Activision Blizzard has unveiled their financial results for the third quarter of 2018, informing us about how their latest releases are doing on the market. It was easy to predict, even easier than winning by playing on an online casino, that Call of Duty Black Ops 4 would deliver a good performance but its sales results actually exceeded all expectations.
The new chapter of the most successful saga in the field of first person shooters has in fact sold better than its predecessors: Call of Duty WWII and Call of Duty Black Ops 3. But that’s not all: other numbers tell us that the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 sold three times more than Black Ops 3 (also for PC) in the first three weeks of its release. The move to the Blizzard platform, Battle.net has therefore been really beneficial to the series.
It is also surprising to witness the success of the game in Japan, where there is usually a certain hesitancy to buy foreign games. Call of Duty Black Ops 4 seems just the exception that proves the rule since while we’re writing this article it has already sold over 400,000 copies in Japan and it’s at the top of the charts even in front of a huge blockbuster like Red Dead Redemption 2.
So, if Activision can be said to be largely satisfied with Call of Duty Black Ops 4 and the experiment of not including any single player campaign within it, the same cannot be said for Destiny 2 and its latest expansion, Renegades. While not specifying the numbers, the add-on has sold well below expectations and the software house has taken countermeasures to reverse the trend.
In fact Activision has decided to give away net the basic game for PC to everyone on the aforementioned Battle.net until November 18 as well as to all Playstation 4 users with Playstation Plus subscription. These decisions aim to gather new fans for the series thus hoping to increase the Renegades sales. The next financial report will tell us if this rather strong strategy will pay off or not.
Meanwhile Activision is enjoying a great general success: during last quarter their titles have involved 345 million players a month, of which 37 million are related to the Blizzard titles alone, with World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth setting the absolute record for the series, 3.4 million pieces sold just in day one.
In total, however, Activision Blizzard’s earnings fell by 7% settling at $ 1.51 billion compared to $ 1.61 billion in the same period last year, with profits derived from the digital market reaching $ 1.28 billion. Earnings from the console market were $347 million (down 34%) while the PC segment grew by 21% and reached $482 million, partly thanks to the aforementioned great success of Black Ops 4. Therefore, in this quarter Activision has achieved more profits on PC than on the consoles, naturally thanks to Blizzard’s immortal series like the aforementioned WoW.
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According to this year’s financial results, the division is profitable and on track for a positive cash flow. In addition, their revenue continues to continue to grow year-over-year. It seems that the company is continuing to see a steady boost in their sales numbers, as they are generating more than they are selling. Furthermore, they have been improving to a level that would be considered to be a comfortable level. They recently beat their goal of breaking their new record for the week ending September 30, 2018. The year-over-year income increase for Activision Blizzard has been strong with a net income of $1.3 billion, net pre-tax profit of $3.3 billion, and profit per share of $0.54. They had a net loss of just over $100 million in Q2 of 2018. We have also seen an increased share price as they enjoyed a relatively high trading volume.
This is the fourth year that Activision Blizzard has done this, and the fourth year in a row that they have had one of the highest net income amounts on record (as the company was in the red for the first quarter before rising back). What’s interesting to us is that they continue to sell well.