Activision’s fiscal report for 2009 contained some seriously juicy news. First, there’s the scandal at Infinity Ward. Second, there’s this. The report included statistics regarding the company’s revenue sources, revealing that a large majority, like 68%, come from just three franchises: World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and Guitar Hero. The report also noted that WoW accounts for a whopping 98% of Blizzard’s revenue.

The obvious concern is for one of those franchises to flop. One bad Call of Duty and suddenly Activision doesn’t look so stable. As the company puts things, “Due to this dependence on a limited number of franchises, the failure to achieve anticipated results by one or more products based on these franchises may significantly harm our business and financial results.” I would say so, fellas.

We already know that rhythm games are on the decline and WoW hasn’t grown in more than a year. No wonder Blizzard’s trying to push Starcraft 2 out the door by mid-year.

Source: Kotaku

The latest word from Blizzard is that World of Warcraft remains stable. So stable that it actually hasn’t grown in more than a year. Subscription numbers for the game are right where they were back in 2008.

In case you aren’t paying attention or find yourself too tired to bother with the math, that’s prior to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. You know, that huge release that introduced a new class and a whole new starting zone for those players. The expansion that should have given WoW the same kind of revival and explosive growth we saw from Burning Crusade. Chances are there was a pretty big spike, but those numbers have leveled off.

The only shaky part of this numbers game is that the totals include China, where WoW is currently experiencing some serious turmoil. That situation could easily account for lackluster numbers if enough players have decided to back off until the mess is sorted out.

Source: Kotaku

Blizzard is about as hot a property as you can have these days. The World of Warcraft developer makes $100 million a month off its MMO alone. That’s why Activision had to pay $7 billion to acquire the company.

Back in 1995, though, Blizzard was just a minnow in the video game pond. It had just put out a little title called Warcraft that would become the basis for a development empire. Davidson & Associates saw the potential and decided to go for it, purchasing the company for a mere $7 million. Bob Kotick spoke with Game Informer about the purchase.

“That year Activision probably had $60 million in revenues. They said they paid $7 million dollars for Blizzard. I’m like ‘Are you out of your minds? They’re like a contract developer! They have Warcraft but what else do they have? You paid SEVEN million! That’s insane!”

“I was talking to [Blizzard founder] Mike Morhaime the other day and I said, ‘You know, I could have bought you for $7 million and instead it was $7 billion.’ He said, ‘Yeah, could you imagine if I had just held out for the $7 billion instead of the $7 million?’”

Kotick sounds like his usual, dickish self. Then again, he did end up paying the $7 billion price tag.

Source: Game Informer

If you’re going to deal in illicit substances, you’d think you might acquire some evasive skills along the way. Not so for Alfred Hightower, an Indiana man who was arrested this week on dealing charges. How was he caught? By playing World of Warcraft.

The Howard County Sheriff’s Department of Indiana contact Blizzard after learning that Hightower played a “warlock and witches game.” How long it took them to discover that meant WoW remains unknown. Deputy Matt Roberson had pretty much given up when he got a package in the mail.

“It had been three or four months since I had sent the subpoena. I just put it in the back of my mind and went on to do other things. Then I finally got a response from [Blizzard]. They sent me a package of information. They were very cooperative. It was nice that they were that willing to provide information.”

Included in the packet were IP addresses, billing info, and game info, including Hightower’s favorite servers. Hightower was picked up by Canadian authorities, to be returned to Indiana today.

Source: Kokomo Perspective via Kotaku

As the new year turns, I’m always compelled to look back on the previous year and think on what I played the most. 2009 was a strange year. I moved 700 miles across the country. I started writing for this blog and another, and I read a ton.

In short, I was busy, and it made a significant impact on my gaming. I cancelled my WoW subscription in favor of games that require less time. I purchased a console with hopes of finding new, less time-intensive titles. I bought more arcade titles on Steam than ever before. For all my efforts, though, I didn’t find my must-play game of 2009 until December.

I got an email from a real-life friend and former WoW buddy. He said he and another friend had picked up League of Legends, a free game that looked a lot like DotA. I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big DotA fan, so I was immediately interested. Ten minutes into my first play session and I was hooked. The game is like DotA’s sexy younger sister, so much prettier and inexplicably more developed.

I’ll spare you most of the details, and just touch on a few of my favorites. First, the game is free. Don’t let that scare you away, though. The developers update the servers weekly and continue development for new heroes and maps. It’s the most well supported free game I’ve played in a long time.

Secondly, there’s a meta-game. This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a very cool addition for what can be a repetitive genre. The appeal of the game is that you can complete a full game in under an hour, farming up items for your hero along the way. Once that game is done, though, the items are gone. For League of Legends, the developers added the summoner system, a game interface that allows you to purchase new heroes, upgrade your stats for every game you play, and purchase cosmetic enhancements for your characters. The bonuses are small, but you can unlock nearly all of them through gameplay. It ends up feeling like a much more immersive game because there’s something to do outside each individual game. Think of it like the farming/grinding/what-have-you that you do between raids.

Lastly, the game is well-supported. I know I mentioned this above, but Riot Games, the developer, is heavily committed to the game. They release new heroes, are working on new maps, and continue to fiddle with an underwhelming matchmaking system. The game is by no means perfect at this point, but they continue to work at it. That’s good enough for me to keep playing.

If you haven’t done so, head over to the official site and give the game a look. There’s even a special section for DotA converts. What was your must-play game of 2009?

Blizzard, and by extension Activision, will do just about anything to get your money, including tempting you with little animated puppy versions of a familiar best friend, the core hound. Blizzard is offering up an in-game pet for those players willing to pay the extra $6.50 or so to get the Blizzard Authenticator for World of Warcraft accounts.

If you don’t know, the Blizzard Authenticator is an added layer of security for your WoW account. You can get it at the Blizzard Store, but the company also gives them away during Blizzcon. Personally, I never needed one. Maybe I was lucky, maybe I just paid enough attention to my computer that it wasn’t an issue, but over two years of playing, I never had an issue with hackers. Just the same, $6.50 for a cute little core hound isn’t so bad, particularly if it adds extra security to the account into which you’ve invested far too much time.

Yes, someone has done the impossible – someone has beaten World of Warcraft. The honor goes to a Taiwanese player known as “Little Gray,” and while you can’t technically beat WoW, he’s as close as anyone I’ve ever heard of. Little Gray managed to complete 984 out of the 984 possible achievements in the game.

Now technically he’s still missing an achievement. There’s a bug that allows him the 100% completion, even though he’s still missing a Winter Veil quest from the upcoming festivities. Being that he’s done the other 983 quests, though, I’d be willing to bet he’ll go ahead and round things out as soon as he can.

Though we’ll probably never know, I’d be interested to see his time /played. I know some people who play a lot, and I used to be someone who played a lot and I was nowhere close to his figure. I don’t even think I was at half when I quit playing. Whatever the figure, I’m sure it’s obscene.

Source: CVG

In an interview for the latest issue of PC Zone, Blizzard lead producer Shane Dabiri tried to discourage aspiring MMO developers from attempting to copy World of Warcraft, saying it’s “definitely not the right move.” Instead, he thinks those same devs should be looking to create “innovative new MMOs.”

Sounds like good advice to me. Really, why would anyone play a new game that’s just like WoW when there’s an established player base – a gigantic one at that – around Blizzard’s baby. “Players that have invested time in WOW don’t just want to do the same thing in other game – they want to try something completely new and different,” said Dabiri. Again, true. This was part of the reason I quit playing Warhammer. I thought I was just burnt on WoW, but almost all MMOs today use the same grinding method to grant players rewards. It gets old. Someone, somewhere has to have a new idea about thousands of players interacting with one another.

That’s another important point – the shift in MMO development has to be about more than just setting. Part of WoW’s success is that it has an engaging, coherent world, but more importantly it was a new style of play for millions of people. That’s what we really need from a new MMO – something that feels completely different from anything we’ve played before.

Source: cvg.com

Today Blizzard’s World of Warcraft turned five. Though not the first game of its kind, it’s certainly the runaway hit of the MMO genre, only likely to be dethroned by Blizzard’s next massively multiplayer project.

The game launched on this same date in 2004, marking the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise. Since then it has sold nearly 9 million copies in the US, added two expansions, and has a third on the way. The numbers are mind-blowing, especially when you consider the subscriber base that plunks down as much as $15/month for access to the ever-changing world.

Let’s avoid the “pathetic waste of time/best game evar” debate to simply consider the impact WoW has had on the industry. Pretenders to the MMO throne are usually long dead by five years, and the ones that survive are top-heavy ghost towns where only the zealous continue to play. By contrast, WoW has continued to grow and expand around the globe, attracting attention even from people who could care less about the game. The sheer number of man-hours invested in the game is no doubt staggering, and something I’d really like to see when Blizzard finally shuts down the servers.

So here’s to WoW and all the fun we’ve had in Azeroth. Now, who wants to buy my account?

Americans might be cutting back on video game spending during the recession, but that doesn’t apply to games they’re already paying to play according to NPD’s latest research. The firm released a report today that claims 14% of American households have an active subscription to an online game. Notice the lack of a qualifier like “gaming” or “with broadband” attached to homes. No, that’s 14% of all American homes, people.

The number shows a seven percent gain year over year in subscription entertainment, whereas physical media like newspapers and magazines fell two percent. “Consumers are clearly looking to the value offered by entertainment subscriptions and like what they get for their money; plus, new technologies and products have helped bolster data plans and other newer kinds of subscription-based services,” said Russ Crupnick, an entertainment analyst for NPD.

Doubling subscription growth is obviously a huge win for the industry, maybe bigger when you consider it against something like cell phone data plan subscription, which only rose three percent since last year to a measly nine percent of the consumer base. That’s right, smartphone nerds, you’re getting crushed by World of Warcraft players.