The company Koch Media has surprisingly announced a collaboration with publisher Activision. This involves the distribution of all physical releases and games in Europe and beyond. MeinMMO shows you what is behind it.
What happened? Koch Media has announced an official partnership with Activision Blizzard. From May 2021, Koch Media will start distributing all retail products of the US publisher.
The company announced this on its official Twitter account. Thus, Koch Media is now distributing the retail products of the global market leader in the field of console and PC games.
Activision Blizzard is actually a name known to every gamer. The publisher is known for franchises and games such as Call Of Duty, World Of Warcraft, Overwatch, Sekiro, Diablo, and numerous other titles.
Koch Media also includes the brand label Deep Silver, which some players know through titles like Metro: Last Light, Saints Row 4, Risen 1-3, and several other games. Warhorse Studios also belongs to the subsidiaries that developed the role-playing game Kingdom Come: Deliverance.
The company is alongside THQ Nordic one of eight divisions of the Swedish Embracer Group, which according to gameswirtschaft.de is one of the biggest employers in the German video game industry. (via gameswirtschaft.de)
Koch Media secures portfolio from Activision Blizzard
What is Koch Media doing now exactly? In simple terms, the company will now take over all retail business of Activision Blizzard in the EMEA region.
What does EMEA region mean? The abbreviation stands for the economic area of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Thus, some locations in the Middle East and Africa are also included. Only Italy and the United Kingdom are excluded from the partnership.
What is behind this decision? There are no more detailed information available. Activision seems to have been planning for some time to close its own offices in other countries. This affects locations in
- Germany
- France
- Spain
- United Kingdom (UK)
- Netherlands
This decision fits the intention to conclude an external partnership for retail distribution with Koch Media. Koch Media already has experience in this area, numerous company locations spread across the world, and distributes games for partners like Sega or Square Enix.
In some countries, Capcom, Bethesda, or Konami are also among the partners (via beta.gamesmarkt.de).
What changes for players? This is currently hard to say. Probably, we will see the Koch Media logo on the game packaging alongside the Activision logo in the future.
Whether this also applies to titles that have already been released remains to be seen. Overall, players are unlikely to see any significant change.
