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In a news story that we’re sure will surprise precisely nobody at all, The9 — China’s previous operator for World of Warcraft — has reported a serious decline in profits for this last quarter. Since last year when The9 still had World of Warcraft in its stable of games to now, they have seen a staggering 94% drop in revenue. Since the split became final in June of this year, there was also a 91% drop between last quarter and this one. Between The9’s lawsuit against Blizzard for (among other things) software copyright infringement and selling nearly 15% of its shares to Activision Blizzard competitor, EA, The9 has pretty well ensured that there’s never going to be any kissing-and-making-up over this whole mess.

Still, not everything is completely negative for The9. In the on-again-off-again World of Warcraft presence in the Chinese market altogether, owing to the squabble between The Ministry of Culture and the General Administration of the Press and Publication (GAPP), they’ve seen an increase in players from when they initially lost World of Warcraft. According to reports, the increase — a modest bump from 3.2 to 3.4 million players — is owing largely to a new update to Soul of the Ultimate Nation, as well as their other games Sword of the New World, FIFA Online, and Atlantica Online. Now, so long as more of their shareholders don’t wind up suing them for making misleading statements about their connection with Blizzard, things might just start looking up for this former major player in the Chinese MMO market.

Filed under: World of Warcraft, MMO industry, News items, Legal

The9 sees enormous drop in profits after split with Blizzard originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 29th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Krystalle Voecks
Filed Under: WoW, activision-blizzard, blizzard, china, ea, lawsuit, legal-problems, profits, the9, world-of-warcraft, year-on-year, year-over-year, yoy

Well, it’s a possibility, at any rate. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, was officially released November 10th with what the LA Times described as a “Hollywood-scale launch”. The launch expenses turned out to be money well spent, as the game had generated $550 million in sales as of last Saturday. Fans lined up days in advance to pick up their copy of Modern Warfare 2, complete with free night vision goggles.

While this was all very nice for Activision Blizzard, it was the end of the article that really got MMO fans interested: “One person close to the company said it also was considering adapting Call of Duty as a massively multi-player online world. The genre, in which Activision’s Blizzard Entertainment subsidiary is a leader, requires huge upfront investments but can be very profitable as players pay a monthly subscription fee.”

The possibility of a Call of Duty MMO is an exciting one for a very large group of gamers, and Blizzard is certain to be aware of that. We will definitely be keeping an eye out at Massively for more news on this possibility.

[Thanks Abel!]

Filed under: Business models, Launches, News items

LFG in Call of Duty? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on November 19th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Rubi Bayer
Filed Under: Infinity Ward, Modern Warfare 2, activision-blizzard, blizzard, call-of-duty, call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2, launch

Yes, we’re still talking MW2 on GamingAngels. The title is making all kinds of waves and today it’s the good kind… money. Modern Warfare 2 has shattered theatrical box office and video game sales for five-day worldwide sales. The new records for five days of sales is now $550 million according to initial Activision estimates.

$550 million is huge. To give you some sort of idea on comparisons with other forms of entertainment, Activision sent over a list of items that they beat out:

The largest reported five-day opening worldwide box office gross figures, held by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ($394 million)

The largest reported five-day opening domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($203.8 million)

The largest reported five-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (6 million units, $500 million)

The largest reported opening first-day domestic box office gross figures, held by The Dark Knight ($66.4 million)

The largest reported first-day book sales in dollars, held by Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows ($220 million)

The largest reported first-day worldwide video game sales record, previously held by Grand Theft Auto IV (3.6 million units, $310 million)

“In just five days of sell through Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has become the largest entertainment launch in history and a pop culture phenomenon,” said Robert Kotick, CEO, Activision Blizzard, Inc. “The title’s success redefines entertainment as millions of consumers have chosen to play Modern Warfare 2 at unprecedented levels rather engage in other forms of media.”

I guess the last thing to see is if Modern Warfare 2 will beat out Twilight Saga: New Moon.

Posted on November 18th, 2009 at 12:49pm by GamingAngel
Filed Under: Dark Knight, Grand Theft Auto IV, Harry Potter, Modern Warfare 2, News, activision, activision-blizzard, twilight: new moon

The virtual lands of World of Warcraft have played host to a number of strange sights these past few days — and we’re not just talking about the Halloween festivities which have turned once proud heroes into foam-mouthed candy addicts. No, we’re talking about the new “Race Change” feature, which has basically turned the game’s sociological landscape into the ending of the music video for Michael Jackson’s “Black or White.” Only … with, like, Trolls and Orcs and stuff.

For a cool $25, players can change the race (provided that race is in the same faction — changing that costs extra!), gender, appearance and name of their character. We realize there’s a number of people who wouldn’t mind freshening up their old avatar, but why not just start a new character for free? Seriously, you haven’t sunk that much time into your current level 80 Rogue, have you? Oh, you have? 2,800 hours, you say? That’s … that’s actually really depressing. We’re depressed by that.

Race changes now allowed in World of Warcraft, cost a pretty penny originally appeared on Joystiq on Wed, 28 Oct 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Posted on October 28th, 2009 at 3:00pm by Griffin McElroy
Filed Under: WoW, activision-blizzard, blizzard, mmo, mmorpg, race, race-change, world-of-warcraft