NEWS - Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Activision Reports Record Sales
Activision announced today its results for the first quarter of its 2005 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Revenue for the Santa Monica, California-based company topped $211.3 million, compared to $158.7 million during the same period last year. Net income was $12 million, an increase of $7.8 million. Most of the success is attributed to the publisher's Shrek 2 and Spider-Man 2 games. The two shipped more than 5 million units combined, and were the best-selling titles of May and June, respectively. Activision also indicated that the release of the PC version of True Crime: Streets of LA also boosted sales. Ironically, Activision only picked up the Shrek license last December, following the purchase of former rights-holder, TDK Mediactive, by Take-Two Interactive. The numbers in today's release come from before the July 14 announcement that Doom 3 had gone gold. The long-awaited PC title is expected to drive the company's revenue through the second quarter, with some reports saying it is already Activision's best-selling PC title ever. As for the Xbox version of Doom 3, Activision executives told analyst in a post-announcement conference call they are listing the game as a December 2004 release "for modeling purposes only." They said ultimately, though, the decision to release the Xbox Doom 3 will fall to id Software, who is supervising Vicarious Visions' development of the console version. Activision expects revenue for its second 2005 fiscal quarter (calendar Q3 2004) to be $254 million, to increase even further to $515 million during its third fiscal quarter (calendar Q4 2004), which includes the holiday season. Besides Doom 3, the company hopes that its forthcoming games Rome: Total War, Call of Duty: United Offensive, X-Men Legends, and the movie tie-in Shark Tale will be the big money makers over the next two quarters.Source: http://www.gamespot.com
