Activision Q1 2011: $1.4 billion

By Robert Purchese Published 10 May, 2011

Black Ops First Strike passes 3 million.

Activision Blizzard amassed a (net revenue) fortune of $1.4 billion during January, February and March this year.

It's a record take for the world's biggest publisher, which took $1.3 billion in the same period in 2010. Rubbish.

Can you guess the games that made it possible? Yes it's Call of Duty: Black Ops and World of Warcraft.

Black Ops became the best selling video game (in dollars) of all time during that quarter. And the First Strike map pack - released 1st February on Xbox 360, 3rd March on PS3 and 25th March on PC - did serious business. First Strike was downloaded 20 per cent more than the Stimulus Pack for Modern Warfare 2 "during the comparable period in 2010". Take 20 per cent of the one-week Stimulus Pack tally of 2.5 million sales and you get a figure of 500,000, meaning First Strike has sold at least three million units.

First Strike also prompted a rise in average Black Ops play time to 58 minutes per day. That's even higher than Facebook commands at 55 minutes per day.

Meanwhile, World of Warcraft (fuelled by the December 2010 release of expansion pack Cataclysm) commanded $395 million in 'online subscriptions' during January, February and March. Note that 'online subscriptions' to Activision Blizzard encompasses "subscriptions, boxed products, expansion packs, licensing royalties and value-added services".

Activision Blizzard's digital business accounted for 30 per cent of the total calendar Q1 take.

"Digital content continues to represent a significant portion of our revenues and increased by about $100 million year over year," commented Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick, who said Black Ops players have now accrued more than 1.2 billion hours of online gameplay.

Looking ahead to this year, Activision Blizzard noted the Escalation Pack for Black Ops, film game Transformers: Dark of the Moon and telly spin-off Kinect game Wipeout in the Zone. Looking further ahead, Activision Blizzard mentioned the new "next-generation MMO" (codenamed Titan) by Blizzard; a micro-transaction Call of Duty game for China; "a best-in-class digital platform surrounding the Call of Duty franchise"; a new game by Bungie; and Skylander's Spyro's Adventure - "an innovative new universe bringing the world of toys, video games and the internet together in an unprecedented way".

In a conference call following the report, Activision announced "unprecedented online" features for the new Call of Duty game, a date for the external Diablo III beta and a new James Bond game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops - First Strike.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • dupplawt #1 1 year ago

    Hoo-fucking-rah.

  • Physically_Insane #2 1 year ago

    EG, are you doing this on purpose? Please stop with the amount of CoD articles. I know it's a popular game, but I"m sick and tired of them all getting overrun by Battlefield elitists saying the same shit over and over again. At least ban the comments.

  • karooo #3 1 year ago

    Activision is going to die anytime soon now, I know it.

    /cryingbaby.jpg

  • slickster #4 1 year ago

    Thats because i got a copy of black ops last year lol.but not this year for me its all about battlefield 3 and skyrim this year.plus dont forget uncharted 3 to :o)

  • Eraysor #5 1 year ago

    You didn't mention the fact that WoW has lost 600k subscribers! It's on the way out...

  • mr2ange #6 1 year ago

    @Eraysor

    Thankgod for that, maybe the economy can start growing again, after the lazy fucks get back to work rather than being power elves in mums basement.

  • RexRunti #7 1 year ago

    Activision Blizzard should just change their name to Call Of Duty Blizzard.

  • WinterSnowblind #8 1 year ago

    @Physically_Insane
    It's karma for you CoD guys doing the same thing to Halo a few years back. Now you will never be able to have a discussion about CoD, without someone coming in and telling you how it sucks because it's not like another game.

  • sargeant_samporridge #9 1 year ago

    And that idiot kotic still believes that £40 is to little for there games, cowboy

  • hippyjump #10 1 year ago

    I hate everything about them apart from Blizzard.

  • cianchristopher #11 1 year ago

    I hate Call of Duty, it's the WORST GAME IN THE WORLD

    I love Battlefield, it's the BEST GAME EVER

    Call of Duty is for retards, Battlefield is for geniuses
    Call of Duty is shit, Battlefield is amazing
    Call of Duty is shallow, Battlefield is deep
    Call of Duty is red, Battlefield is green
    Call of Duty is a girl, Battlefield is a boy
    Call of Duty is down, Battlefield is up
    Call of Duty is West, Battlefield is East
    Call of Duty for chavs, Battlefield is for toffs
    etc.
    etc.
    etc.

  • t8yman #12 1 year ago

    be interesting to see how big the drop off is between the first strike map pack and the recently released one...

  • gamefan #13 1 year ago

    Really wish games journalists studied business.

    The NET PROFIT after tax is $503 Million. Revenue is income received BEFORE Costs and Taxes are deducted.

    So whilst the Net Profit and Return on Sales is still great they have not "massed a (net revenue) fortune of $1.4 billion"

  • Jonny5Alive7 #14 1 year ago

    I bought the first map pack but not the second. I usually find I get totally addicted to COD when its released, then by about Feb\Mar I've overplayed it and don't play much after that.

  • Xboxfanuk #15 1 year ago

    You know what would be very cool, is if Microsoft could negotiate to have Blizzard sell WoW on Games on Demand as a live product and add achievements. Could you imagine the look on people's faces with WoW on their gamertag and achievements. Would rock.

  • wizlon #16 1 year ago

    I've got no problem with COD selling really well and Activision taking advantage of that, the thing that does concern me is what Activision are doing with the profits. What is Kotik Planning? Because I wouldn't be suprised if one day I went out at night to see Bobbys face permanently laser etched on the moon.

  • abdo #17 1 year ago

    I hope they choke on it.

  • 32768Colours #18 1 year ago

    It's great that Activision are doing well.

    I hope they continue to make an absolute fortune off the back of just two franchises because in the meantime its really helping to encourage the rest of the industry to try new and exciting ideas.

    Ah hang on a minute... :\

  • Tiago_Bull #19 1 year ago

    COD rules baby, thats what im talkin about

  • IkariW #20 1 year ago

    "Quick, lets get rid of another developer instead of using the massive amounts of money we make to keep them in business!"

    Quite Bizarre.... ahem.

    Sometimes, I do think that Activision actively seek out rivals... buy them... make it look like they are working with them, then start to give them stupid time frames, or rubbish game franchises, so sales will be low and they have an excuse to get rid of the studio entirely, thus removing some of the comptition to their 'Top selling' franchises, making them sell more.

    Or maybe I'm just very jaded, I'm sure its not just Activision doing that!;)
    Edited by IkariW at 10/05/11 @ 14:33

  • Viz1 #21 1 year ago

    Wish they would sell

  • Viz1 #22 1 year ago

    Wish they would sell the zombie packs separate now theirs a decent game..

  • Happyhammer7 #23 1 year ago

    Not bad for a company that everyone hates.

  • NHDavid #24 1 year ago

    Battlefield is the BEST!!!!!!........COD sucks huge balls and is for chavs and tossers.......
    Edited by NHDavid at 10/05/11 @ 19:46