Hack

I pirate everything online and it's completely free. Purchasing content is for suckers!

According to it's 10-K, "The5" is in charge of distribution of the WOW franchise within the Asia region. Blizzard Corp really has nothing to do with it (except striking the deal with The5. I guess they will basically just forward the business deal on to The5?

What kind of arrogant BS is this!!? Blizzard did it with less than $100M, so why can't he do it? Is he not talented enough? That remark makes me seriously question the value of ActiBliz. I was under the impression that WOW had reached its "maturity" stage and would start a decline soon.
http://www.cordiant.com/Images/product_life_cycle_small.gif

Analysts/Investors should be looking for strategy statements regarding how he plans to prolong WOW, as opposed to how difficult it would be to replace it.

Not sure why there is even a question about EA's potential here. EA's financial analysis, while aggressive, looks very reasonable, especially considering that it's in a "hits" based industry. EA's has reduced its risk by extending its major licenses agreements (e.g. Madden), which should provide even more stable cash flow in the future.

-Rob

Nobody has brought up the coincidence that Viacom filed a $1B lawsuit against YouTube (Google). If this partnership was in the works for a while, or if Viacom was courting Microsoft, a major lawsuit against Microsoft's online rival would be a fairly positive spin for Viacom (from Microsoft's view).

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft offers up some form of online video sharing via Xbox. It's a closed gaming platform with online social networks. If gameplay footage can be recorded to the Xbox, video file sharing is next logical step.

Robert Hackett
Games Product Manager
Panasonic Avionics Corporation

It generally sounds like just PR hype right now (which seems to support the professional comments). EA can't become "bigger" than AB, so it's just going to perform as another major publisher. I can't imagine much changing...

The entire analysis makes perfect business, but isn't that the general problem with EA? Their games went from high-risk high-reward, to low-risk steady cash flow models that made better business sense. Given the massive success of WOW, it sounds like Blizzard is "buying an EPS blip" similar to the AOL Time Warner merger.

Robert Hackett
Games Product Manager
Panasonic Avionics Corporation

This make perfect sense going back to 2002. Antiocco (then CEO) never even included digital distribution or the per month rental business model in the company's 10-k. Even Michael Pachter (the famous game analyst for Wedbush) was on the side of Blockbuster.

When I spoke with Michael in 2005, he stated that Blockbuster already had a bricks-n-mortars business that could easily adapt to a monthly rent-by-mail business. I asked him if he had considered that Blockbuster would not take this action (despite it being such an obvious strategy) based on the stupidity of the executive management at the time. He, very politely, indicated that he didn't agree with my thinking...

-Rob

I'm sure Cammie is more than qualified, but this has got to be one of the biggest "can't lose" jobs in history. She's joining Nintendo just after the Wii has begun ramping up which will no doubt result in more content being developed on the platform. If she steps down before 2011, she can pretty much go wherever she wants citing the Wii's success.