Activision Blizzard

Nothing like a Monday morning merger story. Hang on, stay with me, this is big news. Activision (Call of Duty, Tony Hawks) and Vivendi (Blizzard, Crash, Spyro) have merged to form a new company called Activision Blizzard. You can read all the details here and here. The deal is worth $18.9 billion and the newly formed company will overtake Electronic Arts to become the biggest games publisher. So why did it happen? You can factor in the usual reasons such as skyrocketing development/publishing costs but clearly Blizzard was a key component - Vivendi's other brands, such as FEAR and Crash Bandicoot aren't exactly in the same league. World of Warcraft - Blizzard's flagship product - has over nine million subscribers and brings in substantial subscription revenue. Could the tie-up with Activision lead to WoW finally appearing on the consoles?