Activision Q4 sales up 80% to $1.48 billion

by Ludwig Kietzmann { Feb 8th 2008 at 5:00AM }

One of the nice things about being the top US publisher in a booming game industry is that it affords you the privilege of announcing record holiday sales. Activision's third fiscal quarter, stretching from October to December 2007, saw the publisher's sales increase by 80% over the year prior to $1.48 billion, with profits amounting to $272.2 million. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare are the key titles to praise if you're Activision and blame if you're a consumer wondering where all your hard-earned money went.

Activision anticipates a further $350 million in sales to originate from its fourth fiscal quarter (ending in March), ultimately contributing to a projected $2.65 billion for the entire fiscal year 2008. As long as shootin' and shreddin' remain popular and the upcoming Vivendi merger stays on track, we don't expect to put "bankrupt" and "Activision" in the same sentence for a very long time. Well, not unless one those words is preceded by "creatively."

Tags: Activision, BreakingNews, Call-of-Duty-4, CallofDuty4, COD4, Financial-Results, Guitar-Hero, GuitarHero, GuitarHeroIII

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ill trooper @ Feb 8th 2008 5:27AM

"IT DEVELOPS MONEY!!!"

BananaBoat @ Feb 8th 2008 5:55AM

I'm a little bit disappointed that despite COD4's success, the company behind COD3 is making COD5. Does that not seem insane to anyone else?

Then again, Guitar Hero prints money, and will continue to print money until Rock Band comes out in a guitar only configuration that can compete at the same price level.

Either way, they are the only people saving us from EA, so viva la activision.

Kendall B @ Feb 8th 2008 9:53AM

It seems insane, yes. But Activision wants that IP out every year, and Treyarch making a (presumably) throwaway game gives Infinity Ward time to polish their next version.

I don't have a problem with it, but then I probably won't be buying 5 either unless Treyarch just absolutely surprises me. I'm going to venture a guess and say that CoD4 will still be played more online.

But again, I'm basing my assumptions from my experiences playing CoD3.

spoo @ Feb 8th 2008 10:24AM

What's the big deal? Like many others I bought CoD2, skipped CoD3 and bought CoD4.

skullivan @ Feb 8th 2008 5:28PM

They're not insane, they're a business. Having a Treyarch developed COD this year and an IW COD next year means more money than just an IW one next year. That was the whole reason Treyarch did COD3 to begin with.

IW will develop COD: Modern Warfare 2 in 2009. The new Call of Duty isn't going to be called Call of Duty 5, it'll have a subtitle like the old PS2 games Treyarch developed.

Modern Warfare will then be a separate series from the WWII games. This way they can keep COD an annual franchise.