Activision Blizzard is one of the few video game publishers who have managed to thrive in the economic recession. Midway is going bankrupt, Free Radical closed down, Eidos is suffering, but Activision Blizzard is doing better than ever. Even with an announced Q4 2008 loss of $72 million, Activision Blizzard still managed to finish out the year as the leading third-party publisher in the industry with a net revenue of $5 billion.

So what does a video game publisher do when they are actually making money instead of desperately trying to claw their way out of debt?

According to Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard is considering acquiring other game developers to bolster their product line, gain new intellectual properties and expand internationally. With the American economy suffering, it is an ideal opportunity for Activision Blizzard to scoop up financially troubled developers.

“The combination of Activision holding a fair amount of cash and presumably prices being depressed, not only for publicly traded companies, but also likely for new intellectual property licensing rights, should certainly create opportunities,” said Mike Griffith, president and chief executive of Activision Publishing.

Activision Blizzard is not the only profitable company that has expressed interest in purchasing other developers. Last month, Japanese RPG developer Square-Enix offered $120 million to acquire the suffering British publisher Eidos.

Activision Blizzard has yet to announce what other companies it may be interested in.

"We won’t rush to judgment just because we have cash." said Griffith. "We will be very disciplined.” "

Activion Blizzard is renowned for creating some of the top selling video games of 2008, including the critically acclaimed "World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King", "Guitar Hero: World Tour," and "Call of Duty: World at War."