Firm Introduction
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision is consistently among the largest video game publishers in the world. The company reached the top of domestic charts in 2007 and has been an industry leader in subsequent years. (Jenkins, 2007) (Figure 1.) The company currently owns the rights to many of todays most popular video game franchises, including: Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and World of WarCraft.
In 1979, Activision was founded as the first independent video game software developer and distributor. The company first began its business making gaming cartridges for the Atari 2600 console in the 1980’s (Activision.com). Before the conception of Activision, games were developed in house by the same firms that made their respective consoles. This process was very unpopular among game designers because of a disconnect from recognition and compensation to the overall performance of the game. This eventually led to a rift between Atari and its programmers (Bleniek 1994). The Atari programmers believed that they should be treated in a way comparable to
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is split up into three main groups: Activision Publishing Inc., Blizzard Entertainment Inc., and Activision Blizzard Distribution. These three segments handle different aspects pertaining to the video game industry. Activision Publishing focuses on the actual publication of the video games and other interactive entertainment software. Blizzard Entertainment focuses on multiplayer PC and online games. Finally Activision Blizzard Distribution handles the actual distribution of the products (Activision). These segments each have subsidiaries operating underneath of them but all have the same market focus. By having three separate segments, each can have a specific focus, which results in a better overall product. This type of company organization can also help management identify which parts of the company are functioning well and others that need