Vivendi Universal Releases Q1 2005 Fiscal Results

Vivendi Universal has released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2005, a three-month period ending March 31st, 2005. The company is made of many divisions which deal with industries as diverse as music, movies, and telecommunications, but part of the report dealt with its Vivendi Universal Games division. Compared to the same period in Q1 2004, revenues were up 47%, with a final income of 113 million Euros ($145 million USD). The high upswing was mainly attributed to the launch of World of WarCraft by the Vivendi-owned Blizzard, which set sales and subscription records for the MMORPG genre. Following successful launches in Korea and Europe during Q1 2005, Vivendi soon plans to launch the game in China as well. Overall, the company's Q1 revenues went up by 7% over Q1 2004, from 4.385 billion Euros ($5.665 billion USD)to 4.761 billion Euros ($6.151 billion USD). The improved quarter led Vivendi Universal to adjust their predicted overall net income for fiscal year 2005 up to 1.8 billion Euros ($2.325 billion USD).