Here’s what it could do:
- Protect the lucrative, platform-neutral, and fan-adored Blizzard franchises from being eaten up by the Microsoft and made Windows/Xbox-only, a la Bungie and Halo (which originally was a Mac game).
- Give Vivendi a way to compete with EA Games, whose cash cows include such perennially-oriented franchises like Madden and the Sims. People buy the same game over and over year after year from EA–Vivendi wants to figure out a good way to capitalize the same way.
- Accelerate the likelihood of Blizzard console franchises.
- Bring some speed to the appearance of Diablo 3. Blizzard has been mum on the second sequel to their previously bestselling game (at least before World of Warcraft was born), but Diablo fans are fierce and will gobble anything up with a Diablo III logo on the cover. Perhaps this merger will give them the developmental leverage to finally make it happen.
- Hopefully bring back some of the old-school studio mentality and creativity that has been absent from Activision since the late 1980’s, but is beating strong at Blizzard.
