Damn, that’s a big deal, and USD 19 billion for a video game company? Crap, we’ve come a long way from Pong.

Be interesting to see what kinds of opportunities this creates for the China market. The new entity is going to be called "Activision Blizzard." They are going to be pushing hard to stay on the top of the online biz, although with the regulatory challenges over here, they can’t really jump into the market the way they would like.

Even though hosting games over here is still restricted, production and services is another thing. We’ll see what ancillary work gets shifted over to China and Korea in the next few years to get closer to the local market.

Are you as excited as I am? My biggest problem is that I don’t have time for online games. I have to stick with single player stuff these days, either PC or PSP platforms. Never enough time.

Link to Vivendi’s press release here.