Activision/Blizzard NET Income DOUBLES in 1st Quarter

[Sensa]

Activision Blizzard Q1 results jump, surpassing Wall Street expectations
Published: Thursday, May 6, 2010 | 6:17 PM ET
Canadian Press Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Continued strong sales of "Call of Duty" and a steady stream of revenue from "World of Warcraft" subscribers helped double Activision Blizzard Inc.'s first-quarter net income.

The results easily surpassed Wall Street's expectations, and the company's shares gained in after-hours trading, after closing lower in what turned out to be one of the most turbulent days in Wall Street history. Activision's outlook for the current quarter, however, was below estimates.

Activision said Thursday that it earned US$381 million, or 30 cents per share, in the January-March quarter, up from $189 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue rose 33 per cent to $1.31 billion, from $981 million

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This, in a quarter normally considered the slowest time of the year for game companies.

And this is why, to the consternation of the fan boys, that many of us actually demand more from Blizzard (better customer service, better servers, less lag, more content development) and don't just accept everything they do as great, infallible gifts from the benevolent creator.

[Terragh]

You are aware that Infinity Ward went tits up, so the Activision part of the company is pretty much completely fucked?

[hellpyre]

lol tits up, i like that, im gonna start using that saying

[Sensa]

You are aware that Infinity Ward went tits up, so the Activision part of the company is pretty much completely fucked?

well they don't seem to be too concerned about that...here's parts of the rest of the story:

CEO Bobby Kotick called the quarter a blowout and said in an interview that the company benefited from getting more than 60 per cent of its revenue from online subscriptions and other digital content.

"One of the reasons we had so much overperformance is that we are not as dependent on the vagaries of the console market as our competitors," he said.

Activision raised its full-year earnings outlook slightly. But for the current quarter, it issued an outlook below Wall Street's expectations. The company is expecting net income of 11 cents per share on revenue of $925 million.

That said, the first half of the year tends to be slow for video game companies, which make the bulk of their money during the holidays. Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian expects more than 80 per cent of Activision's earnings to come in the second half. Beyond that, he added, the company's management is very cautious when issuing guidance.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/TB8321.html

not feeling sorry for them, personally.

[Mementoz]

lol tits up, i like that, im gonna start using that saying

Lol yeh - 'What happened to Gordon Brown ' ' Oh he went TITS UP in the election...' lol

[Terragh]

well they don't seem to be too concerned about that...here's parts of the rest of the story:

CEO Bobby Kotick called the quarter a blowout and said in an interview that the company benefited from getting more than 60 per cent of its revenue from online subscriptions and other digital content.

"One of the reasons we had so much overperformance is that we are not as dependent on the vagaries of the console market as our competitors," he said.

Activision raised its full-year earnings outlook slightly. But for the current quarter, it issued an outlook below Wall Street's expectations. The company is expecting net income of 11 cents per share on revenue of $925 million.

That said, the first half of the year tends to be slow for video game companies, which make the bulk of their money during the holidays. Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian expects more than 80 per cent of Activision's earnings to come in the second half. Beyond that, he added, the company's management is very cautious when issuing guidance.

http://www.cbc.ca/cp/technology/TB8321.html

not feeling sorry for them, personally.

Obviously they're pretending not to be. If they said straight out "OH FUCK, WE LOST OUR BEST GUYS BECAUSE WE TRIED TO FUCK THEM OVER!" their stock would end up piercing the crust of the Earth and wind up lodged halfway into the mantle.

[kerwyn]

I'll go ahead and attribute this to early sc2 sales.


Also, IW already made activision millions upon millions of dollars, yes, losing them hurt. But let's be honest here, they were going to use them to milk MW2 for as long as possible(new maps) because it's cheaper than funding their next project. To compensate they signed a major publishing deal with Bungie, another giant in the industry.

[Sensa]

Obviously they're pretending not to be. If they said straight out "OH FUCK, WE LOST OUR BEST GUYS BECAUSE WE TRIED TO FUCK THEM OVER!" their stock would end up piercing the crust of the Earth and wind up lodged halfway into the mantle.

I'm curious as to what point you are trying to make? Yes, they lost or screwed over those guys who were important to one of their games but who were not irreplaceable and still made record profits and expect to make even more money than originally predicted this year.

[Izhara]

I wonder how much of this is from CoD and the celestial steed sales (they pulled in more from steed sales in a day than they did in a month of subscription fees back in Vanilla).

[waddlez]

Activision Blizzard is Vivendi Games rebranded

it is not Blizzard nor Activision

merely their overlord

[Video Games]

I wonder how much of this is from CoD and the celestial steed sales (they pulled in more from steed sales in a day than they did in a month of subscription fees back in Vanilla).

Well, mw2 is the best selling game of all time that wasn't a console pack in. So I'm gonna guess 70% ish. Not like they really put out anything else this year besides the map pack.

[kulviks]

You are aware that Infinity Ward went tits up, so the Activision part of the company is pretty much completely fucked?

No one is gonna miss Infinity Ward, they fucked up MW2 so just let them die

[Izhara]

Well, mw2 is the best selling game of all time that wasn't a console pack in. So I'm gonna guess 70% ish. Not like they really put out anything else this year besides the map pack.

True enough. I'm not a big FPS fan but I'll give credit where due and MW2 definitely deserves it.

[waddlez]

No one is gonna miss Infinity Ward, they fucked up MW2 so just let them die

They aren't going to die, they are working with EA now

so would you like some paid DLC with your DRM sir?

Well, mw2 is the best selling game of all time that wasn't a console pack in. So I'm gonna guess 70% ish. Not like they really put out anything else this year besides the map pack.

No, it wasn't

it was the third most sold, but units pushed != good games broseph

Otherwise Avatar would have won the Oscars that Hurt Locker won

but like always, quality > quantity

[allforone]

Well, mw2 is the best selling game of all time that wasn't a console pack in. So I'm gonna guess 70% ish. Not like they really put out anything else this year besides the map pack.

lol sadly no. It has one and two-day sales records, but it is not the best selling game of all time, not even close.(From what I've read though, it might go as best selling fps of all time, IIRC halo3 was the prev champ at ~10 million units.)

As of March 16th, according to Wikipedia, MW2 has sold 14 million units.(which is about 900 million, so for over 1b, let's say 16 million)
To compare, Pokemon gold/silver alone have sold ~25 million units, and there are about 7-8 games between it and mw2, mostly pokemon/Nintendo titles IIRC.)
Best selling game of all time is sadly The Sims 2, all-in-all it has over 100 million LEGAL copies floating around.

[Video Games]

lol sadly no. It has one and two-day sales records, but it is not the best selling game of all time, not even close.(From what I've read though, it might go as best selling fps of all time, IIRC halo3 was the prev champ at ~10 million units.)

As of March 16th, according to Wikipedia, MW2 has sold 14 million units.(which is about 900 million, so for over 1b, let's say 16 million)
To compare, Pokemon gold/silver alone have sold ~25 million units, and there are about 7-8 games between it and mw2, mostly pokemon/Nintendo titles IIRC.)
Best selling game of all time is sadly The Sims 2, all-in-all it has over 100 million LEGAL copies floating around.

/facepalm. During April 2008, The Sims 2 website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold. Yay reading. And I'll admit I was partially wrong. Mw2 is the 2nd best selling game in eu and 3rd in us, the first being a console pack in so technically 1st/2nd.

[Anick Seve]

/facepalm. During April 2008, The Sims 2 website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold. Yay reading. And I'll admit I was partially wrong. Mw2 is the 2nd best selling game in eu and 3rd in us, the first being a console pack in so technically 1st/2nd.

[Citation Needed]

[rkma]

This report just makes Bobby Kotick look like he knows what he's doing. And maybe he does.

[Ma_shed]

CELESTIAL STEED, HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Video Games]

[Citation Needed]

What do you want a citation for? Sims 2 or the mw2 sales? I have the links for both of them, that or you can look on wikipedia yourself.