I hope not. Voice chat is a horrible feature when with people not of your choosing.

Activision's boss is still over BLizzard's, also Blizzard has started doing some really bullshit things ever since the merger.

They start doing them before the merger. For example splitting Starcraft II to a trilogy was announced before the merger. Blizzard can do bullshit things without  Activision.

Except they own Blizzard and all their IPs so if some day some Blizzard folks decide to leave, they will do it without Wow, Diablo, Starcraft and co....

Besides there are some advantages in being part of a bigger company.

The last two year of Wow development, Blizzard lost a lot of money as they were ramping up to release and finish Wow. Vivendi ( who owned Blizzard at the time) just bankrolled it. It would have been a much different situation if Blizzard had been independant...

They need to do something for Gaming on Windows because between Games for Windows thingy, Steam, Battlenet and more it's not very friendly to have to maintain several IDs and be limited to recognize the people that play the game from the same editor only..

This is one area where consoles are really ahead. Lets not kid ourselves, Steam and Battlenet and just attempts to copy XboxLive and PSN..

Valve is going to run into some issues with Steam at some point if they don't split it off. Having a game maker that manages the platform to sell all digital games is just a recipe for disaster....

So far I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary from Blizzard. The only thing that is arguable is the fact that there's 2 expansions, but reason will easily tell you that it's better to have each campaign seperate and complete, than butchered into pieces. I really don't see what's wrong about that.

This is the best time to be a Blizzard fan (Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Cataclysm, Battle.net 2.0).

I absolutely approve the trilogy. Starcraft 2 will be a game that will be played for atleast 10 years before Starcraft 3 comes.

i don't understand why you're outraged about the expansions - Blizzard has always released their expansions one year after the release of the main game. Starcraft got Brood War a year after. Same with Diablo 2 getting Lord of Destruction. Same with Warcraft 3 getting Frozen Throne. The only difference between SC2 and the rest is that SC2 has 2 expansions instread of 1.

Blizzard not being independent didn't stop them from making amazing games and keeping independent management-wise.

Games for Windows is the bumhole of Online Services. It has the worst reputation and Microsoft tried to rip off PC gamers with a subscription that gives you nothing in trade. Steam is completely free and CRUSHES Games For Windows in almost everything.

"Steam and Battlenet and just attempts to copy XboxLive and PSN"

HOLY F#*KING S#*T!!!! You really believe that?! Steam RAPES both Xbox Live and PSN at the same time!! How the hell can you even say something like that?!

Dude, Steam has over 20 million costumers! I myself have like 40 games bought on Steam. Valve is cruising past everyone, and rapes both Xbox Live and PSN in terms of profit.

There's more than 20 millions customers on either  XBoxLive or PSN.

Both offer things like achievements and trophies and Steam have no equivalent.

You're deluding yourself, On January of this year there were only 17 millions Xbox Live accounts, and probably only half of those are gold subascription. Steam already had 20 millions costumers in January.  So at that time, it was 20 millions on Steam vs 8-9 millions with XBLG. Yeah...

As for PSN, I'm sure it has alot accounts, since people can easily make tons of accounts from their PS3, PSP or PC. The thing is, I'm sure Sony makes nowhere near what Valve makes on Steam. Hell, Sony probably makes even less than MS does with XBL.

Steam has achievements, and other far better gaming related stuff.