Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Economy

A few days ago we tried to estimate how much Blizzard was making from those 10 million accounts, but now we know for sure: it’s actually around $1.2 billion (which is up 58% from 2006). Now, you can probably see that that’s only $500 million short of the estimate that we were trying to prove was wrong, but don’t forget that the $1.2 billion isn’t just subscription fees– it includes all those sales of Burning Crusade last year at full release price. What Blizzard earns from subscription fees is just part of that total.

Still, a $1.5 billion year for Vivendi (especially when their other games divisions actually dropped by nearly 30%) is good news for them. Of course, the question they (and more specifically, Activision Blizzard) have to be wondering about is whether the success can continue. whether Blizzard can release a new expansion that year and hold off the coming threats in the MMO industry, they’ll be looking at even bigger numbers in 2008. But that’s a lot to ask– there’s no question Vivendi (and Activision) will come up with huge amounts of profit that year, but growth of that magnitude will be a mighty hill to climb.

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Original post by Mike Schramm