra In Cold

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  • You can just send their developers an email and they'll happily install some spyware for you. Voila, you get it for free. Plus Blizzard is a one trick pony.

    • Re:Why buy? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by whorfin ( 686885 )
      It may be a one trick pony, but that's a damn nice trick. WarCraft, StarCraft, and Diablo titles are pretty much guaranteed to be top sellers when they ship.

      Worth $800m? Not sure about that. It all depends on the sales and profits. Obviously the other game companies either don't have the cash to do the deal, or don't think it's worth that much to them.
      • One trick? Vivendi owns a little company called Valve. Maybe you've heard of them?

        Half-Life?

        Counter-Strike?

        Half-Life 2?

        Team Fortress 2?

        There are some surefire hits right there...
        • One trick? Vivendi owns a little company called Valve.

          No, Vivendi does not own Valve. Valve published Half-Life through a Vivendi-owned company called Sierra, but Valve itself is privately owned and funded (mostly by Gabe Newell). They are not a public company, nor are they owned by anyone other than themselves.
  • ^almost remotely humorous

  • Sierra? So What (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 08, 2003 @06:56PM (#7167496)
    Blizzard (North and South) is probably one of the top-10 PC game companies. But Sierra died in the early 1990s. A real shame too. They (and dynamix) used to have some of the best games in King's Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, Police Quest, Space Quest, Willy Beamish, Heart of China, etc. They were one of the first game companies to digitize actors for games.

    But those days are long past. Now all they do is bug-ridden knockoffs of whatever was popular 2 years ago.

  • How many people visit /.? If we all pitch in some money, we could buy Blizzard and release 1337 open source games! How kickass would that be?

    Who's with me?!
    • I would, but why would you want blizzard? Me experience with Diablo was less than stellar, and the rest of their games aren't all that appealing. Now if you mentioned VALVe... LOL
    • The community has yet to unite and produce their own "1337" open source game. Why don't you save your money, gather up 10-20 talented programmers, artists, etc... and make your own game?

      Sure you could release Warcraft into the open source pool, but what would be the return on the original investment? 1337ness?

  • I don't mean to troll, but companies aren't dumb. All of Blizzard's game have been hugely popular. When Vivendi bought Blizzard, they didn't make them change the way they made games, that might lower their profits. Whoever buys Blizzard will probably keep business as usual except if it's MS, then we may have some problems with certain platform exclusive games (i.e. Bungie).

  • I will sell VU Games for... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    "..ONE BILLION DOLLARS." (pinky to the mouth) "MWUhahahah!"

    Uh.. I don't think so. At 800 million asking price, assuming they make $25 back per copy of a game sold (assuming retailer markup, cost of duplication brings the retail price to $50 total), they would have to sell, what.. 32 million games?

    To sell 32 million games, you'd have to make 10 titles that sell over 3 million each - they would take over 30 years to make assuming 3 years each (or 15 if they do 2 in parallel).

    AND I've not included the cost
    • yeah, except that Blizzard titles routinely break sales records, for example StarCraft, which sold 6 million copies.
      also, Is this 800 million for Sierra AND Blizzard?
      Doesn't Sierra publish, for example, Half Life (8 million copies), and Homeworld and such?
      these aren't exactly slouches
  • I think South Korea should buy it mainly to secure their future source of games. Or maybe NK should buy it and make South Koreans pay large sums for the Blizzard games. :)
  • So, Vivendi isn't selling Sierra and Blizzard? It must be thursday then.
  • Wasn't there speculation that microsoft would be buying vivendi's game unit, for a lot more than 800 million. I don't think microsoft would affect the production of PC titles, except, maybe delay it for EXTREMELY long periods of time (halo)
    Since I'm a console gamer, and I do own a PC, I think a microsoft purchase would have nice potential. It'll be a major plus to microsoft.
    Link [gamemarketwatch.com]

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