The history of Vivendi Universal Games (VU Games) is a long and complicated tale, complete with many mergers and name changes along the way.

It all started innocently enough in 1995 with the founding of one of France's first multimedia companies, Liris Interactive, which in turn became Havas Interactive at the end of 1997. Havas significantly beefed up its holdings in 1998 with the acquisition of Cendant Software, parent company to Sierra and Blizzard Entertainment.

Universal Interactive (UI) was added to the mix in 2000, when Vivendi SA (Havas' parent company) and Seagram Co. (UI's parent company) merged together.

In 2001, Havas Interactive, a subsidiary of Vivendi Universal Publishing changed its name to Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing, which was broken into two divisions: Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing North America and Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing International.

Finally, towards the end of 2001, Vivendi Universal Publishing formed Vivendi Universal Games, which merged the management and operations divisions of the former Vivendi Universal Games, Vivendi Universal Interactive Publishing North America and Vivendi Universal Publishing International into one global and unified business.

Thankfully, Ken Cron's route to CEO of Vivendi Universal Games is a little easier to comprehend than the history of the company he currently heads up. Cron was chairman and CEO of Uproar Inc., an online gaming site that was acquired by Vivendi Universal subsidiary Flipside (another online gaming website), in March of 2001. As part of the deal, Cron joined Vivendi as chief executive of Flipside. He was named to his current position in June of 2001, replacing Hubert Joly.

Confusing? A little. All you really need to know is VU Games is one of the biggest multimedia companies in the world. GameDaily had the opportunity to sit down with Vivendi Universal Games CEO Ken Cron to talk about the company and its upcoming plans and strategies.

Cron describes Vivendi, and its outlook on the gaming industry as, "Very visionary." "Unlike most of the very large media companies, they saw an opportunity to get into the games business early, and had put together a number of different companies in the games area."

After being named CEO of VU Games, Cron took a good look at the company and liked what he saw. "A large media company, a hot area (games) and a market dominated by a bunch of independently held companies, but none within a large media context." "If we really organize it right and merged the entities together, we can really make a highly competitive company in the games space."

So what did Cron do next? "When I joined, I decided to organize these disparate companies into a worldwide, global operation, which we did." The next three or four months were spent implementing a plan to consolidate operations and reorganize management as well as put some leaders in place globally.

Cron admitted that VU Games was "probably late to the party" when it came to console games, but that it has moved quickly into the space in the past year or so. The company went from being predominantly PC oriented to console titles currently making up around 40 percent of its lineup. "Multiple platforms really allow you to drive your business," he added.

In 1999, VU Games' revenue distribution by platform was 98 percent PC-related with one percent console and one percent online. By 2005 the company hopes to be spread a little more evenly, eying a mix of: 35 percent PC products, 50 percent console and 15 percent online.

Sierra Entertainment, who like its parent company was almost totally dedicated to the PC market, is spearheading the change of focus to console titles within VU Games. Its reliance on the PC spelled trouble for Sierra, which was headed for a loss last year. A series of staff reductions and restructuring moves (mostly centering on consolidating non-developmental functions) helped Sierra to end up in the black by the end of the year, but hastened the company's decision to aggressively develop for multiple platforms this year. By next year (2003) Sierra expects to be 50/50 in regards to console and PC development.

GameDaily asked Mike Ryder, Sierra Entertainment's president whether this change in development strategy was a directive from above or more of an internal decision. He responded that, "there was certainly support from within Vivendi Universal to get into consoles." Ryder further added that his own background is richer in console games and that is where he got started in the industry, probably why he was picked for his leadership role. "We aren't going away from the PC, we are going to the console. The PC is still (on a product by product basis) more profitable for us," Ryder explained.

One of Vivendi's mandates has been to implement a greater level of synergy between their game, movie and music businesses. The results of this move are reflected in numerous ways, but none greater than Sierra Entertainment's upcoming videogame, Malice. The game features the music and voice acting of rock group No Doubt, who just happen to record for Interscope Records, which is a label of Universal Music Group, which is in turn owned by Vivendi Universal.

Ryder noted that in the past, licensing music for games was a chore, because the music industry does business in a different way than the gaming industry, but with Vivendi's assets--and new initiatives--it's a much more smooth process.

The fun doesn't end there; Sierra's upcoming PC game Swat: Urban Justice will contain music from a host of Def Jam recording artists in order to further set the urban mood of the title. Def Jam is a Universal Music Group label as well.

Cross promotion is certainly one of the more dangerous weapons in a large company's holster, but Vivendi isn't alone in using such artillery. Sony Pictures' recent blockbuster movie Spider-Man featured an on-screen concert performance from Sony Music artist Macy Gray in the middle of a pivotal battle scene between Spidey and the Green Goblin.

Future media blanketing from Vivendi may grow to include USA Networks, the company's TV presence, Cron also indicated.

Vivendi also wants to do more multi-platform, simultaneously global launches in the future, along the lines of Activision's Spider-Man videogame launch, which was timed to coincide with the movie's release and hit virtually every platform on its first day at retail. "Whether it's us or someone else, if you click on all cylinders at once, what could be better?" added Cron.

Next year VU Games will get a chance at its own multi-platform launch, complete with tie-ins galore when its Hulk series of videogames is released. The Hulk movie, from Universal Pictures, is scheduled to release June 20, 2003 and Universal Interactive is planning on having PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube versions of The Hulk interactive game on shelves at the same time. Cron stated that, "Interestingly enough, the time it takes to create a game, and the time it takes to create a movie from start to finish are virtually identical--you're looking at a year and a half to two years to do top notch games and/or movies."

Another future release from UI drew inspiration from the vaults of Vivendi. The Thing is based upon the 1982 John Carpenter horror movie of the same name. GameDaily asked Cron about the possibility of more back catalogue titles coming out in the future. "We have the horror characters (Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula), there's no question that that's an opportunity and an area we will probably explore." "There's tremendous opportunity in those (archived) areas." So you see, there isn't a lack of intellectual property to cull videogames from for the folks at VU Games.

We asked Cron about the troubles at the top of Vivendi as of late. He responded that it "doesn't affect the games group much," and that his division is continuing to build. "I have the confidence and the belief that the company is going to straighten out any issues and over time success will be reflected in every way," he forecasted.