Reporting their financial results for the quarter ending June 30, 2014, Activision Blizzard has reported net revenues of $970 million, which beat expectations, but is down from the $1.05 billion they saw during the same quarter last year. As well, they company reports digital sales represented 49% of the company’s total revenues during the quarter.
For some highlights from their report, Activision’s Call of Duty: Ghosts is still the “#1 best-selling game on the next-generation consoles in North America and Europe combined.” Skylanders SWAP Force also impressed, with combined North American and European sales for the first six months of 2014 making it the “#2 best-selling console and handheld game overall in dollars, and in North America, Skylanders SWAP Force outsold the #1 action figure line.”
Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick spoke about the results:
Our better-than expected performance was driven by continued strong digital sales from Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft, Diablo III: Reaper of Souls and Blizzard Entertainment’s newest franchise, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, which recently launched on the iPad and continues to be well received by audiences around the world, as well as digital sales from Activision Publishing’s Call of Duty. Based on our results, we are raising our full-year outlook and we expect to grow our non-GAAP revenues year-over-year and deliver record non-GAAP earnings per share for the full year.
Over the next few months we expect to release some of the very best games in our company’s history. Blizzard Entertainment plans to launch World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, the newest expansion in the epic franchise, which more than 1.5 million Western subscribers have already pre-purchased and Activision Publishing expects to release Destiny, which we believe will be the largest new intellectual property launch in video game history, as well as Skylanders Trap Team and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
Today, we have more opportunities to create great content using new platforms and business models while also expanding into new geographies, and are embracing all of these growth opportunities with the same commitment to excellence that we have demonstrated over the past 23 years. As the world’s largest and most profitable independent interactive entertainment company, we remain focused on creating the most compelling, engaging games for our dedicated audiences and providing superior returns for our shareholders.
Looking ahead to the near future, Activision Blizzard has Diablo III: Reaper of Souls – Ultimate Evil Edition out later this month on PS4, Xbox One, PS3, and Xbox 360 (Diablo III itself is already over 20 million units sold on all platforms), while Destiny, which launches on September 9, is still tracking towards an industry record for amount of pre-orders on a new IP.
