Blizzard 2009 Annual Report Download - page 11

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ever achieved this milestone, which illustrates the power and reach of the brand. As a result, today, we are the
only publisher with three games that have surpassed $1 billion each in revenues—Activision’s Call of Duty:
Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock™ and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.
Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, remains the #1 subscription-based massively multiplayer online
role-playing game worldwide2, with approximately 11.5 million subscribers.
Blizzard Entertainment also successfully transitioned World of Warcraft to a new licensee, an affiliated company
of NetEase.com, Inc. in mainland China. NetEase is a strong partner whose operational efficiency and customer
expertise has already had a significant impact. After its relaunch in China, World of Warcraft hit a new all-time
peak in the number of simultaneous gamers playing there and excitement for the game has never been stronger.
We are very proud of our partnership with NetEase as they share many of the same core principles that have
helped us maintain our growth and margin expansion.
Because of our success during a very challenging economic year, Brian and I were reminded how important it is
for us to reaffirm our core principles with our shareholders. For 20 years, the company has subscribed to these
principles that have guided our success. They include:
• Focus our resources against the largest and most profitable opportunities;
• Satisfy, surprise and delight our audiences;
• And, continuously improve our operational discipline.
We always start with pragmatism and an appreciation for the value of focus and prioritization.
f o c u s o u r r e s o u r c e s a g a i n s t t h e l a r g e s t a n d m o s t p r o f i t a b l e o p p o r t u n i t i e s
Throughout our tenure, we have committed our organization to focus its attention and allocate capital only
against the most promising areas of our business. This principle applies to how we manage our brands, our
internal resources, our distribution channels and partners, and our opportunities for future earnings growth.
We always strive to increase our capabilities in this area and are committed to doing so again this year.
Today, we believe this approach is more critical than ever. Audiences now have more entertainment choices than
ever before—many of these are at very low or no cost. Unlike many of our competitors, we remain steadfastly
committed to a simple formula of focus and quality.
d e l i v e r c o m p e l l i n g g a m e e x p e r i e n c e s t o c o n s u m e r s
Our second principle is to satisfy, surprise and delight our audiences. This is the most difficult of our core
principles to adhere to consistently. While we have a better track record than others, we believe there is room for
improvement. We have the most talented game developers in the world with a commitment to excellence, and
they are continually striving to deliver higher quality and more innovative products.
Blizzard Entertainment’s ongoing support of its online community is a great example of this. Blizzard expects to
launch a new version of Battle.net®, evolving it into the industry’s premier online gaming destination. The service
will offer advanced communication features, social networking, player matching and digital content delivery.
Battle.net is designed to keep players connected to their friends no matter which Blizzard game they are playing.
2 0 0 9 a n n u a l r e p o r t
9
2According to Blizzard Entertainment’s internal estimates