Net income was up though at $219m, which is what counts. 2010’s first 6 months has Call of Duty as the top 3rd-party IP, MW2 the top FPS.
Activision was the 2nd third-party publisher for the US market say NPD for those 6 months. Call of Duty was 3rd overall as a franchise in the States, but the number one action franchise and Modern Warfare 2 took the first-person shooter title.
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty helped create a new world record for the fastest selling strategy game ever as it cleared 1.5m copies in the first 48 hours. It slaughtered the competition to take the best selling PC title for 2010 as it topped 1m sales the first 24 hours.
”Our quarterly results were fueled by continued strong consumer response to Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty franchise and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft,” said CEO Bobby Kotick in a statement.
”Looking to the balance of the year, we expect to release the best slate in our company’s history. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is off to a strong start worldwide with midnight openings on July 27, 2010 at 3,100 GameStop stores in the U.S. and 8,000 retailers around the world.”
”We are, of course, enthusiastic about Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which began a closed beta test on June 30.”
”Call of Duty: Black Ops is shaping up to be one of the best games Activision Publishing has ever created, the marketing programs are the biggest in the company’s history and to date, pre-orders of the game exceed the pre-orders for Modern Warfare 2 at this time last year,” continued the head honcho.
”This fall, our lineup includes Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, DJ Hero 2, Tony Hawk: SHRED, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, GoldenEye 007 and Bakugan, all of which look to be very promising as well.”
“We have never been better positioned for the holiday season than we are today with such a strong slate of games and the best team in our industry to bring them to market.” All is rosy in the garden of Activision Blizzard, and in the accountancy department.
