Please support Game Informer. Print magazine subscriptions are less than $2 per issue
Activision Blizzard Beats Estimates In Strong First Quarter Of Fiscal Year 2015
Activision Blizzard is off to a running start after the first quarter of its 2015 fiscal year. The company posted $1.278 billion in net revenue (GAAP) against forecast of $1.14 billion and performance the same time last year of $1.111 billion.
The publisher continues to group registered player counts for Destiny and Hearthstone. The combined total is now 50 million. With yesterday’s news that Hearthstone has reached 30 million players (albeit a month after the close of the quarter), we can roughly estimate that Destiny is posting 20 million users.
Activision Blizzard says that average Destiny play time is approximately three hours per day and expansions are attaching at a high rate. The press release did not specify the percentage backing up that statement, though.
World of Warcraft subscriber population has dropped back down to 7.1 million. This is a decrease of approximately 3 million from its surge around the Warlords of Draenor expansion. The quarter-over-quarter drop is 700,000. Heroes of the Storm is swooping in to fill some of that gap, with over 11 million people signing up for the closed beta earlier this year.
Activision Blizzard's upcoming slate includes the House of Wolves expansion for Destiny, Call of Duty: Black Ops III, and a new Skylanders game (not yet revealed, but confirmed to be under development).
The publisher also just confirmed the details of the next Tony Hawk title, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5. You can read an exclusive preview of that here. Guitar Hero will also be making a return with a new version of the guitar peripheral.
Blizzard is working on its multiplayer shooter Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm (scheduled to come out of beta on June 2), and the third entry in the Starcraft II trilogy, Legacy of the Void.
We'll have more from the earnings call this afternoon.
[Source: Activision]
Our Take
Activision Blizzard is running a string of successful quarters with its focused lineup. Even if there are no major surprises at E3, the company is positioned well through the remainder of the fiscal year.
I’d like to ask you to support Game Informer’s continued coverage of games with a subscription. For less than two dollars per issue, we mail you a full year of 10 print magazines, each with cover stories and preview features filled with exclusive details about the most exciting upcoming games. We profile and interview game creators. We look back on the rich history of gaming, and we celebrate what’s next.
Here on the website, we offer much of our content for free, including game reviews, daily news, videos, event coverage, and more – all with minimal ads.
We do so with a small editorial team, alongside contributing paid writers from around the world – over 65 individuals from 9 countries around the world, just in the last couple of years.
It’s not possible without support.
In a time when game makers and games coverage have faced hard struggles and layoffs, the future of this 30+ year magazine and community is at risk. Our new standalone magazine subscription is the number one way you can keep us alive – and we believe you’ll get a pretty fantastic gaming magazine in your mailbox every few weeks for your trouble.
Thank you.
