The latest financials are in from gaming’s two biggest names, with results generally positive for both Activision and EA. Digital revenue grew strongly for both companies, showing an increasing trend towards digital sales over brick-and-mortar releases.

Activision reported that World of Warcraft subscriptions were down to 8.3 million, having lost 1.3 million across the Asian market. However, even at 8.3 million World of Warcraft is still the strongest subscription MMO on the market. Heart of the Swarm was the number one PC gaming for Q4 with 1.1 million copies sold in just two days, and Skylanders Giants and Black Ops 2 were the number one and two games in North America and Europe combined.

Meanwhile over at EA, SimCity has shifted over 1.6 million units with “nearly 50% of those sales were high-margin digital downloads”. Dead Space 3 and Crysis 3 sales came in “below expectations”, but FIFA 13 sold 14.5 million units this financial year and produced digital revenue up 94% over its last installment.

Battlefield Premium subscriptions are now at 3.5 million, and have generated over $120 million in revenue for the company.

Source: VG247, here and here

In an interview with the New York Times, Activision head Bobby Kotick has revealed one of the inadvertent dangers of being the subject of so much gamer ire: it can make it hard to get a date.

“Think about what it’s like for my dating life when the first picture that comes up is me as the Devil,” says the recently divorced Kotick to the Times. “You see all this chatter and you realize that they game the search results. These super-sophisticated 19-year-olds are smarter than our expensive P.R. firm.”

In the same interview, Kotick also demonstrates his lack of remorse over the Infinity Ward saga. “You find out two executives are planning to break their contracts, keep the money you gave them and steal 40 employees,” he said. “What do you do? You fire them.”

Source: NY Times via Kotaku

An investor earnings call for gaming giant Activision-Blizzard overnight revealed a company in strong financial shape, off the back of good Diablo III sales and record-breaking Black Ops II pre-orders. The company turned a $226 million profit for the last quarter, up over $148 million this time last year, and attributed a full 51% of that to digital revenue streams.

Blizzard’s figures are good: Diablo III has moved well over 10 million copies, and World of Warcraft subs have risen again above the 10 million mark. The company also confirmed that Heart of the Swarm is well on track for a first-half of 2013 release, and Blizzard All-Stars is continued to shape-up well in internal testing. Mike Morhaime confirmed that an expansion for Diablo III was being looked into, but had nothing to offer in terms of timing or information.

Meanwhile on the Activision side of the fence, Skylanders Spyro Adventure is the single best-selling console game in North America and Europe for the first nine months of 2012, which is a staggeringly impressive feat and has earned the company a similarly impressive amount of dollars. Black Ops 2 is also tracking well, with pre-orders well ahead of Modern Warfare 3.

Source: VG247

Much like it’s popular to blame EA for things you don’t like about BioWare, it’s long been popular to shift the blame to Activision when Blizzard make an unpopular move. Blizzard have had enough of that though, and spoke out overnight on a Reddit AMA thread about World of Warcraft.

Director Tom Chilton was asked: “”As the people designing the game, do you feel there has been a change in how things are done since the merger [between Blizzard and Activision], either within game development or the company in general?”

He responded unequivocally. “I’ll come out and say it. Activision gets an unfair reputation among our players for this, as does Bobby Kotick. We do demos for the Activision executive team about twice per year (sometimes only once). They ask intelligent questions about why we’re doing what we’re doing, but at no point have any mandates (or even “suggestions”) about the game’s design been issued.”

Slammin’.

Source: PCGamesN

Although free-to-play isn’t a term we associate with such a bastion of traditional publishing models, Activision does have a freemium offering, to whit: one Call of Duty Online, a China-only affair. During the publisher’s recent quarterly financial report, one investor asked, quite sensibly, if Activision is ever going to jump on board the F2P train anywhere else. Publishing boss Eric Hirshberg had the following response:

“I think we look at the Call of Duty Online game in China on its own merit as a great opportunity. That’s not to say that we won’t gain learnings about how it works in the micro-transaction-based format for the game. And there are a few other regions where that would be very relevant. So — but we certainly are not ready to announce any plans in that regard.”

So: not yet, but probably. It takes a long time to turn a boat that big.

Source: Activision IR

Activision-Blizzard overnight released their latest financial report for Q2 of this calendar year, with revenue coming in above expected levels (although still 45% down from this time last year) and Diablo III showing strong performance at 10 million copies sold.

Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure continues to sell like tiny hotcakes as well, being the best-selling console and handheld game for the first six months of 2012. Bad news for World of Warcraft though, as the company announced that subscriptions have now dropped to 9.1 million, a loss of another one million subscribers since the last data released in Q3 of 2011.

Source: VG247

A new report by Bloomberg suggests that Vivendi may be struggling to find a buyer for their 61 percent stake in Activision-Blizzard. At a recent conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, the Vivendi chairman Jean-Rene Fourtou admitted the sale was a “possibility” – but sources within Microsoft, Take-Two and Walt Disney are apparently not too keen on the idea, despite reports just days earlier. If a private buyer cannot be found, Vivendi may have to sell their shares publicly, which Bloomberg speculates will lead to a falling of Activision-Blizzard share prices as demand for the stock is low. Faced with uncertain times ahead, Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick brushed off speculation when asked about a sale, commenting instead that it was “great weather”.

Source: Bloomberg

We reported at the beginning of the month that Vivendi were selling their majority share in Activision Blizzard. Now, a couple of weeks on, the feelers have been sent out, the buyers piqued, and there are a few parties that are potential candidates for the purchase of all or some of this delicious money-pie. Among them, Microsoft, Time Warner, and China’s Tencent. “It’s nothing official yet, but they’ve asked a bank to go and talk to possible buyers for Activision,” a source close to the Vivendi higher-ups has been quoted as saying.

Source: VG247

Ever wanted to own a majority share in a multinational conglomerate? Your chance may be coming! According to Bloomberg, there are rumours that Vivendi will be selling its 61% majority stake in Activision Blizzard for around $8.1 billion. So if you have that cash lying around, Vivendi will be looking for buyers, or will sell the shares on the open market if a buyer doesn’t surface.

Source: VG247

Vivendi aren’t a name that we bandy around a lot in gaming circles, but they’re a huge stakeholder in the international media business, claiming ownership to other companies like the Universal Music Group. They also, more to the point, are considering selling off their 61% stake in Activision Blizzard as part of a company restructure. The potential buyers are being kept private, but discussions are apparently set to take place at a June 22 meeting.

Source: Bloomberg

Games journalists everywhere were devastated to hear that the court case of Activision vs. West/Zampella had been resolved with a confidential settlement early on Friday morning, denying us all of much needed legal drama. Naturally, however, EA chimed in on the matter: “Activision’s refusal to pay their talent and attempt to blame EA were absurd. This settlement is a vindication of Vince and Jason, and the right of creative artists to collect the rewards due for their hard work.” West and Zampella at least are pleased to have the matter behind them, commenting only to say that they would be getting right back to work.

Source: VG247