Tag Archives: acti blizz q2 financials 09

Missed this from the Acti Q2 call earlier this week. Company execs said in the chat that all 20,000 Blizzcon tickets sold out in less than eight minutes this year.

The event’s taking place at the Anaheim Convention Center in California on August 20-21.

Are we going? Yes, we are. Hit BigDownload for more.

Here’s the Seeking Alpha transcript of last night’s Activision Blizzard Q2 earnings call.

Bad Bobby, Mental Mike and Tonto Tippl were all in the house. It was a proper scream.

Knock yourself out. Get all the major news from the financial release and call here.

Forgot about this last night. In the Q&A part of the Acti Blizz earnings call, Bobby Kotick said he’d like to see game prices raised even further.

The response came after Mike Griffith answered an analyst question on price points. Here it is in full:

Michael J. Griffith

And then on the second question, Tony, on the pricing, we’ve had for all of our launch titles in the back half of this year, some of which contain peripherals, as you point out, very strong retailer acceptance and support for all parts of our plan, including our merchandising plans, our marketing programs, and our price points.

Robert A. Kotick

And Tony, you know if it was left to me, I would raise the prices even further.

Here’s the Seeking Alpha transcript. After he said it, all the execs started laughing and there was a pause before the next question.

So there you go. £70 here we come!

Thanks, Psychotext.

That was fun! Delays for both StarCraft II and Battle.net, mental Xbox Live comparisons and Mike Morhaime beaten down by a brutal double analyst clothes line. Activision Blizzard’s Q2 earnings report could have been a lot drier.

You were in bed, or having sex with the dog, or something. We weren’t. We’re here for you.

• Acti Blizz beats $1 billion revenue in Q2
• StarCraft II pushed in first-half 2010 to match Battle.net relaunch
• Blizzard lowers full-year guidance on SCII delay
• Kotick: New Battle.net will be “a service similar to Xbox Live”
• Acti Blizz Q2 earnings call – the full transcript
• Kotick: I would raise game prices even further
• Acti Blizz explains Battle.net delay, points to “premier online gaming destination”
• Acti Blizz game kiosks and demos to be in stores this holiday
• CoD4 has sold close to 14 million units
• ActiBlizz Q2 financials: New Bond game in the works
• Activision: Blur slated for store shelves in November
• Hawk: Ride will only get US, UK and German launches this year
• ActiBlizz Q2 financials: Griffith gives hardware estimates for 2009
• Morhaime: “Correct to conclude” that two Blizzard games will hit in 2010

Activision Blizzard has significantly reduced its full-year guidance on the now-confirmed StarCraft II delay, pulling revenue estimates for calendar 2009 down to $4.05 billion from $4.3 billion.

The publisher admitted the slip in its Q2 earnings last night, saying the delay was necessary to match the upcoming relaunch of Battle.net. Both will now happen in “early” 2010.

The company yesterday showed revenues in excess of $1 billion for the second quarter.

Speaking in the Acti Blizz Q2 earnings call tonight, Blizzard boss Mike Morhaime caved on the subject of whether or not two Blizzard games would release next year, saying it was “correct to conclude” that StarCraft II’s now-confirmed delay into 2010 means the publisher’s about to double up.

Morhaime stated in a previous earnings call that Blizzard plans to release one major game per calendar year.

“I’d just like to reiterate that we haven’t announced any release dates on any future titles, and I’ll also reiterate that the move of StarCraft into next year does not impact the schedule,” he said after being asked whether or not we’ll see two Blizzard games next year twice by two separate analysts.

“So, it would be correct to conclude that you could expect two releases of Blizzard next year, but I would not make any conclusion on what those titles are going to be.”

The second analyst mentioned Diablo as the 2010 game, but, as you can see, Morhaime was having none of it.

StarCraft II was delayed into 2010 tonight to match up with Battle.net’s relaunch in the first half of next year.

Activision CEO Mike Griffith announced today the company’s expected console install base for North America and Europe by the end of 2009.

• Handhelds: 108 million
• Wii: 50 million
• Xbox 360: 33 million
• PS3: 20 million
• Total: 211 million

Expectations for the console install base were lowered by one million units.

The figures came from the publisher’s Q2 earnings call.

Activision CEO Mike Griffith just confirmed that Tony Hawk: Ride will only launch in the US, UK and Germany this year.

Other territories will get the peripheral-based game in 2010.

The comments came in the company’s Q2 financial call, which is ongoing.

Activision’s Mike Griffith has just announced that a new Bond game will release in 2010.

No release date or details were announced.

In the same breath, he stated that new Tony Hawk and Spider-Man games were also expected in the next calendar year.

This is in line with the company’s commitment to proven franchises, said the boss.

Mike Griffith said today that CoD4 has now sold close to 14 million units.

This was stated during the company’s Q2 financial call to investors. Griffith said that Modern Warfare 2 has netted more pre-orders than any other game in Activision’s history.

He also went on to discuss the company’s commitment to map packs and other DLC for the CoD franchise.

Activision’s Mike Griffith has said that multiple sections in stores during the holidays will have ActiBlizz kiosks featuring games and demos.

This is to push proven titles and new ones coming out for the year.

The call is on going, so stick with us.

The upgraded Battle.net needs extra development time to be critical to Activision’s vision for the service, according to a mailer just sent our way.

The service will now launch in early 2010. StarCraft II has now been delayed to match its release.

“Our mission is to develop games that deliver an epic entertainment experience,” said Blizzard PR.

“As part of that commitment, we will always take as much time as needed to ensure that our games and services meet the expectations of our players and the standard for quality that we set for ourselves as developers.

“As we work to make Battle.net the premier online gaming destination, we’ll also continue to polish and refine StarCraft II, and we look forward to delivering a real-time strategy gaming experience worthy of the series’ legacy in the first half of 2010.”

Acti Blizz boss Bobby Kotick said tonight that the upcoming Battle.net relaunch will be comparable in scope to Xbox Live.

The service is now confirmed to be launching “early next year.”

“To put Battle.net into context, it will be a service similar to Xbox Live, and it will leverage the technologies, infrastructure and expertise that Blizzard has developed over the last decade in multiplayer play and social networking,” said the exec, speaking in the firm’s Q2 earnings call.

He added: “A true online destination platform, Battle.net will become the foundation for connecting the tens of millions of members of the Blizzard community in a social gaming network across all Blizzard’s future games.

“This will begin with World of Warcraft and StarCraft II.”

StarCraft II has now been delayed into 2010 to match the release of the new Battle.net.

Acti Blizz just beat guidance in the second quarter, bringing in $1.04 billion revenue compared to a $1 billion estimate.

EPS was was $0.15.

The company claimed in its release that it grew quarterly North American and European market share 2.8 points across all platforms to 12.7 percent from 9.9 percent for the previous year, and was the top North American third-party console and handheld publisher for both the quarter and first six months of the calendar year.

Prototype, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the Guitar Hero and Call of Duty franchises, as well as WoW, were singled out as top scores for the period.

The conference call starts in ten minutes.

Acti Blizz just confirmed that StarCraft II will launch in the first half of 2010 “to coincide with the relaunch of its upgraded Battle.net online -gaming service.”

The news Blizzard fans have been dreading to hear came in the company’s just-released Q2 financial report.

“As we prepare for next year, we have moved the expected release dates for two games, Activision Publishing’s Singularity and Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II, into 2010,” said company boss Bobby Kotick.

The firm had previously delayed Singularity into next year last month.

Following the thrill of last night’s EA Q1 earnings release, tonight sees Acti Blizz get in on the action with its Q2 figures announcement and earnings call.

These are numbers for the second quarter of the company’s fiscal 2009. We’ll get the results after NYSE market close tonight.

The call’s scheduled for 1.30pm PST (866-921-6496 or at www.activisionblizzard.com).

That’s 9.30pm BST.

Don’t miss it. Bosses Bobby Kotick and Mike Morhaime are kings of the conference call showboat. Or something,