14 DAY TRIAL // Publisher Activision Blizzard has announced that it has managed to being in more revenue and generate more profit in the third fiscal quarter, which ended on September 30, that it was predicting, beating even the prediction of analysts focusing on the video game industry.
The company has reported revenues that went over 745 million dollars for the three month period, which is more than the 703 million reported for the same period of 2009, and significantly better than the 600 million it has predicted at the beginning of the year.
Overall profits also reached 51 million dollars, coming from just 15 million in the fiscal third quarter of 2009.
Bobby Kotick, the Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, has stated, “For the nine months ending September 30, 2010, our digital offerings contributed close to half of our total non-GAAP net revenues and our digital revenues have increased more than 15 percent over the prior year. Most importantly, we continue to deliver some of the world's best games.”
The main culprits for the good results were strong sales of Starcraft 2, the Blizzard made real time strategy which launched in the middle of July, strong performance from the MMO World of Warcraft, which is preparing to get its third expansion, and Call of Duty, which continues to sell well and will get the Black Ops launch this week.
Kotick has added that he expects 2010 to be the most profitable year ever for the publisher, with sales of 1.26 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of the year and overall revenue reaching 4.28 billion for the entire year.
Activision Blizzard has not talked about the slow sales of titles like Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and DJ Hero 2, suggesting that it might be ready to abandon the music simulation genre altogether.
Call of Duty: Black Ops is set to move more units than Modern Warfare 2 sold last fall.