Tag Archives: acti blizz q4 financials

During last night’s Acti Blizz Q4 earnings call, Blizzard COO Paul Sams said that, “Blizzard intends on delivering one frontline release per year. I think you can see in our numbers that that is contemplated.”

Everyone knows that Blizzard is hard at work on Diablo III and StarCraft II along with the oft-teased “unannounced MMO”. Everyone also knows that time constraints are not an issue with the firm, as it’ll only release a game “when it is done”. So what’s coming out from Blizzard in 2009?

“As it relates to what title we’re releasing this year, we’re not prepared to say,” said Sams.

It’s StarCraft II, Paul.

Forgot this last night. Acti Blizz confirmed a new Tony Hawk game for the fourth quarter of this year in its Q4 earnings call yesterday, saying it’s to shake the franchise up with a new gameplay mechanic.

“We said we would reinvent this franchise from the ground up and we have developed a very innovative and interactive approach for Tony,” said president Mike Griffith.

“This should allow us to broaden the appeal of skateboarding beyond the core to mass market audiences and take advantage of this cycle’s dynamics. More details later for competitive reasons.”

Do you reckon it’ll come with a plastic skateboard? Get the rest of the news from the call here.

It’s a jungle out there, Ringo. Thousands of stories. So little time. Let us ease your pain by telling you what happened in Activision Blizzard’s financial call last night in one easy list.

Read the below. Now you know everything. That was simple, wasn’t it?

• Acti Blizz revenues up 26% for 2008, income up 21%
• Acti Blizz – Wii to sell 16 million next year, 360 and PS3 8 million each
• Acti Blizz earnings call – full transcript posted
• Blizzard: StarCraft II beta launching in “the coming months”
• Bizarre racer confirmed for Q4 launch
• Acti Blizz Q4: Music games are huge, new Guitar Hero for DS and consoles in 2009
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 confirmed for Q4
• Racing game and “the next Bond” both in dev at Bizarre Creations
• Kotick: A disciplined strategy won’t include “wholesale layoffs” in 2009
• Acti delays Bond to avoid competition with new Call of Duty

New Wolfenstein to release this summer

Activision president Mike Griffith last night said the firm expects big increased in console sales next year, with large sales rises for both under-the-TV and handheld hardware.

“For calendar year 2009, we expect the installed base of hardware in North America and Europe will be up 8 million units for the PS3 and up 8 million units for the Xbox 360,” he said.

“We expect the Wii to add more than 16 million units.”

DS and PSP will show huge growth, said the exec.

“We expect handhelds will grow in excess of 21 million units.”

The company last night reported revenues of $5 billion for 2008, up 26 percent on the previous year.

Seeking Alpha’s posted up the entire transcript from last night’s Activision Blizzard Q4 earnings call, which should come in handy if you’re confused about the fact that Bizarre Creations is working on two games, and not just a racer.

There’s plenty of stuff in there. Get all our coverage from last night here.

Title says it all, really.

Blizzard COO Paul Sams just said the StarCraft II beta will take place in “the coming months.”

“The beta will be played on a basic version of our new Battle.net architecture, which will give us the opportunity to test the game and the service in a live environment. Over time, we’ll be adding features to deliver a second-generation Battle.net experience.”

Also, more World of Warcraft content is expected for the year, with test realms and updates still using actual players.

Mention was also made of “unannounced MMO” which is still in the “no comment” area.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

Good stuff there.

Acti Blizz has confirmed that Bizarre Creation’s secret racing game – reportedly a James Bond title – will release in the fourth quarter of 2009.

No details were given for competitive reasons.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

A new Guitar Hero DS game is to be expected in 2009, along with another Guitar Hero game for consoles, which Activision said will be announced at a later date.

Guitar Hero as a franchise will receive a "major re-staging" in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company said.

Guitar Hero has an install base of 32 million worldwide, the firm said, and outsold Rock Band four-to-one in the US despite supply constraints.

GH was the number one selling franchise in Europe with a 122 percent increase in holiday sales.

Activison said the genre is generally robust, and consumers will be accommodated by the release of different music genres to its games.

The company expects the music kit game install base to grow by 53 million units in the coming year, and new users to franchise have broadened the demographic and want more variety.

To help the company accomplish their growth in the Guitar Hero franchise, in Europe it will include more Euro bands.

The company said the release of DJ Hero will be innovative and take franchise in new direction.

In addition, a greatest hits compilation will be released, and with Metallica being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, this will help the sales of the upcoming Guitar Hero: Metallica, which is set for a March release. The PS2 version will arrive a bit later on.

Acti Blizz just confirmed that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will release in the fourth quarter of this year.

No details on the Infinity Ward title were given, but an exec said he believed the game will be the most anticipated for the end of 2009.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

Activision Blizzard just confirmed that both a racing game “and the next Bond” are in development at Bizarre Creations in the UK.

A company exec said the racing game, reportedly another James Bond title, will release in 2009.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

Activision Q4 2008 numbers are rolling in. Here’s what we know so far.

• Reported a net loss of $72 million, or 5 cents a share.

• Adjusted revenue was $2.3 billion which was much more than they predicted, and more than $2.15 billion which Wall Street estimated.

• Forecasting  a 2009 adjusted profit of 61 cents per share for adjusted revenue of $4.7 billion for 2009 (includes negative impact of $400 million from a stronger US  dollar).

• Guitar Hero World Tour and Call of Duty: World at War games were the No. 1 and No. 2 console games, respectively, in North America and Europe in the fourth quarter, according to NPD.

• World of Warcraft was the top-selling PC game in those regions 2008.

Call is still on going so more will be announced soon, so stick with us.

(Reuters)

Following the release of fourth quarter financials, Bobby Kotick has said that Activision is not planning on going the layoff route most publishers are suffering at present.

“We won’t be distracted by layoffs and restructuring and things that other companies are going to be distracted with,” Kotick told Reuters in an interview.

“We don’t respond to managing our operating expenses because there’s a financial crisis, we do it all the time.”

Activision reported a net loss of $72 million for Q4 2008.

Update – The press release just went out.

Acti Blizz boss Bobby Kotick just confirmed net revenues for 2008 of $5 billion.

Income for the year was $1.2 billion, said the exec.

Acti Blizz did, however, swing to a net loss for the quarter ending December 31, reporting a net loss of $72 million, or 5 cents a share, compared to earnings of $86 million, or 15 cents a share, for the same period last year.

The company ended the year with more than $3 billion in cash.

“Our solid balance sheet distinguishes us from the competition,” said Kotick, who added the firm is expecting another year of growth in 2009.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.

The full earnings statement has yet to cross the wires, but we’re expecting it any minute.

More soon.

Acti Blizz CFO Thomas Tippl just confirmed that its next James Bond game has been delayed to 2010 so it won’t compete with a new Call of Duty game at the end of 2009.

The news came as part of Activision’s fourth quarter earnings call.