SWOT

=Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT):=

Strengths: • High quality reputation: Blizzard Entertainment is one of the most popular and well respected makers of computer games. Through their focus on developing well designed and high enjoyable entertainment experiences, they have maintained an image of a high quality games provider. • Best selling games track record: The Company has a track record of back to back number 1 selling games that spans more than a decade. Examples include blockbuster hits such as StarCraft® II: Wings of Liberty®, World of Warcraft® and its expansions, Warcraft® III: Reign of Chaos® and Diablo® II, • Breadth of product lines: In addition to the traditional video games such as Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo. The company has established itself in the online gaming industry. Blizzard Inc has created its own online gaming service called Battlenet, which is one the largest in the world with millions of active subscribers. • Good global presence: In addition to leveraging North American and European gaming markets, the company has achieved enormous success in Asian countries in particular South Korea where it has played a role in the creation of professional gaming and gaming broadcasting. Weaknesses: • Lack of competitive strengths in certain market segments. The one segment that the company has missed out on is the sporting entertainment. • Complexity and the time investment required to understand their games. A user needs to invest some time in understanding the functioning of the game, which can turn off the non-core gamers to look for other games that are more user friendly. Opportunities • According to marketresearch.com, the growth rate among women videogamers is expected to be higher than that experienced among male gamers (17.4% vs. 11.5%). As gender drives the choice of games; There is potential to untapp this market and possibly introduce games catering towards the female audience.

• Another opportunity for Blizzard Entertainment is to acquire subscribers in Asia Pacific region, where online games become the second largest superseding PC games. They are also expected to grow 23% compounded annually, reaching $4.4 billion in 2010.

• There is also an increasing demand for home entertainment due to the increasing availability of downloadable content. Blizzard can leverage this opportunity and introduce some exciting online games for hardcore videogamers and the non core players. Threats: • Cannibalization: Blizzard Entertainment’s own offline games are a threat to their online games such as World of Warcraft. A gamer who is playing Starcraft, Diablo or Warcraft may switch to try to the online games. This in turn can affect the company’s sales and result in a decline in revenue of offline video games. • The company’s World of Warcraft accounts require users to create a login username and password. They are asked to provide the same authentication details when they are logging into their account. This kind of authentication is vulnerable to keystroke logging, where users are unaware that there actions are being monitored.

REFERENCE LIST: http://www.slideshare.net/zushy/term-project-activ isionblizzard-ea marketresearch.com (pdf document that nora sent) @http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystroke_logging @http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/about/