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World of Warcraft Floats Vivendi Games
Gamasutra reports that Vivendi Universal Games posted strong revenues for the third quarter, largely thanks to some MMOG. From the article: "The previously troubled game division, which the company had earlier been attempting to sell off, saw revenues increase by 88 percent to 158 million ($189m), thanks to the global success of Blizzard's massively multiplayer role-playing game World of WarCraft. The game's success has also had a positive effect on operating profits, which rose to 7 million ($8 million), from a loss of 32 million ($37m) at the same time last year." Unrelatedly, but humorously, Joystiq reports that WoW showed up as a Jeopardy! question recently.
[Vivendi Games] PST with offer
I saw that. It was the $2000 dollar question. And none of the contestants got it right! I mean c'mon, you'd think that college kids would know what WoW was. Of course maybe the fact that they are on Jeopardy! shows that they don't play. All the WoW addicts are too busy to leave Azeroth.
"Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
lol Jeopardy
Referencing WoW, that's one thing, it's been popping up in NPR stories and on freakin' Marketplace.
But referencing Leroy Jenkins, an obscure reference to a spoof clip by a machinima clan?
What's next, mainstream references to the Fruit Fucker?
"What's next, mainstream references to the Fruit Fucker?"
I hope so!
Well, it WAS a 2000 dollar question, which means they're ment to be a little harder. Plus they had "War" in quoation marks meaning that the answer had "war" in it. Yet they still didn't get it.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
That would be awesome!
"This robotic character from the on-line comic Penny Arcade is known for his aggressive love of fruit."
*sigh* That's not going to happen on Jeopardy, is it?
NEWS FLASH! The company who owns the publishers of the world's most successful PC game is making money.
Our other top stories tonight... a recent rape victim reports being unhappy about what happened, and Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
Apparently, the entire category that the Leeroy Jenkins question was found in was about computer games, however every video clip I can find ONLY shows the WoW question. Is there a clip online of all five questions? (Apparently the others were about Halo and GTA.)
What I want to know is when the prices for the older Blizzard Battle Chest games (i.e., Diablo, Warcraft and Starcraft) will drop in prices? They been selling them for $39 USD for years now.
That question tested at a 32.33333%, repeating of course, chance of accurately being answered.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
http://media.putfile.com/Who-is-Leroy-Jenkins
P4Ls is hardly a machinima clan. That is the only piece of video they have ever released.
"What's next, mainstream references to the Fruit Fucker?"
Sure beats a video Daily Double of goatse.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Actually, it was "World". The exact answer:
This role-playing game out in 2004 returns to the "World" of Azeroth, where heroes like Leeroy Jenkins do battle.
Note to self: Stop putting jokes in my insightful comments so I can get something other than +1 Funny!
Now that's news!
A solid innovative product that people actually want to buy helps a company turn a profit!
Now if only the rest of the gaming industry (I'm talking to you, EA!) would catch up, we might be able to escape the FPS monotony we've fallen into.
It seems that the popularity of a game is solely determined by the level of hype surrounding it. Halo specifically comes to mind. I'll concede that it's a solid FPS, but the level of hype surrounding the launch of Halo 2 was obscene.
I'm sorry, but there are just so many things about the gaming industry that irritate me. The companies. Overinflated prices. Overinflated gamer egos. Lack of innovation. Hype. Obscene system requirements.....
Here's what I've been playing in the past year:
-More SNES/N64 games than you can shake a stick at. I'll probably buy a gamecube because Nintendo's games seem to have the greatest degree of innovation/replayability right now (and yet they're the least popular, go figure)
-Liero (hailing all the way from 1993)
-All of these downright bizarre arcade-style shooters that are strangely addictive
-Wulfram. One of the first good online games back from 2000. It's finally being actively developed once again...
-Darwinia. Another great non-photorealistic game. (Could be better to tell the truth, but a solid game nonetheless)
-Escape Velocity Series -- they've been around forever for the mac. A few have been ported to Windows. Go see what the PC world has been missing out on for over a decade!
-Freespace 2 -- One of the best space shooters ever made. Period. Made by a major studio, but enjoyed little commercial success. I can't even begin to fathom why....
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
That would be Whiskey
The previously troubled game division, which the company had earlier been attempting to sell off,
Damn.
I guess VU is better than Electronic Arts or Sony, though.
Be sure to stick to you "TIME PROVEN METHOD" of not releasing new things until they are good and ready.
I've heard murmurings of Vivendi pressuring Blizzard to release it's expansion on a quicker timetable, thus changing the focus from quality product to *money*...
Hold fast Blizzard... and remember what made you great! and what makes great companies falter.
If you're going to copy/paste the friggin article into the summary for slashdot, make sure you also copy/paste the money symbols and/or edit out the bits so that it actually makes sense when you say "7 million/ ($8 million)"
;)
I wonder if they actually still teach writing in school? Oh, that's right, they teach leetonix. "I r 2 l33t 2 wri73 gud". But then again, maybe that's why some of us don't bother reading the blurb text anyways and just read comments and occasionally the actual article.
Holy crap they could buy alot of gold with that much money