E dopo Rock Band, bye bye a Guitar Hero

[Turrican3]

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Feb. 9, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) today announced financial results for the calendar year and quarter ending December 31, 2010.  Activision Blizzard reports results on both a GAAP and a non-GAAP basis.  A reconciliation of the company's GAAP and non-GAAP results can be found in the attached tables.

For calendar year 2010, Activision Blizzard's GAAP net revenues increased to $4.45 billion, as compared with $4.28 billion for 2009.  On a non-GAAP basis, the company's net revenues were $4.80 billion, as compared with $4.78 billion for 2009.   Revenues from digital channels for the calendar year were more than $1.5 billion, an increase of more than 20% year over year.

For calendar year 2010, Activision Blizzard's GAAP earnings per diluted share increased to $0.33, as compared with $0.09 per diluted share for 2009.  The 2010 results include a $0.16 per share non-cash reduction in the valuation of intangible assets reflecting weaker retail sales in the casual and music genres, while the 2009 results included a similar non-cash charge of $0.19 per share.  On a non-GAAP basis, the company's earnings per diluted share grew 14.5% to $0.79, as compared with $0.69 per diluted share for 2009.

[...]

Robert Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, stated, "Because of focus and disciplined execution, 2010 was another extraordinary year for Activision Blizzard.  We made some of the best games we have ever made in over 30 years of being in the interactive entertainment business.  We benefited from new content releases for two of the world's most successful online entertainment franchises:  Activision Publishing's Call of Duty®: Black Ops and Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft®: Cataclysm™, a new installment in the world's largest subscription-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game.  During the year, we grew our net revenues, delivered record earnings, achieved record GAAP and non-GAAP operating margins of 11% and 29%, respectively, and generated $1.4 billion in operating cash flow."

Kotick added, "Activision Blizzard's key franchises have larger audience bases than ever before and we continue to see significantly enhanced user activity and engagement for our expanding online communities.   Our revenues from digital channels, which now account for over 30% of our overall revenues, were driven by increased sales of Activision Publishing's Call of Duty map packs and value-added services for Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.  Blizzard significantly evolved its direct digital distribution capabilities with the launch of its new Battle.net® service and saw players embrace its service offerings in record numbers.  Notably, since Call of Duty: Black Ops was launched in November players have spent an average of 52 minutes per day playing online, roughly equivalent to the 55 minutes that the average user spends each day on Facebook.(1)  As of February 2, 2011, more than 27 million gamers have played Call of Duty games online, logging more than 2 billion hours, or the equivalent of more than 229,000 years of gameplay.(2)" 

Kotick concluded, "Online gaming continues to broaden its appeal.  Our shareholders continue to be well positioned to benefit from these trends and the focus of our incredibly talented employees around the world continues to allow us to lead our industry.  We expect to continue to drive long-term growth, increase our return on invested capital and generate strong cash flow as we have over the last few years.  Our strong balance sheet affords us the financial flexibility to invest in games that few companies have the ability to create and allows us to provide our shareholders with value through dividends and share repurchases."

Business Highlights

    * Activision Blizzard was the #1 publisher overall in North America and Europe for the calendar year.(3)
    * Activision Blizzard was the #1 publisher in North America on the Xbox® 360, PlayStation® 3 and PC collectively for the calendar year.(4)
    * Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which was launched on December 7, 2010, sold through more than 3.3 million copies worldwide during its first 24 hours of release, making it the fastest-selling PC game of all time.  It continued to sell through more than 4.7 million copies in its first month.(5)
    * As of December 31, 2010, more than 12 million gamers worldwide are subscribed to play Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.(6)
    * For the December quarter, in North America and Europe, Call of Duty: Black Ops was the #1 best-selling console title in dollars ever during a single quarter and the Call of Duty franchise was the #1 franchise overall.(3)
    * In November 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops became the first video game ever to surpass $650 million in retail sales in its first five days of release.(2)  To date, the game has achieved more than $1 billion in retail sales worldwide.(3)
    * As of January 31, 2011, total unique gamers playing Activision Publishing's Call of Duty: Black Ops increased by more than 49% over the number of total unique gamers that played Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® for the first three months after each game's release.(7)
    * On February 1, 2011, Activision Publishing released Call of Duty: Black Ops First Strike, the first add-on pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, on Xbox LIVE®.   The map pack set new Xbox LIVE records with more than 1.4 million downloads in the first 24 hours, an increase of more than 25% over last year's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package.(7) The map pack also will be available on the PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system on March 3, 2011 and on the PC later in the quarter.


Company Outlook

Activision Blizzard will continue to invest its capital and resources in the significant opportunities afforded by online gaming worldwide and will reduce its exposure to low-margin and low-potential businesses.  In 2011, the company will allocate the majority of its resources and focus toward opportunities which we expect will afford us the greatest competitive advantages and the greatest potential for best-in-class quality, high-margin digital growth, and long-term success.  These opportunities include Blizzard Entertainment's games currently in development, robust investment in forthcoming Call of Duty titles, the development of a best-in-class digital community surrounding the Call of Duty franchise, a new property from Bungie and an innovative new universe with broad appeal that will be revealed at Toy Fair later this week and will bring the world of toys, video games and the Internet together in an unprecedented way.  These investments should better position Activision Blizzard for long-term growth and enable it to continue expanding its position as the largest digital publisher.

At the same time, due to continued declines in the music genre, the company will disband Activision Publishing's Guitar Hero business unit and discontinue development on its Guitar Hero game for 2011.  The company also will stop development on True Crime: Hong Kong™.  These decisions are based on the desire to focus on the greatest opportunities that the company currently has to create the world's best interactive entertainment experiences.

[...]

http://investor.activision.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=548900

Dopo i risultati disastrosi di RockBand che hanno portato alla vendita di Harmonix da parte di Viacom arriva oggi la notizia della dismissione della business unit Guitar Hero all'interno di Activision Publishing, con la relativa cancellazione della nuova versione del gioco che era in lavorazione per quest'anno.

Nel complesso la ristrutturazione dell'azienda porterà alla perdita di 500 posti di lavoro:

http://www.develop-online.net/news/36989/500-jobs-go-in-Activision-restructuring


Tra le altre notizie che giungono dalla press release, la cancellazione di True Crime: Hong Kong e l'intensificazione degli sforzi sul franchise Call of Duty nonchè su quello attualmente in lavorazione presso Bungie. Inoltre è previsto in tempi brevissimi l'annuncio di un nuovo prodotto in grado di unire assieme l'universo di giocattoli, videogames ed Internet in maniera innovativa.

[Frozzo]

Da un lato posso comprendere che una serie in declino venga accantonata, magari per riprenderla tra qualche anno o per reinventarla.
Dall'altro lato mi nausea e mi disgusta una industria senz'anima e senza passione per quello che sviluppa, che sfrutta in maniera scellerata brand su brand per poi presentare il conto ai lavoratori.

[Blasor]

Activision è così ormai, una parabola discendente come raramente se ne sono viste. Mi dispiace per True Crime più che altro, non l'ho mai apprezzato troppo ma questo capitolo prometteva bene.

[Turrican3]

E' dura non fare notare come questo brand sia stato spremuto come un limone da Activision: che facesse questa fine (fermo restando che come dice Frozzo magari potrebbero "solo" prendersi una pausa di un paio d'anni) secondo me era inevitabile e solo questione di tempo, il disastro del 2010 ha solo accelerato il corso degli eventi.

[Giulo75]

Notare come Activision e EA procedano su 2 binari opposti. La prima che ormai sforna seguiti a ripetizione dei soliti 2-3 brand senza un minimo di miglioramento.
La seconda invece che prova a creare nuovi brand(esempio Spore e Dead Space) e migliorare quelli storici(Fifa su tutti), ovviamente a piccoli passi.