StarCraft 2 Delay Will Harm Activision Holiday Season

Janco Partners analyst Mike Hickey has stated that StarCraft 2 is unlikely to appear this year which will affect Activision Blizzard’s end of year line-up.Following news that the Beta process for StarCraft 2 is expected to be more than four months long, Hickey has commented that Activision Blizzard’s end of year line-up may not be as strong as expected.Speaking to Gamasutra, Hickey also thinks that Blizzard’s World of Warcraft could be under threat from new MMORPG titles such as NCSoft’s AION which is due for released on 25 September. “We view looming competition in the West from new MMORPGs as a greater threat to WoW’s future then the current transition.”The recent move from The9 to Netease has also caused major downtime for World of Warcraft which will have put a dent in the Chinese player base if the transition continues too much longer.Activision still has strong titles if StarCraft 2 is delayed until next year including DJ Hero, Tony Hawk: Ride, Modern Warfare 2 and Guitar Hero 5.