Activision Blizzard (ATVI)

Activision Publishing Segment ("Activision")—Business Overview

Strategy

        Create, Acquire, and Maintain Strong Franchises.    Activision focuses on development and publishing activities principally on products that are, or have the potential to become, franchises with sustainable consumer appeal and recognition. It is our experience that these products can then serve as the basis for sequels, prequels, and related new products that can be released over an extended period of time. We believe that the publishing and distribution of products based on franchises enhances predictability of revenues and the probability of high unit volume sales and operating profits. We own a number of successful intellectual properties such as the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises. We intend to continue to develop owned franchises in the future. We have also entered into a series of strategic relationships with the owners of intellectual properties pursuant to which we have acquired the rights to

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publish products based on franchises such as DreamWorks' Animation LLC ("DreamWorks"), Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. ("Harrah"), Hasbro Properties Group ("Hasbro"), MGM Interactive and EON Productions Ltd. ("MGM & EON"), Mattel, Inc. ("Mattel"), Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ("Marvel"), and professional skateboarder Tony Hawk, to develop video games based on their intellectual property.

        Execute Disciplined Product Selection and Development Processes.    The success of our publishing business depends, in significant part, on our ability to develop high quality games that will generate high unit volume sales. Our publishing units have implemented a formal control process for the selection, development, production, and quality assurance of our products. We apply this process, which we refer to as the "Greenlight Process," to all of our products, whether externally or internally developed. The Greenlight Process includes in-depth reviews of each project at several important stages of development by a team that includes many of our highest-ranking operating managers and coordination between our sales and marketing personnel and development staff at each step in the process.

        We develop our products using a combination of our internal development resources and external development resources acting under contract with us. We typically select our external developers based on their track records and expertise in producing products in the same category. One developer will often produce the same game for multiple platforms and will produce sequels to the original game. We believe that selecting and using development resources in this manner allows us to leverage the particular expertise of our internal and external development resources, which we believe enhances the quality of our products.

        Create and Maintain Diversity in Product Mix, Platforms, and Markets.    We believe that maintaining a diversified mix of products can reduce our operating risks and enhance profitability. Therefore, we develop and publish products spanning a wide range of product categories, including action/adventure, action sports, racing, role-playing, simulation, first-person action, music-based gaming, and strategy. We also develop products designed for target audiences ranging from casual players to game enthusiasts, children to adults, and mass-market consumers to "value" buyers. Presently, we are developing, publishing, and distributing products that operate on the PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii console systems, the PSP and NDS hand-held devices, and the PC. We typically offer our products for use on multiple platforms to reduce the risks associated with any single platform, leverage our costs over a larger installed hardware base, and increase unit sales.

Products

        Activision has been best known for our action/adventure, action sports, role-playing, simulation, first-person action, and music video game products. We have been successful in the first person action categories through the Call of Duty original intellectual property, which we plan on continuing as a successful long-term franchise. Call of Duty has achieved over $1 billion life-to-date sales. We are a leading company in the music-based gaming genre with the Guitar Hero franchise. We became the first publisher to surpass the $1 billion in sales from a single title: Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. The Guitar Hero franchise combines interactive software with hardware peripherals of a guitar, drum, and microphone. We have been successful in the superheroes category with our releases of titles based on the Spider-Man and X-Men properties. Our Tony Hawk franchise has been a leader in the action sports genre, and we have a new game in development to continue the strength of this franchise. We have continued our success with the DreamWorks animated movie titles, with the recent launches of Kung Fu Panda and Madagascar Escape 2 Africa, and the upcoming release of Monsters vs. Aliens. We have expanded our portfolio in the action/adventure genre with the recent launch of James Bond: Quantum of Solace. Our top three franchises accounted for approximately 68% of Activision's consolidated net revenues for the year ended December 31, 2008. We will further expand our portfolio with entry into the large racing genre with the upcoming launch of a new racing title in 2009 from

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Bizarre Creations, a studio with a proven track record of developing hit racing games for the past 10 years.

Product Development and Support

        Activision develops and produces titles using a model in which a core group of creative, production, and technical professionals, in coordination with our marketing and finance departments, have responsibility for the entire development and production process including the supervision and coordination of internal and external resources. This team assembles the necessary creative elements to complete a title using, where appropriate, outside programmers, artists, animators, scriptwriters, musicians and songwriters, sound effects and special effects experts, and sound and video studios. Activision believes that this model allows us to supplement internal expertise with top quality external resources on an as-needed basis.

        In addition, Activision often seeks out and engages independent third-party developers to create products on our behalf. Such products are either owned by us, or Activision has unlimited rights to commercially exploit these products. In other circumstances, a third-party developer may retain ownership of the intellectual property and/or technology included in the product and reserves certain exploitation rights. Activision typically selects these independent third-party developers based on their expertise in developing products in a specific category for specific platforms. Each of our third-party developers is under contract with us for specific or multiple titles. From time to time, Activision also acquires the license rights to publish and/or distribute software products that are or will be independently created by third-party developers. In such cases, the agreements with such developers provide us with exclusive publishing and/or distribution rights for a specific period of time, often for specified platforms and territories. In either case, Activision often has the ability to publish and/or distribute sequels, conversions, enhancements, and add-ons to the product initially being produced by the independent developer and Activision frequently has the right to engage the services of the original developer with regard to the further development of such products.

        In consideration for the services that independent third-party developers provide, the developers receive a royalty generally based on net sales of the developed products. Typically, developers also receive an advance, which Activision recoups from the royalties otherwise payable to the developers. The advance generally is paid in "milestone" stages. The payment at each stage is tied to the completion and delivery of a detailed performance milestone. Some contracts include minimum guaranteed royalty payments which are recorded as an asset when actually paid and as a liability when incurred. Working with independent developers allows us to reduce our fixed development costs, share development risks with the third-party developers, take advantage of the third-party developers' expertise in connection with certain categories of products or certain platforms, and gain access to proprietary development technologies.

        Activision provides various forms of product support to both our internally and externally developed titles. Activision quality assurance personnel are involved throughout the development and production of each title published. Activision subjects all such products to extensive testing before release to ensure compatibility with all appropriate hardware systems and configurations and to minimize the number of bugs and other defects found in the products. To support our products after release, Activision provides its customers online access on a 24-hour basis as well as live telephone operators who answer the help lines during regular business hours.

Marketing, Sales, and Distribution

        Activision's marketing efforts include online activities (such as the creation of World Wide Web pages to promote specific titles and build user communities around our franchises), public relations, print and broadcast advertising, coordinated in-store and industry promotions (including merchandising

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and point of purchase displays), participation in cooperative advertising programs, direct response vehicles, and product sampling through demonstration software distributed through the Internet or on compact discs. From time to time, we also receive marketing support from hardware manufacturers and retailers in connection with their own promotional efforts. In addition, certain of our products contain software that enables customers to "electronically register" their purchases with us online.

        We believe that our strong proven franchises and genres generate a loyal and devoted customer base that continues to purchase our sequels as a result of such dedication to the franchise and satisfaction from previous product purchases. We therefore market these sequels and expansion packs toward the established market as well as to broader audiences. In addition, for marketing titles based on licensed properties, we believe that we derive benefits from our continued marketing of these licensed properties as well as marketing and promotional activities of the property owners.

        North America.    Our products are available for sale or rental in thousands of retail outlets in North America. Our North American retail customers include Best Buy, GameStop, Target, Toys "R" Us, and Wal-Mart.

        In the United States and Canada, our products are sold primarily on a direct basis to mass-market retailers, consumer electronics stores, discount warehouses, and game specialty stores. We believe that a direct relationship with retail accounts results in more effective inventory management, merchandising, and communications than would be possible through indirect relationships. We have implemented electronic data interchange linkages with many of our retailers to facilitate the placing and shipping of orders. We also sell our products to a limited number of distributors.

        International.    Our products are sold internationally on a direct-to-retail basis, through third-party distribution and licensing arrangements, and through our wholly-owned European distribution subsidiaries. We conduct our international publishing activities through offices in the United Kingdom ("U.K."), Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Norway, the Netherlands, Canada, Sweden, Australia, and South Korea. We seek to maximize our worldwide revenues and profits by releasing high quality foreign language releases concurrently with English language releases and by continuing to expand the number of direct selling relationships we maintain with key retailers in major territories.

        On a worldwide basis, our largest customers, Wal-Mart and GameStop, each accounted for 11% of consolidated net revenues for the year ended December 31, 2008. No sales made to one customer accounted for more than 10% of Vivendi Games' total net sales during 2007 or 2006.

        Affiliate Labels.    In addition to our own products, we distribute a select number of interactive entertainment products that are developed and marketed by other third-party publishers through our "affiliate label" programs in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. The distribution of other publishers' products allows us to increase the efficiencies of our sales force and provides us with the ability to better ensure adequate shelf presence at retail stores for all of the products that we distribute. Revenues that we receive from distributing other publishers' titles mitigate the risk associated with a particular title or titles published by us failing to achieve expectations. Services provided by us under our affiliate label programs include order solicitation, in-store marketing, logistics and order fulfillment, sales channel management, as well as other accounting and general administrative functions. Our current affiliate label partners include LucasArts, as well as several affiliate label partners in our "value" business. Each affiliate label relationship is unique and may pertain only to distribution in certain geographic territories and may be further limited only to specific titles or titles for specific platforms.

Manufacturing

        Activision prepares a set of master program copies, documentation, and packaging materials for our products for each hardware platform on which the product will be released. We also manufacture

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separate hardware peripheral, such as the guitar, drum and microphone for Guitar Hero World Tour. With respect to products for use on the Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft systems, our disk and hardware peripheral duplication, packaging, printing, manufacturing, warehousing, assembly, and shipping are performed by third-party subcontractors.

        To maintain protection over their hardware technologies, Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft generally specify or control the manufacturing and assembly of finished products. We deliver the master materials to the licensor or its approved replicator, which then manufactures finished goods and delivers them to us for distribution under our label. We use the manufacturers who are authorized by Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft to make the hardware peripherals for Guitar Hero. At the time our product unit orders are filled by the manufacturer, we become responsible for the costs of manufacturing and the applicable per unit royalty on such units, even if the units do not ultimately sell.