I have always been puzzled why people believe Activision controls Blizzard. They are both separate subsidiaries of Activision Blizzard, which is merely a holding company. The article below on reddit does a good job of explaining this and I thought people should read it to help dispel some of the “fake news” and conspiracies surrounding the Blizzard and Activision relationship. I am not necessarily defending any recent decisions. Conversely, this may also serve to shift blame for design decisions that are disliked back where they squarely belong - to Blizzard.
A lot of people would have you believe that Activision is ruining Blizzard games. They say that WotLK is the final good expansion where you no longer see Activision influences. To be clear, the merger occurred in July 2008. WotLK came out November 2008.
Basically everything but the launch content in Wrath of the Lich King was after the merger. Even then, they had almost 4 months to exert pressure prior to Wrath Launch. Blizzard has said before that they’re not run by Activision. It’s important to understand how all of this works, so I’d like to display it here for everyone.
Blizzard was a subsidiary company underneath the umbrella company known as Vivendi Games. Vivendi Games publishers distributed, but did not personally develop, the games made by some of the companies underneath them. Because they were a publisher, they were able to set criteria for what they wanted published, and hand down the word of the messiah to those companies.
- In 2008, Vivendi Games and Activision engaged in a merger. All Activision shares were merged with Vivendi shares and sold as shares of the new parent company Activision Blizzard. Vivendi purchased 52% of the shares and retained majority control for a number of years. The subsidiary company, Blizzard Entertainment, was not restructured and continued to operate as it had before. Blizzard Entertainment, as a company, developed and published in house, separate from Vivendi previously. Activision Blizzard did not begin to publish Blizzard Entertainment games, but left them independent.
- In 2013, Activision Blizzard purchased majority control of its company from Vivendi, abandoning the parent company entirely. It was now a publicly traded company, instead of being privately owned by Vivendi. Blizzard Entertainment retains its name, and remains a independent company under a new parent company. It still develops and publishes its own games independently of Activision Blizzard.
So the real questions come up now.
- If Blizzard is an independent subsidiary, how much control does Activision Blizzard have?
As the parent company Activision Blizzard is akin to, well, a parent. They have the capacity to fire directors, and vote out board members in their subsidiaries. However, they act more like stockholders than direct controllers.
The director of an independent subsidiary’s job description is to make decisions for the benefit of the company he works for, not the parent company.
Furthermore, there’s a degree of liability separation in this case. If an independent subsidiary is sued, the parent company is less likely to be liable for damages, or be held accountable.
The amount of control a parent company has varies, but being independent grants much more leeway and freedom than other situations. Typically a director of an independent subsidiary doesn’t report to their parent company except for stock reports and financial reports. Unlike the standard subsidiary, an independent subsidiary doesn’t need to get permission or direction on how to design or manage their product unless something has gone wrong, in which case it’s likely removal of directors instead of hand holding or insisting on design of a product.
- If Activision Blizzard is a publisher, doesn’t that mean they publish, and have control over, game design of all and sundry Blizzard Entertainment games? In fact any of their subsidiaries?
No. Or, at least, not in this case.
A publishing company that has an independent company as their subsidiary that is also a publishing company does not publish those games themselves.
If you look closely, you’ll find that on Blizzard Entertainment websites, you’ll always see the trademarks as “Blizzard Entertainment, Inc”. Even BlizzCon is marketed and listed as such. This is because they’re produced, sold, and marketed by Blizzard Entertainment, not Activision Blizzard.
- Doesn’t everyone know that Blizzard games are developed by Activision Blizzard now?
To quote Ion:
They think they do, but they don’t.
Activision Blizzard does not control Blizzard Entertainment on a developmental level, which is why they’re independent. The design teams have never been merged, and Activision Blizzard is not their publisher so they don’t have to worry about messages from god.
- So what does this all mean?
It means that, for good or ill, Activision is not the one in charge, and ever has been. They’re a publicly traded parent company that has left Blizzard Entertainment as an Independent Subsidiary. If something is wrong with the game, it remains Blizzard Entertainments fault.
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/9p7ocn/a_word_about_activion_blizzard_vs_blizzard/