World of Warcraft became the locomotive of Vivendi Games

The gaming division dedicated to French media group Vivendi, which in the past only incurred losses and could not be sold, now generates higher profit margin of the industry thanks to a game: World of Warcraft.

The game has attracted over 10 million users since its launch in 2004 and, according to René Penisson, president of Vivendi Games, has created a new market for the company and for the industry as a whole.

"I think a market very, very big is opening" , said Penisson during the annual presentacisn Vivendi results last week. "It's changing the way people play," he said.

The rival company Infogrames said earlier this month that the games 'online' would be the growth engine of the industry, representing a quarter of all games in three years.

The pull of 'WoW'
World of Warcraft is a role play 'online' in which players make friends and enemies in a virtual world of druids and elves, which sometimes results in soul mates in real life.

Between 2003 and 2007, Vivendi Games sales doubled to more than 1,000 million euros, making an operating loss of more than 200 million euros in profits of more than 181 million euros .

"World of Warcraft has been a key element in the transformation of Vivendi Games ", asegurs Penisson.

If Vivendi had not had such selling would never have won the favor of Activision, a company responsible for games like 'Guitar Hero', to join in an operation for 18,000 million dollars , said Penisson.