ActBlizzard's UK managing Director Andrew Brown told MCV that the Vivendi office in Marlow UK commences its shut down. While there was fears of mass layoffs, it ended up only a minimum of workers were let go. It stands to reason as the new ActiBlizzard corporation is a money making giant.

“We’re really pleased with what’s happened – there are some great calibre individuals at Vivendi and in the end, while some people chose to consider their futures elsewhere, a lot of people decided to join us,” Brown told MCV.

It was announced today that Vivendi, which includes Blizzard's World of Warcraft, and Activision have merged to form the biggest pure play online game company for consoles. What this means for gamers is unclear at this point, but it seems that EA now has a rival. Click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE

SANTA MONICA, Calif. & PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Activision, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVI) and Vivendi (Euronext Paris: VIV) today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to combine Vivendi Games, Vivendi's interactive entertainment business -- which includes Blizzard Entertainment’s® World of Warcraft®, the world’s #1 multi-player online role-playing game franchise -- with Activision, creating the world’s largest pure-play online and console game publisher. The new company, Activision Blizzard, is expected to have approximately $3.8 billion in pro forma combined calendar 2007 revenues and the highest operating margins of any major third-party video game publisher. On closing of the transaction, Activision will be renamed Activision Blizzard and will continue to operate as a public company traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ATVI.

CVG has info on the multiplayer mode of Ghostbusters, the recently announced game. The multiplayer side will basically be a ghosts versus busters scenario, and is slated, for now, on the PS2 and Wii. Souds like fun to us, hopefully the next-gen versions of the game will feature co-op play, which the developer said is under consideration.

We told you Ghostbusters was back, and CVG has some details for us. First of all, the game is not related to the videos that we mentioned in the first post. Apparently, those were a separate thing entirely, although we think the hype generated by their release may have played a part in making this game happen. The game is set in 1991, two years after GBII, and both Dan Ackroyd and Harold Ramis are going to be contributors to the game. Great news! The game will feature action sequences with humor and tons of comic destruction, as the Ghostbusters must save NY yet again.

PRESS RELEASE

PARIS – Oct. 30, 2007 – Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced the launch of The Legend of SpyroTM: The Eternal Night for mobile phones, the latest title in the multi-million unit selling SpyroTM franchise. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is now available on mobile phones throughout Europe and will be available in November in North America.

PRESS RELEASE

PARIS – Oct. 25, 2007 – Vivendi Games Mobile, a division of Vivendi Games, today announced the launch of Crash® of the Titans for mobile phones, the latest installment of the billion-dollar selling Crash Bandicoot® video game franchise. Crash of the Titans is now available on mobile phones throughout Europe, where it is already among the best-selling games across several leading carriers, and will be available in November in North America.

The 584mb demo of F.E.A.R. Files: Extraction Point is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. The demos are certainly flowing very well these days, MS seems to be on the ball despite demo delays earlier in the year. Good news for us gamers.

Based on the billion-dollar Crash Bandicoot franchise which has sold more than 35 million console units to date, Crash of the Titans features Crash Bandicoot demonstrating an awesome new ability, called Crash Jackin’ where he can control 15 enemies, each with their own attacks and special moves. Crash of the Titans will be released to mobile subscribers across Europe in October 2007.

PRESS RELEASE

London, September 10, 2007 –Vivendi Games Mobile and O2 UK today announced the that Stephen Massart from London will have his likeness immortalized in the new Crash® of the Titans game to become Crash Bandicoot’s new and menacing foe, DIMBO.

According to Shacknews, the much-anticipated RTS World In Conflict is going to be coming to Microsoft's next-gen console. Massive Entertainment and Vivendi confirmed this today when a rep from the Sieraa subsidiary responded to Xbox360 inquiries with a simple "yes." Hopefully this holds true.

Eurogamer has a brand new TimeShift preview posted today. They speak with Kyle Peschel from the Timeshift team about the totally revamped sci-fi shooter. Here is an interesting fact, there will be no time manipulation features in multiplayer. Boo.