This probably isn't news to us anymore as Blizzard's World of Warcraft has been boosting Vivendi SA is a video game developer; formerly known as Vivendi Universal">Vivendi's sales and profits for some time now. What came as a surprise was Vivendi's Q4 report. They reported a 51% drop in profit for last year's fourth quarter.

The giant conglomerate based in France earned a massive 1.25 billion euros in the last quarter of 2005. Last year though, they only earned a fraction of that, reporting a profit of only 610 million euros (US $799 million). The plunge in profit figures was due to tax credit and one time gains from asset sales, according to Forbes.

Vivendi's plans to aim high this year as they raise their profit outlook to (adjusted net profit) 2.7 billion euros or US $3.5 billion. Considering that The Burning Crusade's sales were highly successful, higher expectations are bound to be a given come the year's end. In terms of video game sales for 2006's last quarter, Vivendi's sales were boosted by WoW sales and enjoyed an increase of 33% (326 million euros or US $428 million).

Video-gaming's big business these days, if the financial reports on bigwigs like Ubisoft and Blizzard developers are a clue. And for the guys who'd like a slice of the pie, business magazine Forbes just laid out some interesting info for the gamer who thinks he/she has what it takes to make headway in game dev.

It's a short how-to guide on what one has to do to get into game development, and for the benefit of the guys who prefer a summary, here's a brief:

Seek an internship: EA's executive producer on the Madden NFL franchise, Dale Jackson, reiterates on this one. His department hires interns from Georgia Tech, University of Southern California and Carnegie Mellon on an annual basis to let the students work on real title. And for prospective fans, the turnout's promising: Jackson says that at least half of the guys who intern end up becoming full-time employees at EA. The bad news? Most companies don't have an internship program, which leads us to option two...

Make mods: Synonymous with homebrews, hacks, Addons...you get the idea. By consistently working on freelance projects like these, aspiring game developers are letting companies know that they're serious about their commitment. Plus, it makes for a good portfolio. As Coray Seifert, associate producer for studio Kaos says, "If we see someone who makes games in their spare time for fun, then we know they will be dedicated employees."

Be a playtester: MMORPG gamers are definitely familiar with this. Beta testers are the unofficial crash-test-dummies guinea pigs of big-laden prototypes, and as such, expect plenty of headaches and frustrating moments as you pore through hours of game time trying to iron out the errors. If it's any consolation, guys like Dennis Allard Crow, associate producer of Kaos started out by play-testing for Activision.

Yeah, we already know that people from all walks of life do their best to part with at least some of their monetary resources, on a repeated basis, so that they may satisfy their hunger and feed their (sometimes hidden) gaming souls with the chicken soup that is the World of Warcraft. But you know what? Jaded as we are about "oh what? he's a gamer too?!" we still like finding out that unlikely people play the game.

You know why? It comforts us. It sort of makes us feel like we belong to a larger sub-culture. It makes us feel more connected. I'm not just a lone pimply, basement dwelling cartoon that says "f*ck", and "Holy crap! They killed Kenny!" every now and then on Television, I'm a Warcraft Player, and that makes me feel like I'm part of something bigger.

Here's the latest admission of gaming addiction from an unlikely source: John Giuffo admits in his article on Forbes that he is addicted to "devious little endorphin-stimulator that is available in retail stores." Yep, some business minded folks play the game too. And now that there's an article on Forbes, it's likely that a lot of folks with gray hair that aren't hippies are thinking about playing it too... or at least making money with the thing.

Of course, my whole social-connection spin on the first two paragraphs might just be a big load of bull... perhaps the situation is more primal and more base than I make it out to be, after all, Guiffo says it himself: "You make friends, and some of them might even be the girls they claim to be."