Activision, Inc. today announced record financial results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2004.
Nett revenues for the third quarter were US$680.1 million or 34% higher as compared to $508.5 million for the third quarter of fiscal year 2004. Nett income for the third quarter rose to $97.3 million, a 26% increase, compared with net income of $77.0 million for the previous fiscal third quarter.
For the nine-month period ended December 31, 2004, the company announced record net revenues of $1.2 billion, an increase of 53%, as compared to net revenues of $784.8 million reported for the nine-month period last fiscal year.
The company also increased its outlook for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2005 to $150 million in nett revenues from $128 million, despite moving Id Software's Doom 3 for the Xbox and the PC expansion pack to fiscal 2006. For the fourth quarter, Activision plans to release Spider-Man 2 and Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Remix for the PSP simultaneously with the North American release of the new handheld platform, as well as three titles from LucasArts - Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords, Mercenaries and Star Wars Republic Commando. In addition, Shrek 2 will be first of the company's fiscal 2005 games to enter Sony Computer Entertainment America's "Greatest Hits," Microsoft's "Platinum Family Hits" and Nintendo of America's "Player's Choice" programmes.
Robert Kotick, Chairman and CEO of Activision, Inc., commented, "For the first nine months of fiscal year 2005, nett revenues have already exceeded net revenues in fiscal 2004, resulting in 13 consecutive years of revenue growth for Activision... Our results to date were driven by the release of over 10 one million-unit selling games. Four of these titles sold in excess of two million units. These proven franchises should allow us to continue improving our market position domestically and internationally."
Kotick continued, "In fiscal 2006, we will release the strongest game slate in our history which includes new versions of our top-selling fiscal 2005 franchises - Tony Hawk, Spider-Man, Shrek, Call of Duty, Doom, and X-Men, as well as games based on True Crime, Fantastic Four, Madagascar, Quake, The Movies, and an original new property from Neversoft, the development team behind the Tony Hawk series."
Business highlights include:
- * On January 20, 2005, Activision announced that the company further strengthened its next-generation development capabilities through the acquisition of game developer Vicarious Visions, the creative studio behind the #1 best-selling third-party Nintendo DS title, Spider-Man 2. Vicarious Visions' proven proprietary Alchemy middleware technology and tools will be combined with Activision's next-generation tools and libraries to further enhance the company's overall development efforts.
* For calendar 2004, Activision had a number of top-selling titles:
* Spider-Man 2 was the #1 movie-based game in the U.S., according to NPD Funworld. For the calendar year, the Spider-Man franchise sold more than seven million units worldwide. Spider-Man 2 for the Nintendo DS was the #1 best-selling third-party title for the platform in the U.S. for the calendar year, according to NPD Funworld.
* Tony Hawk's Underground 2 was the #9 best-selling title in the U.S., according to NPD Funworld. The Tony Hawk brand sold more than six million units worldwide in the calendar year.
* The Call of Duty franchise sold more than four and a half million units worldwide in the calendar year and was the best-selling game franchise based on a new intellectual property.
* Shrek 2 was the #1 best-selling children's video game in the U.S., according to NPD Funworld. The Shrek 2 franchise sold more than four million units worldwide in the calendar year.
* According to NPD Techworld, Activision was the fastest growing top-10 U.S. PC publisher for calendar 2004. The company had a 10% PC market share, the highest in its history, and was the only publisher to have three top-10 games for the year - Doom 3, Call of Duty and Rome: Total War.
