Activision CEO talks about in-game advertising… is WoW next?

When Vivendi acquired Activision — or was it Activision acquiring Vivendi? these business deals confuse me — to form what the soon-to-be Activision-Blizzard late last year, many players were concerned about how this would affect our beloved MMO. Blizzard assured its players with an FAQ on the forums about the merger stating, in no uncertain terms, that it would not affect Blizzard’s games in any way (except to improve them, presumably). Activision CEO Bobby Kotick recently spoke with Next Generation, however, and talked very much like the businessman, discussing possible revenue models for their stable of games. He mentions how Activision-Blizzard must figure out StarCraft’s business model for the future, “with in-game advertising and sponsorship” which he says “presents a tremendous opportunity for the future.”

He illustrates how StarCraft can actually be “the model for in-game advertising and tournament play”, spooking at least one World of Warcraft player, who asks on the forums if WoW could be next. Fortunately, Karune chimes in the same thread assuring StarCraft fans (and by extension, WoW players) that Blizzard has “no plans to have in-game advertising in StarCraft II.” He explains that “Bobby (Kotick) was actually referring to Battle.net, which has always included ads.” It’s very reassuring, but perhaps such speculation would be avoided if Activision-Blizzard’s CEO actually words things a little better.

Blizzard named 3rd of 50 top developers

Game Developer magazine has done a study naming the top 50 videogame developers in the world, based on “sales and reputation data,” and our favorite folks at Blizzard have been named number three on the list, just under Nintendo Kyoto (responsible for Brain Age and Wii Play) and Infinity Ward (most notable lately for Call of Duty 4), and ahead of EA, Valve, Harmonix, and Square Enix.

I tend to think this chart is weighed a little bit towards recent sales more than reputation — as far as I know, Infinity Ward doesn’t have a big enough following to actually hold a convention based on their games, and while there’s no question that Nintendo has a huge fan following, I’m not sure that it’s quite right to include a first party console maker on a list of developers (yes, I know Nintendo Kyoto is a studio, not the company itself, but would the average Nintendo fan on the street know the difference?). Still, lists are lists, and there’s no question that all of these developers, Blizzard included, are held in the highest regard by fans of their games