Activision-Blizzard Stock Valuation Falls 10% in Wake of Bungie Split

[Raevenlord]

Whether Activision-Blizzard's split from Destiny and Destiny 2 developer Bungie was caused by an overzealous grip on Bungie's creative vision or not is something that will likely never be clarified. But one thing is for certain: in the stock market, it doesn't really matter how something happened, but really what the effects are of it happening. And Bungie splitting from Activision-Blizzard means that the industry behemoth now finds itself with one less IP under its belt, thus constraining its revenue sources to a couple of high-profile IPs. Less sources of income = less versatility and resilience to market fluctuations, and that is something Activision-Blizzard was immediately hit back for from investors.

The company's stock decreased by as much as 11% in the wake of the Bungie split, from a high of $51.35 down to a low of $45.19, as investors reduced their trust in the company's profit volume and momentum. It has since recovered, but is still some 9% down. Whether Activision actually expected this much of a fall or not only the company knows. It'll be interesting to see the company's next financial report, though.



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[Space Lynx]

expect another 10% later this year when more call of duty fatigue sets in. treyarch is the only exception, the other companies year over year steadily decline.

 

[dj-electric]

It really warms my heart in this cold to see Activision's stock plummets. This is for your money-before-fun methods.

 

[Vayra86]

It really warms my heart in this cold to see Activision's stock plummets. This is for your money-before-fun methods.

Needs more plummeting though. Much more. The irony is that Bungie is taking their well overpriced spoonfeed-grind franchise home with them, so you may have to wonder how positive it really is. If they really wanted to take a different approach, they'd have launched a new IP.

I think what really happened is that Destiny was never the success it ought to be and this is considered win-win for all involved. This wasn't for the gamers at all.

 

[Robcostyle]

My congrats to Bungie that they've managed to cast of the shackles of pre-historic monstosity named activision. And I hope they didn't got contaminated while under act/bliz rule.

 

[dozenfury]

The move costs Activision a huge IP and revenue stream, and more importantly raises a lot of questions about the health of the internals at Activision that Bungie would go to this extreme. It's going to cost Bungie a small fortune in lost sales being outside of that marketing umbrella, so the fact that they went to this extreme says a lot. The fact that Bungie would accept that kind of massive hit is kind of like cutting off a limb to save a patient, and it does not reflect well on the current state of upper management at Activision at all.

Granted it was a 10 year agreement that simply was ended rather than renewed, so that saved a little face. But this change was a shock to the industry and normally it would have just been quietly renewed and continued. Bungie really wanted badly to get out of Activision to do this.

 

[Slizzo]

expect another 10% later this year when more call of duty fatigue sets in. treyarch is the only exception, the other companies year over year steadily decline.

At this point Treyarch is really the only dev that has held onto it's team that works on that franchise.

 

[Space Lynx]

At this point Treyarch is really the only dev that has held onto it's team that works on that franchise.

the real sadness is, that no other company and Activision itself just doesn't get it, why treyarch is still successful and was from the beginning. it's because they always cater to the PC crowd and listen to our feedback, and the other companies never did nor cared. Activision just doesn't get it. Really sad that I could run a business better than their CEO can. I knew from blops 1 and 2 days that Treyarch was the glue holding it all together, I only have ever played the treyarch CoD's though, so i am pretty biased I guess.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

At this point Treyarch is really the only dev that has held onto it's team that works on that franchise.

The rest ended up at Respawn Entertainment... Who then got bought out by EA and EA celebrated by throwing all Respawn's works underneath a bus between CoD and BF releases...

I used to think that those from InfinityWard escaped the grasps of Activision to do something better with their lives but they've only gone to get dragged back into a toxic environment by another company that is equally as bad and as greedy as the one they all left.

(A lot of the original CoD team ended up working at Respawn)

 

[holyprof]

Activision, EA, Ubisoft, etc CEOs, board of directors, are all a bunch of scumbags that ony see $$$ and have long lost grip on reality. Don't buy their games and then cry on forums how bad they are
Hey wait, I actually buy Activision (Blizzard) games so I'm a crybaby too hahaha. But EA was banned from my shopping list long time ago, maybe 15 years.

 

[rrwards]

My congrats to Bungie that they've managed to cast of the shackles of pre-historic monstosity named activision. And I hope they didn't got contaminated while under act/bliz rule.

You must have missed the $100 million that NetEase invested in Bungie. If you weren't aware of NetEase before, they're the Chinese company responsible for Diablo Immortal.

 

[holyprof]

You must have missed the $100 million that NetEase invested in Bungie. If you weren't aware of NetEase before, they're the Chinese company responsible for Diablo Immortal.

Seems that they replaced a western scumbag company for a chinese scumbag company.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

They just gave $15million away to their new CFO

Be prepared to open your wallets while they try to recoup this from you.

 

[Tartaros]

Seems that they replaced a western scumbag company for a chinese scumbag company.

Not only that, now they don't have excuses for what Destiny will be from now on. Almost the same can be said for Blizzard and it's falling franchises since we know there is a big internal fighting between Activision and Blizzard and people is on Bliz's back, but Ion Hazzikostas has been on WoW dev team since before WoltK and he is pretty much the man before "great" ideas like diabloizing WoW's loot system, grinding for artifact/azerite, wiping 10 man raids, releasing raid content on june or how nowadays the game is an unispired neverending loop of bugs and mythic+ runs. It's all Activision's fault things are falling apart or there is something else?

 

[holyprof]

Not only that, now they don't have excuses for what Destiny will be from now on. Almost the same can be said for Blizzard and it's falling franchises since we know there is a big internal fighting between Activision and Blizzard and people is on Bliz's back, but Ion Hazzikostas has been on WoW dev team since before WoltK and he is pretty much the man before "great" ideas like diabloizing WoW's loot system, grinding for artifact/azerite, wiping 10 man raids, releasing raid content on june or how nowadays the game is an unispired neverending loop of bugs and mythic+ runs. It's all Activision's fault things are falling apart or there is something else?

I guess there's more than one reason.
Of course Activision bosses want $$$ and press developers to produce the same thing over and over instead of creating something new that might or might not sell well. Keeping the same game is cheaper and less risky. Sure, sales might fall a bit, but profits stay high.
On the other hand, nothing lasts forever and WoW has been a success for too long. It's basically the same thing, just gets more polished with every expansion / patch.

 

[kurosagi01]

I'm one of the minority when it comes to Destiny, if you don't have problem with grinding but enjoy playing with friends and the gameplay then to me Destiny is a "successful" franchise for Bungie after only working on Halo franchise.
Destiny is my most played hours on my PS4 from day 1, purely because I enjoyed playing with friends.
I hope Bungie will work on something new and move away from FPS genre and try different genre altogether now that they have split from Activision.

 

[Deleted member 158293]

Bungie have made a name for themselves and probably do not need a publisher anymore, and Activision probably didn't want to shrink their piece of the money.

Looks like a good call to me.