Future legal ramifications aside, the Infinity Ward fiasco seems long forgotten at Activision HQ, with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 being yet another runaway success for the company.
That Skylanders turned out to be a huge hit with kids--20 million toys sold, by Activision's count--was a nice bonus, too.
More Skylanders and Call of Duty in 2012 was the reoccurring theme on today’s quick ‘n dirty fourth quarter investor call, which also featured some interesting numbers about the last few months.
Diablo III being pushed back a few months was the big “news” out of the call, and as with the last few calls I’ve been listening to, I decided to publish the notes I was taking as the call went on.
Here’s what stuck out:
- Activision generated $1 billion dollars in operating cash flow throughout 2011.
- World of Warcraft has 10.2 million subscribers.
- Star Wars: The Old Republic was not mentioned once during the call, neither was Battlefield 3. The Old Republic was briefly brought up during an investor question, but Blizzard avoided much comment.
- Skylanders is “one of the most innovative products we’ve ever created” and will have “success for many years.”
- Call of Duty Elite is “one of the fastest growing online services in history” with 1.5 million paying members, ranking behind World of Warcraft and Xbox Live.
- There will be a new Call of Duty game later this year. No details on what it is.
- Activision will continue to invest “in our new universe from Bungie,” as that universe will be “one of publishing's next big games,” and will be “a genre-defining new IP” and a “key strategic growth pillar for the future.”
- Can you tell that Activision is excited about Bunge’s next game? Unfortunately, no details just yet.
- Activision declined to make any sales predictions about Wii U, but it was mentioned on a sales chart.
- The company expects high-definition consoles to continue selling well throughout 2012.
- In December 2011, there were 40 million users playing Call of Duty across the last five games.
- Call of Duty Elite 2.0 is coming with “several new features” to work “hand-in-hand” with the next game.
- A press event for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria will be held next month.
- Blizzard hopes to release multiple games this year but declined to specify what games.
- Activision has sold more than 20 million Skylanders toys since launch.
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