Activision Reports Revenue, Profit Increase, Slow Start To 2006

Publisher and developer Activision has announced its fourth quarter and fiscal 2005 results, with net revenues for the year ending March 31st an impressive $1,405.9 million, or 48% higher, as compared to $947.7 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004. Net income for the fiscal year was a record $138.3 million, a 78% increase over net income of $77.7 million. Highlights for the publisher included the Call of Duty franchise establishing itself as the best-selling console game franchise based on a new intellectual property, publishing revenues from the handheld platforms growing by 456% or $114 million, and extremely positive sales for the Nintendo DS version of Spider-Man 2 and the Sony PSP version of Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix. However, the January to March 2005 fiscal quarter showed a disappointing net profit of just $3.6 million, compared to a profit for the previous year of $6.7 million. In fact, the company would have slipped into a loss were it not for some significant investment income and income tax credit contributions. Going forward, for the traditionally slow first quarter of the fiscal year 2006, the company expects net revenues of $200 million and a loss per share of $0.03, slightly worse than analyst estimates, but is intending to launch the majority of its top revenue-producing titles later in the year. Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision, Inc, was nonetheless upbeat, commenting: "We entered fiscal 2006 with the largest installed base of video gaming platforms in the industry's history and, we believe, our strongest product release slate ever." Kotick went on to confirm new versions of Activision franchises including Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Shrek, Call of Duty, DOOM, X-Men, True Crime and Quake for the crucial 2005 holiday season, as well as Fantastic Four, Madagascar, The Movies, and one of the most-heralded titles, an original property from Tony Hawk series creator Neversoft, to be unveiled at E3.