Activision Blizzard
's (
ATVI
)
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
added another feather in its cap by crossing the coveted $1
billion sales mark in just 15 days of its release.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
beat
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
's record by a day, according to Chart-Track and retail customer
sell-through information.
According to company sources, life-to-date revenue generated
from the Call of Duty ("COD") franchise has outperformed gross
receipts from the 'Harry Potter' and 'Star Wars' franchises,
making it the most valued entertainment property. Moreover, the
game has clocked in excess of 150 million hours of game play on
Microsoft
's (
MSFT
) Xbox LIVE and
Sony
's (
SNE
) PlayStation Network.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
's robust performance will be instrumental in helping Activision
achieve its fourth quarter and final year sales estimates.
Activision expects sales in the quarter to be $2.41 billion and
fiscal year sales to be $4.81 billion. Other than
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
, strong performance of
Diablo III
and Skylanders is expected to benefit Activision.
Moreover, the release of several other Activision games such
as
007 Legends
,
Skylanders Giants
,
Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013
,
Cabela's Hunting Expeditions
and
Transformers Prime
will be incrementally beneficial for the company's holiday
season.
As for the overall video game industry, Activision's
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
,
Electronic Arts
' (
EA
)
Medal of Honor: Warfighter
, Microsoft's
Halo 4
and Ubisoft's
Assassin's Creed III
are expected to lend support to the dwindling sales of the video
game industry.
Activision Blizzard is expected to benefit from its strong
product pipeline. However, continued softness in the video game
industry, sluggish macroeconomic conditions and Activision's
limited presence in the mobile and social gaming segment remain
headwinds going forward.
Currently, Activision has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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