Tweet
$3.4 billion in cash, no debt.
Activision reported earnings for the third quarter of its current fiscal year today, bringing in $841 million in net revenue, including digital revenue of $427 million. The quarter beat estimates, rising 20% compared to last year, and Activision said it’s broken records for the first nine months of the calendar year. Activision CFO Dennis Durkin noted that as of September 30th (when the quarter ended), Activision “had no debt and $3.4 billion in cash and investments."
Particular highlights were the Skylanders franchise -- which has brought in more than $500 million in sales to date -- and Diablo III, which has been sold more than 10 million times. Activision also reiterated that World of Warcraft has more than 10 million subscribers and remains the world’s biggest MMO thanks to 2.7 million copies of Mists of Pandaria sold in its first week. Activision did note that it expects a decline next year, with CEO Bobby Kotick commenting “as we look to calendar 2013, we remain cautious in light of a challenging worldwide macroeconomic environment, the ongoing console transition and difficult year-over-year comparables as a result of Blizzard's record-shattering success with Diablo III in 2012.”
Looking ahead, Activision revised its expected earnings for the full 2012 calendar year from $4.3 billion to $4.57 billion, pointing to the potentially record-breaking launch of Call of Duty: Black Ops II and the continued success of both Skylanders and Diablo. Activision also hinted at content set to come next year and beyond, with Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm scheduled for the first half of 2013 and the news that Diablo III will receive an expansion.
Next-gen consoles were also brought up many times by investors, and Kotick noted “we can't really talk too much about next generation console plans, but I think it's safe to say you have a Wii U coming out and there will be another new console coming and we expect that they'll be very successful.” He added that “we always evaluate all platforms with an eye towards being able to create the most compelling differentiated content. And whether it's Facebook as a platform or tablets or mobile devices platforms, once we think that we can put our best creative foot forward and we can deliver something that's compelling and engaging and meaningfully different and really capitalize on the capabilities of a new platform, we'll support it.”
In addition to Black Ops II, Activision’s upcoming release slate includes Transformers Prime for Wii U in November as well as The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct and Deadpool in 2013.
