Thanks almost entirely to the success of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft, Activision Blizzard has enjoyed a record quarter, according to recent financial results.
The publisher’s generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) net revenues increased to $1.4 bullion, compared to $1.3 billion for the same period in 2010. In addition, GAAP net revenues from digital channels now accounts for 30 per cent of overall revenue.
Business Highlights
- During the first quarter, Call of Duty: Black Ops became the best-selling game of all time in dollars across the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, the PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the PC in the U.S. and Europe and was also the #1 game in the U.S. and Europe for the quarter.
- For the first quarter, Activision Blizzard had three top-10 PC titles with Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Black Ops.
- Total unique online gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops were more than 33 per cent greater than the total unique online gamers who played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the first five months after each game’s release.
- During the quarter, digital downloads of the Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike content pack were more than 20% higher than digital downloads of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack during the comparable period in 2010.
- Since Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike launched on February 1, players have spent an average of 58 minutes per day playing online, exceeding the 55 minutes the average user spends per day on Facebook.
- As of March 31, 2011, Activision Blizzard had purchased approximately 31 million shares of its common stock, for approximately $344 million, under the $1.5 billion stock repurchase program authorized by its Board of Directors on February 9, 2011.
- Activision Blizzard will pay a cash dividend of $0.165 per common share on May 11, 2011 to shareholders of record as of March 16, 2011. The dividend represents a 10 per cent increase over the dividend that was issued in 2010.
The publisher lists Call of Duty, Spyro, Wipeout In The Zone and Transformers as big opportunities moving forward.
It’s a far cry from the struggling publisher that people assumed Activision was after it pulled back on Tony Hawk and Guitar Hero. It seems that, at the moment, focusing on the really big releases is working for the publisher.
But still, one has to wonder how much longer Activision can rely on its current franchises. Hopefully it is investing some R & D money on finding the next big thing (and we’re still waiting to see what Bungie has up its sleeve).
Good post – interesting observations, especially with the statement at the end, wondering how much longer Activation can rely on its current franchises. I was just reading a post last night (maybe on IGN?) talking about how WoW subscriptions have fallen off by .6 million players since last fall and that Blizzard is planning to crank out more content more quickly to try and keep the subscription base hanging in there. No doubt newer games like Rift have cut into that a bit.
Good post – interesting observations, especially with the statement at the end, wondering how much longer Activation can rely on its current franchises. I was just reading a post last night (maybe on IGN?) talking about how WoW subscriptions have fallen off by .6 million players since last fall and that Blizzard is planning to crank out more content more quickly to try and keep the subscription base hanging in there. No doubt newer games like Rift have cut into that a bit.