Behind the Activision-Blizzard union

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Q: Are there any plans for staff reduction in the Activision Blizzard organization? What's going to happen in terms of the management structure?
Morhaime: Bobby Kotick will be CEO of Activision Blizzard, the public entity traded on Nasdaq of which Vivendi will have a majority interest. I will remain as president and CEO of Blizzard Entertainment, reporting to Bobby. Michael Griffiths will be president and CEO of Activision publishing, also reporting to Bobby. Activision publishing will include all non-Blizzard Vivendi games assets.

Q: So what happens to Sierra Entertainment? Is that brand going to remain or be subsumed by Activision?
Morhaime: (Pauses) I think it's too early to talk about the branding strategy going forward. I think those decisions will revolve around conversations that haven't happened yet. I do know that Mike Griffiths in his role as president and CEO of Activision Publishing will be responsible for all of the Vivendi games.

Q: So will all Activision Games be branded with a new Activision Blizzard logo?
Morhaime: I'm not sure about a logo--that's something we'll have to discuss. But I think this issue is very important from a consumer-facing standpoint, so I want to emphasize it: The Activision and Blizzard brands will remain. We're not going to put Blizzard Entertainment logos on Guitar Hero boxes, and we're not going to put Activision logos on World of Warcraft boxes.

Q: There is a big fear among certain gamers that with the creation of this "mega corporation," game quality will suffer. What assurances can you give the myriad Blizzard and Activision fans that this deal will in no way change the quality of your games?
Morhaime: I spent a long time speaking with Bobby Kotick about our culture, philosophy, and commitment to quality at Blizzard. And no one at Activision or Vivendi has any desire to change that. Why would they?

Activision runs an autonomous studio system. Their studios operate with a lot of creative freedom, and it's been very successful for them. That's something that may be different from the (way) other large publishers operate. But both Activision and Blizzard respect the talent that creates games, and this is going to be able to provide us with a stable, secure infrastructure with which we can take care of our people making games.

Tor Thorsen reported for GameSpot.

[AndrewRich]

Sierra On-Line, where are you?

Somewhere, Leisure Suit Larry is crying.