Blizzard Entertainment Execs Sign 5-Year Contract

[GameBanshee News]

Variety reports that Activision has signed five-year contracts with Blizzard Entertainment's top executives in order to ensure that World of Warcraft doesn't lose its key talent.

Creating the world's biggest pure play videogame publisher doesn't mean much without the key talent behind its top franchises. For Activision Blizzard, those franchises are "World of Warcraft," "Guitar Hero," and "Call of Duty."

As former Vivendi Games CEO and new Activision Blizzard Vice Chairman Bruce Hack told me, "Those are the core assets of the new company... The three of them are paying the bills."

That's why Activision Blizzard has signed the top execs at "Warcraft" developer/publisher Blizzard, "Call of Duty" creators Infinity Ward, and "Guitar Hero" stewards Neversoft to new long-term contracts.

CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed for me that the top folks at Blizzard have all signed new five year deals. "We realized it would be impossible to compete [with 'World of Warcraft'] and so ultimately my only issue was making sure they were committed for at least five years. They are committed to the franchise in a way we rarely see, since it's something they created from scratch and is their life and livelihood. It didn't take a lot to get them to make that commitment."