One billion is a number so big that it's hard to take seriously. But Activision boss Bobby Kotick does take it seriously, especially when it relates to what he'd have to pay out to take on World of Warcraft as a rival MMO.

Of course, there's no need to do that now. But even before the Activision/Vivendi merger happened, Kotick knew that even spending 1 billion USD in development on an MMO to compete with WoW would be risky business.

"We don't think that even if we made the USD 500 million or billion-dollar investment to get a product out that we would even be successful doing it," said Kotick.

"When we first started looking at it, it appeared to us like a game in an insurmountable product category... EA, Microsoft, Sony and scores of venture capital investments had been put to work unsuccessfully in trying to develop massively multiplayer games as a product opportunity," he told investors.

This whole can't beat 'em, join 'em attitude probably played a big role in the creation of Activision Blizzard. Hopefully Kotick saved some of that cash to put back into their new supercompany for some new MMO titles.

Do you agree with Kotick's view that no one else will be able to compete with WoW? Or is the next big MMO right around the corner?

[Via Play.tm -- Thanks, JR]