Activision’s boss, Bobby Kotick, will remain at the helm of the new company, to be known as Activision Blizzard in recognition of Vivendi’s main gaming asset: its subsidiary Blizzard Entertainment, the firm behind ‘World of Warcraft’, an online swords-and-sorcery game with 9.3 million subscribers. The deal was unexpected, but makes excellent strategic sense, says Piers Harding-Rolls of Screen Digest, a consultancy. Activision has long coveted ‘World of Warcraft’, and Vivendi gets a bigger games division and Activision’s talented management team to run it. As well as making sense for both parties, the $18.9 billion deal—the biggest ever in the video-games industry—says a lot about the trends now shaping the business.

The first is a push into new markets, especially online multi-player games, which are particularly popular in Asia, and ‘casual’ games that appeal to people who do not regard themselves as gamers. ‘World of Warcraft’ is the world’s most popular online subscription-based game and is hugely lucrative. Blizzard will have revenues of $1.1 billion this year and operating profits of $520 million. ‘World of Warcraft’ is really “a social network with many entertainment components,” says Mr Kotick.

Similarly, he argues, ‘Guitar Hero’ and other games that use new kinds of controller, rather than the usual buttons and joysticks, are broadening the appeal of gaming by emphasising its social aspects, since they are easy to pick up and can be played with friends. Social gaming, says Mr Kotick, is “the most powerful trend” building new audiences for the industry. He is clearly excited at the prospect of using Blizzard’s expertise to launch an online version of ‘Guitar Hero’ for Asian markets. Online music games such as ‘Audition Online’, which started in South Korea, are “massive in Asia,” says Mr Harding-Rolls.