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Activition and Vivendi Games
According to LA Times (and the newspapers in Sweden that have picked up this story) Activition and Vivendi Games are about to become one. It will then be a mega blockbuster and hold titles such as “World of Warcraft”, “Guitar Hero” (!), “Tony Hawk” and “Call of Duty”. I saw somewhere, I think it was DN in Sweden that the merger would be worth around 12 billion euros!
It’s only safe to say that if I were the CEO of EA, I’d be a little worried ..
Gaming
Wow, I just read a couple of really sick things in my consumer behaviour book, listen to this (the book was printed 2004, so it’s a bit old);
The Sims has sold 27 million copies in the three years its’ been on the market. When Halo 2 was released in 2004 Microsoft raked in $125 million its first day on the market, within a month that number was $250 million.
But here’s the thing I’m getting at; Since the release of the first Madden NFL in 1989, its first year on the market – Madden NFL has sold 37 million units at $50 a piece, almost closing in on $2 billion in sales!
And since this book was written there’s been Madden 2005, 2006 and 2007 – and with new consoles such as the XBOX360 hitting the market, the numbers must be … well, unreal.
(This is pretty sick too!)
Each year, shortly before the actual game, EA runs a simulation of the Super Bowl and announces the result:
2004 – Patriots 23, Panthers 20[1] (Actual Score: Patriots 32, Panthers 29)
2005 – Patriots 26, Eagles 21[2] (Actual score: Patriots 24, Eagles 21)
2006 – Steelers 24, Seahawks 19 [3] (Actual score: Steelers 21, Seahawks 10)
2007 – Colts 38, Bears 27 [4] (Actual score: Colts 29, Bears 17)