Activision Posts 92% Revenue Increase In Record Year

Publisher Activision has posted financial results for the fiscal year and fiscal quarter ending March 31, 2008, setting internal records for the company and significantly exceeding analyst expectations. Activision trumpeted its NPD-sourced fourth quarter position as the #1 publisher for console, handheld, and PC games in the United States, based on sales. The company saw a 92 percent surge in annual revenue to $2.9 billion, up from $1.51 billion the previous year. Quarterly revenue saw similar growth, up 93 percent year-over-year to $602.5 million from $312.5 million. Annual profits tripled to $344.9 million from $85.8 year-over-year. Meanwhile, it turned last year's fourth quarter loss of $14.4 million into a strong income of $44.2 million. Said chairman and CEO Bobby Kotick, "Fiscal 2008 was the best year in our history and Q4 was the largest and most profitable non-holiday quarter, even though we did not release any new titles." Analysts had pegged quarterly performance to be much more modest, with estimates around 15 percent growth. Much of the firm's success was a result of Neversoft's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Infinity Ward's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which according to various tracking firms were respectively the #1 and #2 best-selling titles in the United States and Europe during fiscal year 2008. The company's Hollywood tie-ins also proved successful, as Treyarch's Spider-Man 3 and Traveller's Tales' Transformers: The Game were the #1 and #2 best-selling movie titles worldwide during the same period. Going forward, Activision expects $500 million in revenues for its first fiscal quarter, which ends June 30, 2008.