Thanks to "strong performance" from industry staples like Activision Publishing's Call of Duty franchise and Blizzard Entertainment's perennial MMO World of Warcraft and a stellar launch for Blizz's long-anticipated sequel StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, Activision Blizzard exceeded its prior third-quarter outlook of $600 million with net revenues of $745 million in the period ending September 30, 2010. Compare that to net revenues of $703 million for the same period last year. It also reported profits of $51 million for the quarter versus $15 million for the same period last year.
"For the third quarter, we exceeded our net revenues and earnings per share outlook and delivered strong year-over-year growth," Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick explained. "Activision Publishing is about to introduce what is likely to be the biggest entertainment launch of the year with Call of Duty: Black Ops, followed by Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which we believe will deliver an incredible breadth of new content to the world's largest massively multiplayer online role playing game community." That's another way of saying, "If you think these Q3 numbers are great, wait until you see next quarter!"
And with Q4 capping off Activision Blizzard's fiscal (and calendar) year, Kotick notes that things are looking better than ever for ol' Actiblizzard. "As a result of our over-performance, we are raising our calendar year 2010 net revenue and earnings outlook. We expect to deliver the most profitable year in our history with record operating margins." Specifically the publishing giant is raising its outlook for net revenues from $4.18 billion to $4.28 billion - shareholders should like the sound of that. Gamers will just enjoy Black Ops and Cataclysm. And gamers who are also shareholders can use some of that money to pay for the games you just bought. Investing!
#halloween
Starcraft II developers Blizzard held a little competition over the Halloween weekend to see which of their fans could come up with the best pumpkin carving. To say this guy "won" would be selling his achievement short. More »
#screengrab
The Zerg and Protoss player base uses Comedy Central's Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear as a platform to bring sanity to StarCraft II multiplayer. He'll get to it, guys, just like getting Arrested Development back on TV. Thanks, Jordan! More »
#screengrab
Who would have thought that, beneath their constant chatter and from within their cable-infested coccoons, all Starcraft's Adjutants ever wanted to do was dance. More »
#blizzcon
Building bases, managing resources, and fielding an army; these are things I cannot do. Matching three or more gems together? Welcome to my world, StarCraft players. More »
#blizzcon
Aiur Chef? Left 2 Die? StarJeweled? Blizzard DOTA? What's going on with the four new official game modes coming to StarCraft 2? These four visual guides will give you the skinny. More »
#blizzcon2010
StarCraft II players will get four officially sanctioned mods for the real-time strategy title created by Blizzard, new map types that turn the sci-fi war game into a Bejeweled-like puzzler, a co-op survival game and a DotA-style multiplayer scenario. More »
#starcraft
Remember those 5000 people Blizzard busted for cheating in Starcraft II? Well the developer is going after those responsible with a vengeance, taking three men to court for creating the hacks those users employed. More »
#iphone
In August we told you about an app that would let StarCraft II players control the game using their iPhone or iPad. Now we're showing it to you. More »
#starcraft
Starcraft II has been updated for the second time in a month with Blizzard again venturing under the game's hood with a spanner and thing-a-me-jig to make changes to cooldowns, build times and energy levels. More »
#blizzard
Blizzard has released statistics showing how popular each of Starcraft II's three races are amongst the game's multiplayer users. And it's the poor Zerg coming in last. More »
#rumor
It's fine to take drastic action against somebody cheating in multiplayer. Those people are scum. But what happens when people begin to be banned for bending the rules of a game's singleplayer component? More »
#blizzard
Blizzard fans are a patient lot, so the gap between StarCraft II's future episodes focusing on the Zerg and Protoss races should be easy going. It's only going to be about 18 more months before we see the next one. More »
#activision
If Activision stripped all of the cutscenes from StarCraft II, pasted them together into one big movie and charged between 20 to 30 dollars for you to buy it, would you pay? Activision's Bobby Kotick thinks you would. More »
not for 20-30 bucks but maybe if it was cheaper and it flowed like a movie, not like a bunch of cutscene clips back to back.
#blizzard
StarCraft II players using unauthorized hacks and modifications to get a leg up on the competition might want to give fair play a try, as a Blizzard statement indicates the end of the line is in sight for cheaters. More »
