Blizzard has revealed in their latest financial report for Q3 of 2013 that their hugely popular MMO World of Warcraft is still continuing a healthy trend, this time only dropping by 100,000 players to 7.6 million users worldwide compared to previous 7.7 million report.
Activision Blizzard itself reported a total net revenue of $691 million, with the high revenue attributed to sales of Skylanders: Giants and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 - both of which were in the top-five best-selling games for North America and Europe. Bobby Kotick, Chief Executive Officer of Activision Blizzard, said, “Our third-quarter results exceeded our expectations, and we are able to raise our outlook for 2013 net revenues and earnings per share. Robust continued engagement with our core franchises drove digital revenue, which constituted a majority of all revenue. This quarter demonstrates that games like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft engage and entertain our fans year round.”
Other notable additions to the financial report include Blizzard's Diablo 3 now topping 14 million sales worldwide, thanks to its recent console launch on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The action RPG hack 'n' slash is also preparing for a PlayStation 4 launch, which is sure to help boost sales alongside the impending removal of the controversial Auction House due on March 18, 2014.
"We're pleased with the response to the game's launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360," Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said during the conference call. "Lifetime sell through of the game across all platforms has reached over 14 million copies, and reviews have been very positive about how the game plays on consoles."
Activision also revealed some hefty numbers for their most recent dog-infused Call of Duty, stating that retailers spent over $1 billion worldwide to secure Call of Duty: Ghosts stock for launch day. Sadly we have no word yet on how many copies were actually sold, though its to be expected that it may not reach the potential of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5, which is currently sitting at more than 29 million copies sold.
For all the gritty details on Activision Blizzard's earnings find the Q3 2013 financial report
over here, and the full
conference call here. Keep an eye on AusGamers in the next few days as we get closer to Blizzcon 2013, which is sure to have a staggering amount of new information on World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Diablo 3 and Hearthstone.
Posted 10:48am 07/11/13
Posted 11:13am 07/11/13
I'm sorry, what does Blizzard have to do with CoD?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(Blizzard_Entertainment_project)
Posted 11:17am 07/11/13
They have Skylanders now too though, that probably makes them a mint
Posted 12:32pm 07/11/13
It's hard to see this game dieing to be honest. Every time they release an expansion that they get a boost in subscribers and likely make a huge profit purely from the sale of the expansion let alone the added and continued subscribers. Even the F2P revolution hasn't affected them.
Posted 12:50pm 07/11/13
Posted 01:11pm 07/11/13
Let me rephrase.
The Blizzard division of Activision Blizzard(NASDAQ:ATVI) need to come up with a new MMO with monthly subs fast, because World of Warcraft subscribers are steadily declining, a trend that will predictable continue. I also have doubts on how long Activision Blizzard(NASDAQ:ATVI) will be able to flog the Call of Duty franchise at the current rate, they are effectively just selling the same game over and over, which at some point, without major innovation, will fail eventually.
Detailed information on why Call of Duty has a lot to do with Blizzard
Also, from the article you linked too:
"In August 2013, Blizzard president Mike Morhaime stated that the company is in the process of selecting a new direction for the project, and re-envisioning what they want the game to be. He said that the game was "unlikely to be a subscription-based MMORPG","
Posted 08:11pm 07/11/13
Posted 09:18pm 07/11/13
But which is more likely?
I remember seeing a gif online of how disney has done it with a number of movies.
Posted 09:29pm 07/11/13