Activision Blizzard Reveal Second Quarter Results

Activision Blizzard’s latest financials for the second quarter of 2010 were made public this evening, and although overall revenue was down by 7% to $967 million from $1.04 billion for the same period last year, their plan to increase digital sales, which was highlighted in previous conference calls, has increased company’s profit margin.
Blizzard is still helping the cash roll in with World of Warcraft, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft Battle Chest, and the Diablo Battle Chest. The continued sales and popularity of Call of Duty Modern Warfare is also helping boost the company’s latest results thanks to the sale of the DLC map packs which many consider to be overpriced.
When the next results come round in a few months time, they should also look healthy with StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty which has already sold 1.5 million+ copies,  Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions all included in the next financial report.
IncGamers’ favourite CEO also commented on the latest figures which you can find after the break.
 “Our quarterly results were fueled by continued strong consumer response to Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty franchise and Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. For the first and second quarters, we outperformed our earnings per share outlook, and we grew our operating margin year over year for the six month period, driven by our focused effort to increase digital revenues. There are clearly more opportunities than ever before to create great games and we are at the forefront of doing so.”

“Looking to the balance of the year, we expect to release the best slate in our company’s history. Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is off to a strong start worldwide with midnight openings on July 27, 2010 at 3,100 GameStop stores in the U.S. and 8,000 retailers around the world. We are, of course, enthusiastic about Blizzard Entertainment’s upcoming release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which began a closed beta test on June 30,”

“Call of Duty: Black Ops(TM) is shaping up to be one of the best games Activision Publishing has ever created, the marketing programs are the biggest in the company’s history and to date, pre-orders of the game exceed the pre-orders for Modern Warfare 2 at this time last year. This fall, our lineup includes Activision Publishing’s Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, DJ Hero 2, Tony Hawk: SHRED, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, GoldenEye 007 and Bakugan, all of which look to be very promising as well. We have never been better positioned for the holiday season than we are today with such a strong slate of games and the best team in our industry to bring them to market.”