Rumour: Microsoft in frame to buy Activision majority share

[zarx]

Aielyn said:

zarx said:
Ubisoft uses a global stratergy now everyone works on everything, even Ghost Recon had 4 studios working on it.

As for the bolded it's exctaly how EA runs things and they lose moeny every year, It may be better for gamers but as a business it's supply and demand and everyone demands CoD and as a business Activision is providing them with as much as they will buy and so far demand keeps growing so they are supplying more. Activision is profitable (which is more than most publisher can say) with what they do which is focus on a few profitable core franchises and in doing so they are one of the few. They are doing things outside of CoD and leveraging profitable ventures but for some reason you just don't like them, despite Skylanders selling out and beating all internal projections.

Anyway we are just going round in circles now

Right - Ubisoft have everyone working on a wide variety of games. This year, just for Wii U, Ubisoft have Rayman and Rabbids, Just Dance, Marvel, ZombiU, a fitness title, and a sports title... and possibly Ghost Recon Online.

Activision's total lineup for the second half of 2012 is a 007 title, a Tony Hawks downloadable game, CoD, Skylanders, Transformers, and Wreck It Ralph. The last two are licensed games, as is the first one. CoD and Skylanders are both franchises they release every year at this point. And Tony Hawks is a low-risk downloadable title after the relatively weak sales of recent Tony Hawk titles.

And EA does NOT do things dramatically differently from Activision. Their main difference is a slightly broader range of cash cows - FIFA and Madden, Sims, Battlefield. Their lineup for second half of 2012 is Sims, Sports titles, MoH, and Need for Speed. And EA had a net profit in the most recent fiscal year (2011-2012). And EA is often as bad as Activision - their main benefit is that they don't tend to run franchises right into the ground. Let's look at their active franchises and franchises they've consistently published...

Madden, FIFA, Tiger Woods, (other sports titles), Sims, Simcity, SSX, Medal of Honor, Battlefield, Crysis, Army of Two, Dragon Age, Burnout, Need for Speed, Command and Conquer, Rock Band, Skate, Mass Effect, Dead Space.

While EA might not have made much profit over the last few of years, that's a risk you always face. Where EA differs from Activision is that EA is diversified in its lineup, and thus they aren't dependent on a megahit to keep them afloat.

All numbers in millions

EA Revenue $3,589, net loss $276

Ubisoft Revenue $1,267, Profit $35

Activision Revenue $3,257, Profit $1,085

 

I know which I would prefer as an investor, it's not like CoD and WoW are going to die overnight they will have plenty of time to deversify and as they say make hey while the sun shines. Making less money today so you can maybe make the same ammount of money by spending more in the future is not good business. And as I have said many times they are not a one trick pony they do have other investments hell they just announced 2 new games. Sure they might end up losing money in the future if their big franchises die faster than they can aquire new ones but that is a risk you have to take to turn a profit.