Activision Blizzard have announced record first quarter financial results with Call of Duty: Black Ops leading the way and other strong title sales like the pc exclusive mega selling – Starcraft. The publisher also enjoyed increased net revenues from digital channels including DLC which increased by 30% over the previous year. And it comes as now surprise [with all the records set] that Call of Duty: Black Ops became the best-selling game of all time in dollars across the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC in the U.S. and Europe and was also the #1 game in the U.S. and Europe for the quarter.
Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated, “Our record first-quarter performance was driven by digital sales and the continued strength of Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft franchises. Digital content continues to represent a significant portion of our revenues and increased by about $100 million year over year, enabling us to deliver record first-quarter operating margins and earnings per share. The Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike content pack shattered Xbox LIVE launch records, surpassing 1.4 million downloads in the first 24 hours alone,(1) and Blizzard’s Battle.net service continues to grow its service offerings. To date, Call of Duty: Black Ops players have logged more than 1.2 billion online hours of online gameplay.(2)”
Kotick continued, “Interactive entertainment continues to see broader audience appeal and powerful positive trends in online gameplay and online distribution. Our incredibly talented people continue to lead in innovation and we continue to deliver the world’s best games combined with strong financial performance.”
Other highlights include:
- For the first quarter, Activision Blizzard had three top-10 PC titles with Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft: Cataclysm and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty and Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty: Black Ops.
- Total unique online gamers playing Call of Duty: Black Ops were more than 33% greater than the total unique online gamers who played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the first five months after each game’s release.
- During the quarter, digital downloads of the Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike content pack were more than 20% higher than digital downloads of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Pack during the comparable period in 2010.
- Since Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike launched on February 1, players have spent an average of 58 minutes per day playing online, exceeding the 55 minutes the average user spends per day on Facebook.
