14 DAY TRIAL // Video-game publisher Activision Blizzard has announced better than expected results for the last quarter of 2010, saying that it has seen an increase in revenue to 2.55 billion dollars for the last three months of the year, compared to 2.50 billion for the same period in 2009.
It's worth noting that the results were reported without using GAAP standards, which means that it can be tough for industry watchers to compare them with those of other publishers like Electronic Arts.
For the entire 2010 calendar year, which is not the same as the fiscal year, Activision Blizzard says that it has managed to see an increase in revenue, with the figure reaching 4.80 billion dollars, up from 4.79 during the previous year.
Bobby Kotick, who is the chief executive officer at Activision Blizzard, has stated, “Our revenues from digital channels, which now account for over 30 percent of our overall revenues, were driven by increased sales of Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty map packs and value-added services for Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.”
The CEO revealed that First Strike, the first map pack for the blockbuster first-person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops, has managed to sell more than 1.4 million copies on Xbox Live since it was launched, with sales expected to rise significantly when the launch for the PlayStation Network and the PC-based one arrive.
The publisher also seems to be following the industry wide trend of publishing a smaller number of titles over one year with a focus on quality, aiming to create a feeling of loyalty to developer and franchise among players.
One downside of the financial results were the projections for the future, with Activision Blizzard saying that it will have revenue for 3.9 billion for the 2011 calendar year, while analysts were expecting a figure of more than 4.5 billion.