In the video game industry, it's important not to rest on one's laurels. Activision probably knows this. In spite of the fact that its Q4 and fiscal year 2008 financial reports have shown encouraging results, the company is already planning its next ventures in the near future. This was evident in the company's recent conference call. More lucrative news follows after the jump.

It was big news when Activision made plans of acquiring Blizzard last year. For this year, CEO Bobby Kotick has announced the plans made by the company for popular game titles such as Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft. Details in the full article.

What will it take to stop the dominating powerhouse known as World of Warcraft? In the recently held Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium 2008, Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick shared some insight on how much a company would have to invest to do so. Head on over to the full article.

Electronics Arts head honcho Peter Moore has always been outspoken about his grand plans for the publisher's EA Sports titles. Just how grand  are his plans? Enough to claim that fellow industry giant Activision-Blizzard won't be able to compete with them. Quite a statement to say against the company that brought us the Guitar Hero franchise. More in the full article.

If the Activision/Vivendi merger pushes through, Citigroup analyst Brent Thrill has predicted a bright future for the company. He pointed out that the revenue of this new merged entity could rise as high as US$ 1.39 billion in 2009. If you haven't been keeping up, that's a full 15% higher than the guidance figures that were initially presented. In case you want to find out more about this, be sure to check out the full article.

A lot of people have split opinions on the effectiveness of in-game advertising. However, Sony's chief executive Howard Stern expressed his doubts on the potential of that particular marketing trend. He wasn't alone in the idea either; other big names from major companies such as NBC Universal and Activision Blizzard voiced similar sentiments.

For more details, check out the full article after the jump!

Just how many sales records has Blizzard's The Burning Crusade broken? Well, it's no surprise that the World of Warcraft expansion has secured the top spot in the NPD Group's top 10 bestselling PC video games list. See the full article for more info.

It looks like Chinese company The9, the Chinese distributor of World of Warcraft, is on the up and up. The9's shares rose after an analyst posted a higher fourth-quarter estimate for the company, based on the positive response China has had towards the Burning Crusade expansion.

More on this intriguing development after the jump!

With the imminent merger of Blizzard and Activision, some people have expressed concern about how the Activision-Blizzard merger may affect Blizzard's longtime customers. Despite having released an Activision-Blizzard merger FAQ, Blizzard has taken the time to answer more questions related to the upcoming merger, this time courtesy of Blizzard president Mike Morhaime.

Find out what Mike Morhaime had to say after the jump!

Games sometimes allude to or make direct references to other games either as a plug or as a way of paying homage to the other game. Blizzard's World of Warcraft is no different. This time, the game that World of Warcraft referred to was none other than Capcom's Street Fighter 2.

See the actual reference after the jump!