WoW Pushes Vivendi Games Q2 Sales Up 29 Percent

Paris-based Vivendi Games have announced that its Q2 sales have risen 29% to 209 million euros ($288.8 million) based on the strong momentum of smash hit MMO World of Warcraft and its most recent Burning Crusade expansion. Blizzard has recently announced that the game has reached a new milestone and is currently operating with a subscriber base of 9 million players. Vivendi notes that one month after the Burning Crusade expansion was released it had sold a one-month record 3.5 million copies in North America and Europe, with sales further boosted with its subsequent release in Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In February, Blizzard announced that it had signed a deal with Chinese online game publisher The9 for the operation of The Burning Crusade in mainland China, after months of speculation over the deal. Vivendi notes that preparations are still underway for the launch. For the first half of 2007, Vivendi Games' has seen sales 500 million euros ($691 million), up 68.9 percent from 2006. Along with its various other divisions, parent company Vivendi saw total sales of 5,203 million euros ($7.19 billion), up 7.4 percent from last year, and half year sales of 10,223 million ($14.1 billion), up 6.4 percent.