Vivendi Results Bolstered By WoW Success

Officials from French-headquartered media giant Vivendi, which includes music and mobile phone divisions alongside its Vivendi Games division, have released details of the company’s third quarter financial results, which again were significantly helped by the strong performance of World of Warcraft. The company as a whole reported €4.889 billion ($6.3 billion) in revenue for the quarter ended September 30, a slight 0.3 percent increase from the €4.874 billion ($6.25 billion) reported during the same period in 2005. As has been the case since the game’s debut, the popularity of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft figured prominently in Vivendi's quarterly performance. On its own, Vivendi Games recorded revenues of €182 million ($233.6 million), up 15.2 percent from the prior year, making the division among the most lucrative for the company. According to Vivendi, the increase was driven mostly by the continued success of World of Warcraft on a global scale, with other recent releases such as Scarface: The World Is Yours also contributing to the company's bottom line. For the whole of the year through the end of the third quarter, Vivendi Games’ revenues amounted to €478 million ($613.4 million), a 20.7 percent jump from the same nine months in 2005. Again, the company noted that this was largely based on sales of Blizzard's popular MMORPG, with the aforementioned Scarface as well as Ice Age 2 and 50 Cent: Bulletproof also proving successful.