World of Warcraft key to Vivendi's 2009 revenues
Vivendi, the media company that owns Activision Blizzard, recently laid out its plans for 2009 and, unsurprisingly, World of Warcraft plays an important role. During a recent conference call, Vivendi Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy stated that the company is "extremely confident and resilient despite the current market conditions." Reuters reports that 70% of Vivendi's revenues are generated by "phone, Internet, pay-TV and online video games subscriptions," which help shield the company from current economic troubles.
"We expect video games to continue to show a nice growth," said Levy. He added, in what is perhaps the greatest understatement ever recorded, "We started the year with 12 million subscribers for World of Warcraft, which is a good base." With Activision Blizzard pumping out sequels to its major franchises and promising one major Blizzard release per year, we'd say Vivendi's gaming front is on fairly solid footing.
