Their net revenue pockets bulged $1.3bn. Acti CEO Bobby Kotick also talks about firing Zampella and West for the first time in public.
”We felt we had no choice but to terminate the Infinity Ward executives. There was no gray area, as talented as they might have been,” said Kotick, referring to Infinity Ward’s former top bosses Zampella and West who have now formed Respawn Entertainment.
”There was nothing that would have allowed us to retain them, we did this to protect the company’s assets and the interest of our shareholders.” The pair were fired for ”insubordination” amid allegations of fraternising with rivals like EA.
35 other developer have now also left Infinity “and we wish we could have convinced some of these incredibly talented people to stay,” added Kotick. “The decision to terminate the two executives was not done lightly, and was not done to deprive them of their bonuses.”
“Nor was it done without a great deal of deliberation about the consequences,” he continued. It’s not all bad news over at Infinity as they’re already working on a new Call of Duty which we’ll ”hear more details” about as we ”advance through the year.”
Could this new IW title be Modern Warfare 3? A second map pack will be released by the studio later this year for Modern Warfare 2, of which over 17 million map packs have sold now for the Call of Duty franchise in total.
”Expect additional content for Modern Warfare 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops that will surprise our millions or players,” teased Kotick during the fiscal call. Infinity Ward ”remains an important process” to Call of Duty IP affirms the Activision CEO.
In a move that perhaps counter balances the bad mojo of IW, Activision reiterate that Halo creator Bungie is their new super best friend for 10 years. ”We are excited over the Bungie deal because it will allow consumers to play their content on a broader and more efficient way than ever before,” said Kotick, hinting at multiplatform for their next title.
Whatever their new game project is it’s ”unlike anything audiences have ever seen before,” teases the Acti boss, with over 200 staffers at the developer’s disposal - it will “be creatively satisfying and financially rewarding” for both Activision Blizzard and Bungie.
Acti will cover all Bungie’s development costs revealed COO Thomas Tippl, and that no ”upfront payment” was offered to the Halo developer. This new IP creation will grow Activision’s operating margin year by year apparently.
Their Q1 2010 fiscal results showed a $1.3bn net revenue gain with non-GAAP net revenue at $714M. ”Our better-than-expected first quarter performance was driven by strong global consumer demand for Activision’s Call of Duty and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft,” declared Kotick in the press release.
”Throughout the remainder of the year, we plan to release our strongest video game lineup ever based on some of the industry’s highest quality, profitable franchises.” Among those are the newly announced Guitar Hero 6 due this fall, followed by DJ Hero 2 and then a James Bond title (the racer?) after that.
Blizzard was also on hand at the fiscal chinwag, just reminding us all the major changes coming with World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. The team are updating lower and mid-level game content to be on-par with the mechanics and visuals of the expansions.
Tons of alpha phase shots of Cataclysm have leaked over at MMO Champion. There is still no precise date for the closed beta for Cataclysm. 11 million subscribers remain the magic number for WoW, with Kotick expecting more once the latest add-on launches.
That’s about all the big news there is from Activision’s Q1 2010 - until next time…
Source: VG247
