(Note: This is the first of four news items from my reporting on the Activision Blizzard merger, which closed today. For the bigger picture, check out my story in tomorrow's Daily Variety about the impact of the deal on the entertainment biz, and, my story in weekly Variety about how a single game sparked the biggest deal in videogame history)

Creating the world's biggest pure play videogame publisher doesn't mean much without the key talent behind its top franchises. For Activision Blizzard, those franchises are "World of Warcraft," "Guitar Hero," and "Call of Duty."

As former Vivendi Games CEO and new Activision Blizzard Vice Chairman Bruce Hack told me, "Those are the core assets of the new company... The three of them are paying the bills."

That's why Activision Blizzard has signed the top execs at "Warcraft" developer/publisher Blizzard, "Call of Duty" creators Infinity Ward, and "Guitar Hero" stewards Neversoft to new long-term contracts.

CEO Bobby Kotick confirmed for me that the top folks at Blizzard have all signed new five year deals. "We realized it would be impossible to compete [with 'World of Warcraft'] and so ultimately my only issue was making sure they were committed for at least five years. They are committed to the franchise in a way we rarely see, since it's something they created from scratch and is their life and livelihood. It didn't take a lot to get them to make that commitment."

Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime also confirmed that his executive team is under new contracts now.

As for Infinity Ward... this explains its mysterious post that had the blogosphere abuzz that said the studio has a "renegotiated deal" with Activision that will let it keep working on "Call of Duty" and a potential new IP. Kotick told me the key folks there have signed onto new long-term deals as well, though he couldn't give me the exact length. The same holds, he added, for Neversoft.

“We have had great stability in our business units and I think these contracts are just another example,” he stated.