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Activision Posts 92% Revenue Increase In Record Year

Activision posted its sixteenth year of revenue growth in fiscal year 2008, nearly doubling sales to $2.9 billion, thanks to titles including Guitar Hero III and Call Of Duty 4. It also claimed the #1 publisher slot for the quarter ending Ma

Chris Remo, Blogger

May 8, 2008

1 Min Read
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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.

About the Author

Chris Remo

Blogger

Chris Remo is Gamasutra's Editor at Large. He was a founding editor of gaming culture site Idle Thumbs, and prior to joining the Gamasutra team he served as Editor in Chief of hardcore-oriented consumer gaming site Shacknews.

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