Tidbits From Activision’s Q1 Financial Results

10.2 million people is still a whole lot of people.

World of Warcraft is holding steady at 10.2 million users, the same number as last quarter. Hmm.

I was taking potshots at TOR before it was cool.

@DeanoXD said:

I just want to clarify, 10.2M is world wide monthly paying accounts right?

Yes, most likely, since previous numbers also reflected that demographic. Renewed ad campaigns, promotions, and the new expansion are probably helping to offset leaving subscribers.

I see the gaming industry split into two categories, those who play Activision/Blizzard games... and then the rest of us. Not sure if saying they are prepared to pay the Infinity Ward guys 1B, should be public knowledge as it may make the judge more lenient on the plaintiffs. You've got to give credit where it's due though, they know how to make money on video games.

Good for them. I don't care for much of what they're doing these days, but at least they're keeping their fans happy.

DAMN BOBBY YOU SO CRAZY!

How does one listen to investor calls?

people that rage over a successful company being able to make a profit and still produce mostly decent game makes me laugh.

@SuperSonic1305 said:

Activision sucks

really? they seem quite successful

More DLC, faster.

so wait, they're not counting the elite memberships in their DLC revenue? and they wonder why it went down...

@AuthenticM said:

How does one listen to investor calls?

You become an investor...

activision owns

@BlatantNinja23 said:

@SuperSonic1305 said:

Activision sucks

really? they seem quite successful

their business practices are horrible, just because people buy their goods doesn't mean their work ethics and treatment of employees is what it should be.

@mracoon: Fresh from the telex, Scoops has the Scoop of the trial of the century!

I want to try Skylanders. Is it any good?

@Recall said:

@BlatantNinja23 said:

@SuperSonic1305 said:

Activision sucks

really? they seem quite successful

their business practices are horrible, just because people buy their goods doesn't mean their work ethics and treatment of employees is what it should be.

Ah, aside from their overpriced "big hit" games and yearly revisions of the same game, they are just as evil as any other corporation out there, everyone does exactly the same crap, EA, UBI, THQ, etc., you name it - buying up studios then dissolving them and layoffs follow.

Game developers are becoming contractors, you do that shit for us, then find a job somewhere else.

@brotherstereo said:

Yes, demand for Call of Duty DLC is declining! Finally...

Are you hoping the prices will go down when demand gets less?

Activision is my favourite company. Why aren't more companies like activision?

@AuthenticM said:

How does one listen to investor calls?

You become an investor...

@GODWASP said:

I want to try Skylanders. Is it any good?

Not especially? It's a pretty basic game. It's a pretty easy game too, with the only challenge for me being the final boss fight. The boss fights are pretty annoying too since you can't skip most cutscenes/dialogue in the game. Plenty of things are annoying because of this, actually.

It's a game aimed at children, really. I would say it's worth playing, but not at the price it's currently (and always will be) selling for. The separate Skylanders are definitely not worth it.

@Skanker hmm sounds like somthing my girlfriend would enjoy lol

the first one STRUCK me as interesting a well. PROOFREAD.

The actual numbers are kind of secondary in WoW and SWTOR. The trick is to make the "common space" feel filled. The guys over at Blizzard understand this where the space and rooms where important stuff happens are not so big or far apart that even on low-med pop servers there is a lot of people standing around in them. On the other hand looking at SWTOR, they often built spaces too big and distances too long between areas that it easily feels like a ghost town during peak usage time on low pop servers. Also WoW goes to greater lengths to insure things like cross server queues to make things like "waiting to join in queue" pop faster gives a sense of more people around while SWTOR doesn't.

When you feel like no one else is play a game, MMO or not, the player tends to move on. From various players, some SWTOR servers are fine but others recount that they went from a guild of 100 down to 5 online and taking forever to find groups. Even if SWTOR is financially fine, situations like that make it impossible to play.

@Begilerath said:

@AngeTheDude said:

@AuthenticM said:

How does one listen to investor calls?

You become an investor...

Also you got to have at least one working ear...

So Patrick is an Activision shareholder?

Best part of the article...

Someone asked about next-generation development investments, but it declined to comment.

I dunno, it made me laugh.

@Begilerath said:

@AngeTheDude said:

@AuthenticM said:

How does one listen to investor calls?

You become an investor...

Also you got to have at least one working ear...

So Patrick is an Activision shareholder?

Revenues from downloadable content for Call of Duty “decreased significantly,” which Activision attributes to making players wait too long for it.

That theory is adorable PR spin, but it's just as likely that players got bored of the multiplayer a lot quicker and were no longer playing the game by the time the DLC came out this time around. I don't think player impatience for DLC release magically skyrocketed in the last 6 months; players are just burning out on new Call of Duty games more quickly now.

I like these financial blurbs. The business of games is always interesting to me. I wish a smaller company would give more insight into how one goes from idea to $ just for informational purposes to gamers. The big ones are always just playcating to the street and giving stereotypical earnings jargin.

@Recall said:

@BlatantNinja23 said:

@SuperSonic1305 said:

Activision sucks

really? they seem quite successful

their business practices are horrible, just because people buy their goods doesn't mean their work ethics and treatment of employees is what it should be.

We don't know anything about their work practices other than the hearsay of West and Zampella. EA's transgressions are much better documented.

Also, let's be honest here, nothing Activision does is particularly horrible on the consumer end. They make stuff people buy, end of it. No invasive spyware disguised as distribution services, no forcing everyone to give every bit of information about themselves possible in order to play online, no stripping games of content for DLC later... All in all, they're a regular ass game company that happen to have a couple of assets that make gamers rage irrationally because it's popular to do so among the hive mind.

@morrelloman said:

I like these financial blurbs. The business of games is always interesting to me. I wish a smaller company would give more insight into how one goes from idea to $ just for informational purposes to gamers. The big ones are always just playacting to the street and giving stereotypical earnings jargin.

Not sure if I'd call it "play acting." These financial reports are for one purpose - telling their investors how the company's going. Said investors are most likely long-time players on Wall Street and therefore naturally have their own shorthand, just as we gamers do.