One of Blizzard Entertainment Inc.’s most popular titles will be available later this year on Nintendo Switch, a first for the Irvine-based publisher.
The “Diablo III Eternal Collection,” which includes the original “Diablo III,” “Reaper of Souls” expansion, and the “Rise of the Necromancer” pack, will be released for the hot-selling mobile gaming console at retail stores and through Nintendo eShop.
Up to four players can team up through a shared screen or link their systems wirelessly through the Nintendo Switch Online service.
The Switch console is tailored more for role-playing games, such as Diablo III, than the two Nintendo consoles released before it, which focused on 3D technology, a once-emerging application that’s largely defunct.
In 2012, Diablo III broke the record for the fastest-selling PC game of all time, burning through 3.5 million copies the day it went on sale, and 5.1 million units in its first seven days. Those figures don’t include the 1.2 million players who received the game as part of their yearly subscriptions for “World of Warcraft.”
“At Nintendo, we’re huge fans of rich and compelling games that speak to players around the world,” Reggie Fils-Aime, Nintendo of America president and chief operating officer, said in a press release.
The previous record was held by another Blizzard title, “World of Warcraft: Cataclysm,” the game’s third expansion set. Cataclysm sold 3.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after it went on sale in 2010.
In Diablo III, players adopt a role, such as barbarian, witch doctor, wizard, monk or demon hunter, and fight evil forces in a labyrinth of supernatural encounters and settings.
Blizzard had the title in development for seven years, considerably longer than most of its games, which typically take 18 months to two years to release.
The Nintendo partnership is the latest diversification effort by Blizzard, which has expanded into esports in the past few years—The Overwatch League; free-to-play games—Heroes of Warcraft; and the collectible card genre—Hearthstone.
“Overwatch,” released in 2016, was its first title available for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One console.
Japan-based Nintendo Co. has sold nearly 20 million Switch console units since its March 2017 launch.
Blizzard, OC’s largest software maker, is a division of Santa Monica-based Activision Blizzard Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). The company reported Blizzard’s second-quarter segment net revenue declined 14% to $489 million while operating income dropped 41%, as there were no expansions or releases.
Econolite in Fast Lane
Anaheim-based Econolite won a $21.9 million contract from the California Department of Transportation to provide infrastructure upgrades.
Under the deal, which extends through 2020, the company will modernize the traffic system for Caltrans highways in District 7, an area that covers Ventura and Los Angeles counties.
The project calls for upgrading or replacing more than 3,000 detection sensors, as well as installing new signal controllers and traffic cabinets. In L.A. County, it will deploy new communications systems, including wireless detection systems.
Econolite is a unit of Anaheim-based Econolite Group Inc., which designs and manufactures traffic-management control systems and sensors, and develops, installs and integrates traffic-control software and communication systems.
Last year the Business Journal reported that Econolite Group moved into an 85,000-square-foot office in Anaheim at 1250 N. Tustin Ave. near its prior headquarters, and hired Abbas Mohaddes, former chief executive of Santa Ana-based Iteris Inc. (Nasdaq: ITI), as president and chief operating officer.
Broadcom Buy Closer
San Jose-based Broadcom Inc., which has a sizeable presence in Orange County, cleared one of the first regulatory hurdles in its proposed $18.9 billion cash deal for CA Technologies (Nasdaq CA).
The transaction passed the mandated waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, signaling it won’t face objections via U.S. antitrust law.
The deal must now be approved by regulators in the European Union and Japan, as well as CA Technologies shareholders. It’s projected to close in the fourth quarter.
The acquisition of the New York-based company is somewhat of a surprise, since it specializes in enterprise software, a segment Broadcom has never competed in.
CA Technologies sells business software, such as project management and IT-security products, to Fortune 500 companies. Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) builds communications chips that power Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS and other applications in mobile devices, as well as those used in data centers and set-top boxes.
The deal was announced about four months after its $121 billion hostile takeover of San Diego rival Qualcomm Corp. (Nasdaq: QCOM) was quashed by the administration of President Donald Trump, which cited national security concerns related to 5G development.
