Activision: Case Study
Live case study: Activision
Activision was established in 1979 as a third party video game developer-publisher. Formation of Activision has been one of the most significant events for gaming industry. Activision is publisher of one of the most famous game publisher today. Games like Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Pitfall series are published by Activision. Currently Activision is merged with Blizzard (creator of world’s most played subscription based game) to form Activision Blizzard World’s largest gaming company in a deal worth £9.15 billion.
Around the time of formation of Activision, companies used to dominate market place. Gaming industry was not stable. But the things have changed today it’s a global multibillion dollar business. In the starting days of Activision, they had to compete with Atari in games. But later both companies came to understanding that availability of more game for Atari platforms meant more sales of hardware. And both companies kept building games for Atari platforms competing with one another and being benefited from competition. Creating games is a long and expensive process as normal games take about 2 year and $20 million while MMOG’s may take from $50 to $100 million in five years. What Activision and Atari started as co-operative competition still prevails in gaming industry and has helped a huge deal in development of gaming industries.
In 2010 there was 8% loss of packaged goods sales of consoles game but online revenue was booming. Activision was able to predict this change in gaming industry market and locate itself in front of customers. In 2010, around 50% of total revenue made by Activision came from digital sources. Since its merger with Blizzard, Activision is becoming more and more console independent. Starting as publisher for console games, today Activision publishes games for anything that can play games like ipad, iphone, phone social gaming (facebook), etc. And the ability to adapt to changing market has kept
Activision was established in 1979 as a third party video game developer-publisher. Formation of Activision has been one of the most significant events for gaming industry. Activision is publisher of one of the most famous game publisher today. Games like Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Pitfall series are published by Activision. Currently Activision is merged with Blizzard (creator of world’s most played subscription based game) to form Activision Blizzard World’s largest gaming company in a deal worth £9.15 billion.
Around the time of formation of Activision, companies used to dominate market place. Gaming industry was not stable. But the things have changed today it’s a global multibillion dollar business. In the starting days of Activision, they had to compete with Atari in games. But later both companies came to understanding that availability of more game for Atari platforms meant more sales of hardware. And both companies kept building games for Atari platforms competing with one another and being benefited from competition. Creating games is a long and expensive process as normal games take about 2 year and $20 million while MMOG’s may take from $50 to $100 million in five years. What Activision and Atari started as co-operative competition still prevails in gaming industry and has helped a huge deal in development of gaming industries.
In 2010 there was 8% loss of packaged goods sales of consoles game but online revenue was booming. Activision was able to predict this change in gaming industry market and locate itself in front of customers. In 2010, around 50% of total revenue made by Activision came from digital sources. Since its merger with Blizzard, Activision is becoming more and more console independent. Starting as publisher for console games, today Activision publishes games for anything that can play games like ipad, iphone, phone social gaming (facebook), etc. And the ability to adapt to changing market has kept
References: 2. Cellan-Jones, R. (2007). Video game giants in $18bn merger. 3. Nuttall, C. (2010) Activision boosted by online revenues.