{"id":64049,"date":"2014-05-06T09:43:31","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T07:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=64049"},"modified":"2014-05-06T09:49:35","modified_gmt":"2014-05-06T07:49:35","slug":"activision-blizzard-to-spend-r5-2-billion-on-destiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/business\/64049-activision-blizzard-to-spend-r5-2-billion-on-destiny","title":{"rendered":"Activision Blizzard to spend R5.2 billion on Destiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

Activision Blizzard intends to spend $500 million (around R5,2 billion) developing and promoting Destiny<\/a>, potentially breaking industry records as it seeks to build the sci-fi role-playing video game into its next multibillion-dollar franchise.<\/p>\n

CEO Bobby Kotick revealed the number during the Milken conference in Los Angeles last week. A company spokesperson said the number was accurate, but also included marketing, packaging, infrastructure support, royalties, and other costs.<\/p>\n

Activision, eyeing the flagging growth of its long-running Call of Duty franchise, is eager to lay the foundation for its next multi-game blockbuster series.<\/p>\n

Investors hope that Destiny, scheduled for release on 9 September 2014\u00a0from Bungie – the same studio that created Microsoft’s best-selling Halo franchise – could re-invigorate Activision’s revenue, which slid 6%\u00a0in 2013.<\/p>\n

The company signed a 10-year contract with Bungie in 2010 that gives it worldwide distribution rights and significant control over the potential franchise’s development.<\/p>\n

“If you’re making a $500 million bet you can’t take that chance with someone else’s IP (intellectual property),” Kotick\u00a0told the Milken conference.\u00a0“We expect Destiny to be Activision Publishing’s next billion-dollar franchise.”<\/p>\n

\"Destiny\"<\/a>

Destiny<\/p><\/div>\n

Analysts said $500 million would likely be a record spent on a single game – especially one without an established track record. To break even, Activision would have to sell about 15 million to 16 million units of a $60 game, analysts said.<\/p>\n

“For a brand new IP, it’s tough but it could post a big surprise,”\u00a0said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia.<\/p>\n

Bhatia expects the game will sell 8 million units. Grand Theft Auto 5, which hit stores in September 2013, was a runaway success with over 32.5 million units sold as of February 2014. But it was the fifth instalment of a critically acclaimed series.<\/p>\n

“Bungie’s very ambitious plan is designed to unfold over a 10-year period,” said an Activision spokesperson. “The depth of creative content, scope, and scale is unprecedented and is required to bring Bungie’s vision to life.”<\/p>\n

Do you think Destiny will turn a profit? Let us know in the comments and forum.<\/p>\n

Source: Reuters<\/a><\/h6>\n

More gaming news<\/h3>\n

Destiny \u2013 all we know so far<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The worst superhero games ever<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Gaming laptops to suit your budget \u2013 part 2<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Activision is backing Destiny to be its next billion-dollar franchise<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":214,"featured_media":64051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_enabled":true,"_sma_x_custom_text":"","_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1359,33,5524,11221,21],"class_list":["post-64049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-activision-blizzard","tag-bobby-kotick","tag-destiny","tag-development-costs","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/214"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}